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News Fibre guru blasts UK broadband

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by CardJoe, 9 Jun 2010.

  1. CardJoe

    CardJoe Freelance Journalist

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  2. mi1ez

    mi1ez Modder

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    Yes
    No
     
  3. liratheal

    liratheal Sharing is Caring

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    That.
     
  4. ev1lm1nd666

    ev1lm1nd666 What's a Dremel?

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    The Government can't get their head around anything that makes sense. Spending £10-15,000,000 on fibre optic broadband now and the economy will be healthier because of the speed at which businesses can operate between it's home offices and overseas and just think of all the web sites that keep going down because thy don't have enough bandwidth. And I think it's about time ISP's rolled out lower speed "unlimited usage" packages, when was the last time anyone actually saw their 20mb connection actually get anywhere near hitting that limit? mine hits 19.2 with BBC iPlayer downloading four episodes of top gear but thats it.
     
  5. isaac12345

    isaac12345 What's a Dremel?

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    I'm just wondering why the ISPs, knowing that Japan and other such countries are aiming for 1Gbps, do not enable similar speeds. Are there technical reasons or commercial ones? and why do they not give well explained and valid reasons for it?
     
  6. crazyceo

    crazyceo What's a Dremel?

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    I hit just over 50meg all day through Virgin and it's consistant.

    Getting the other utilities to open up their underground systems is the way forward that has been utilised by many countries across Europe and Asia.

    I think there was a trial somewhere down south who did exactly this and it's worked very well I believe.

    The exchanges already have the upgrades to cope with the increases, it's just the copper wire that kills it for everyone.
     
  7. NuTech

    NuTech Minimodder

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    Well, Jeremy Hunt (UK's culture secretary) has just outlined plans to revitalise the UK's FTTH effort by opening up major infrastucture such as BT's ducts and poles, gas/water tunnels and sewers to the private sector. Together with Ofcom's fibre unbundling plans, things might start to improve.

    The problem is, I can imagine the 'deep cuts' the government is about to announce in regards to our huge deficit, won't help things at all. The money has to come from somewhere.

    To make matters even worse, major media conglomerates want nothing to do with this. Right now they're circle-jerking in excitement over charging customers three times for the same thing (internet, phone, tv). With a solid fibre connection in each home, people are going to wise up and realise all three can be provided by IP technology.
     
  8. Psy-UK

    Psy-UK What's a Dremel?

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    ISP really need to sort out the incredibly small download usage caps that all seem to impose. Otherwise there's really not much point having that much speed. =\
     
  9. olimorgan

    olimorgan What's a Dremel?

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    +1

    Whats the point in having 100 mbps+ if you can only download a few gig before you get throttled back to 2 mbps. Need real unlimited downloads. Plus having an upload speed to match would be nice.
     
  10. Zayfod

    Zayfod What's a Dremel?

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    This is why the previous government tried to implement an £6 a year "broadband tax" to pay for the necessary infrastructure improvements, one of the very few sensible things they ever tried to do in regards to digital stuff, but there was a massive paddy thrown about it by short sighted MPs so the whole thing got dropped.
     
  11. eddtox

    eddtox Homo Interneticus

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    I'm still not completely convinced that the government should foot the bill for all the new infrastructure and then just give it away to companies which will charge us through the nose for it. Maybe the time has come to have a National Internet Service, seeing as we have to pay for the fibre anyway. That being said, with the CON's in power that would probably go the same way BT did in Maggie's time.

    Call me a communist, but would anyone care to explain to me why utilities should not be nationalised and run as not-for-profit public services? I'm not saying "free internet, gas, water, electricity and transport". I'm saying "the money you pay will only be used to enable the continued provision and improvement of the service".

    That's very interesting. I was under the impression that Virgin will throttle its connections after a few minutes of hitting the advertised maximum. I.e 50Mb bursts, but much less for constant use.
     
  12. isaac12345

    isaac12345 What's a Dremel?

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    I think another reason was that for the time frame that this policy would run, it wouldnt collect enough money anyway to fund infrastructure improvements.
     
  13. bigsharn

    bigsharn Officially demotivated

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    This is the main thing holding the government back, we've got a choice between funding the olympics (not important tbh), better broadband, better trains, or saving it up and paying the nation's debts off...
     
  14. lacuna

    lacuna Minimodder

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    In improvement in infrastructure may be helpful for businesses but domestic users should make do with what they have for the moment. The ability to play games without lag and download porn faster is of zero importance compared to paying back the national deficit
     
  15. shanky887614

    shanky887614 What's a Dremel?

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    you do realise that in japan it is slightly differnet

    in japan they HAVE to share there fireoptic lines between any company that wants to
    while in the uk its not true

    (im not shouting im just trying to get your attention)
     
  16. neocleous

    neocleous Minimodder

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    I dream of the slow speeds that everyone is complaining about.

    I work from home and I have a business line so I am paying a premium for broadband over a regular home user and I get 1 meg, I don't live in the countryside I live in Warrington (a town) and I only get 1 meg I cant even watch You Tube without having to pause and buffer the video for ages and forget streaming any sort of HD.

    I can't get cable where I am so I am stuck with BT who say I am too far from the exchange for a faster speed obviously the exchange we have is inadequate for a growing town.

    This sort of connection should be illegal in this day and age in one of the most developed countries in the world we have the communication infrastructure of a 3rd world country.

    This may seem like a selfish rant about my connection and my slow speeds but I know I am not the only one with a criminally slow connection.
     
  17. Fizzban

    Fizzban Man of Many Typos

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    While I agree that we need more investment in the infrastructure over here. I hardly think this is top of the list of priority's. I'm more concerned with crime and the health service than I am about what broadband speed we get get.
     
  18. SoulRider

    SoulRider What's a Dremel?

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    Then you miss the fundamental influence of the internet on our daily lives. Crime and Health are among the issues that would be boosted by improved network links, wider paths means more data at once, results and data being shared quicker, the whole country benefits from better broadband, business increase productivity, which means more taxes to the government, which means more to spend on crime and health. There is a massive positive benefit to increasing the coverage and speed of networks, for everyone in the country.
     
  19. Jamie

    Jamie ex-Bit-Tech code junkie

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    I'd like to be able to get a broadband connection capable of streaming bbc iplayer and youtube videos.
     
  20. Cyberpower-UK

    Cyberpower-UK Professional Overclocker

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    I can with Virgin 1mbpsM but if I do more than an hour I get throttled to 2.5mbps and it can't cope. Given that I pay my licence and Virgin have iPlayer mirrors dotted around the UK I'd like to see iPlayer traffic excluded from throttling but that needs deep packet inspection which is technically illegal.
     
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