Trying to make sense of UK broadband development

I have done a little browsing, and this turns out to be a very complex subject. Forgive me if some of the stuff below is wrong.

FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet - in the street) gives 40down/15up Mbps

FTTP (Fibre to the premises) give 100down Mbps

ADSL+ (copper wires) 6-10down Mbps

EU

The EU commission has a digital agenda,

- "Basic broadband" (unspecified) by 2013

- 30Mbps for 50% households by 2030

- Next Generation Access (technology to use FTTC/P, WiFi, WiMax, LTE & Satellite)

UK

eGovernment drives the need for faster and universal broadband. But BT's USC (Universal Service Commitment?) does not contain anything about their duty to install broadband at any minimum speed at the request of anyone in UK - it covers telephone lines, anyone can request one and get it. But see below about USC...

Government has made some hazy statements of objectives (on the BIS web site)

1 Universal Service Commitment of

- 2Mbps by 2012

- using DSL, FTTC

- £200M funding + other (industry, private, consumer)

- Sale of spectrum and mandatory improvement in mobile coverage

2 Next Generation Fund (charge +50p on every phone line)

- Between Virgin and BT 2/3rds of homes should get super-fast broadband

- The last 1/3rd will be served by current generation paid for by NGF


They have also said they will get Ofcom to open up BT infrastructure, giving people access to the dedicated school broadband networks. By mandating broadband as part of new building programs & developments from Xmas 2010. And accelerating the auction of radio spectrum released by switching to digital TV for use for LTE wireless broadband.

BT

BT Openreach, which is the part of BT doing the network installation, will provide

- FTTC 4M households by end 2010

- FTTC 16M households by 2015 (2/3rd of premises)

- Cost said to be only £2.5bn... which seems like peanuts in today's billion pound squabbles...

- FTTP 30Mbps by 2014 with 50% population at 100Mbps

These figures are taken from various press releases. They seem a bit confused (spin talk).

BT has two "divisions" involved in fast broadband, Openreach which install networks and allows other ISPs to piggy back on them, and BT Retail which sells broadband products to you and me.

BT Retail has a current short term marketing exercise running called "Race to Infinity" which invites people to sign up interest in having new fibre broadband. BT will do two things with the list of signees, pass it to Openreach for them to decide where to start the exchange upgrade programs and use it themselves to get back to people and offer broadband services.

Other ISPs can join the program, and nominate exchanges for upgrades, after making a commitment, but none have so far.

They will complete the top 5 exchanges with upgrades by 2012.

If you want fibre to your home the better solution they hint at is to get local authorities to fund the program, maybe by getting UK government or EU funding... see below.

Cornwall

Cornwall CC (and a development company they have) + BT + EU ERDF Convergence fund + SWRDA have got together and launched a project. Paid for by BT £79M, EU £54M. To upgrade all Cornwall's 100 exchanges to FTTC/P and provide better service to everyone (a few will have to use ADSL copper wire and some wireless to get connected...).