An Internet connectivity study from researcher Point Topic predicts that over 90 percent of UK homes could have broadband access in 10 years time, with data rates of over 32Mbps for most.
Today’s reality is far from this. “If you live in a densely populated area in the UK, chances are you’ll have access to over 2Mbps of bandwidth. About 84 percent of households are in the right place to get reasonable speeds according to our analysis,” said Tim Johnson in the report.
Yet even 2Mbps Internet access – the speed that Lord Carter’s interim report, released earlier this month, suggests as a target for its proposed ‘Universal Service Commitment’ – remains out of reach for a huge proportion of the population. It also varies immensely by region, from 1.2 percent in London to 32.2 percent in Northern Ireland.
The London area is unusual in that the regions with the second and third lowest percentage of “out of broadband reach” population, the West Midlands and the North West respectively, jump to over 10 percent. Near the other end of the spectrum, Wales is second to last with 26.9 percent.
Over 60 percent of the population is within reach of 8Mbps Internet access in eight of the twelve UK regions*, and in London, the proportion reaches 93 percent.
Bringing optical fibre to BT’s street cabinets (aka FFTC or fibre-to-the-cabinet) will enable the deployment of broadband services in current low-bandwidth areas, with download speeds of 40 Mbps or above.
Achieving broadband coverage of the vast majority of the UK population demands focused and vigorous action from both government and industry, said Johnson.
The Point Topic report notes that in South Korea, government authorities backed the installation of broadband throughout the country, resulting in coverage of over 95 percent of households, most of which enjoy far higher speeds than the UK will experience for some years.
East Midlands, East of England, London, North East, North West, South East, South West, West Midlands, Yorkshire and The Humber, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales
By Annabelle Bouard