Hum Posted May 27, 2009 Share Posted May 27, 2009 Around three million homes in the UK have broadband speeds of less than two megabits per second (2Mbps) according to research commissioned by the BBC. The government has promised to provide all homes in the UK with speeds of at least 2Mbps by 2012. The research revealed that so-called notspots are not limited to rural communities with many in suburban areas, and even streets in major towns. The government has pledged a range of technologies to fill the gaps. "We had assumed that these notspots were in remote parts of the countryside. That may be where the most vocal campaigners are but there is a high incident of them in commuter belts," said Alex Salter, co-founder of broadband website SamKnows. The SamKnows map offers an insight into where the homes are that the government needs to reach out to and connect to faster broadband. It was created by comparing a sample of UK postcodes with a database of information about which providers offered services in the 8,500 telephone exchange around the UK. By working out how far properties were from a particular exchange, a picture of the speed of services can be determined as line length is a crucial factor in determining how fast broadband services will operate. To get speeds of 2Mbps or more homes need to be four kilometres or less from an exchange. In Basingstoke, for example, 50% of telephone lines are more than six kilometres from the exchange, and in Hampshire as a whole a quarter of postcodes get less than 1Mbps. For those struggling on slow connections it can mean a very different surfing experience from those enjoying higher speeds. "In some cases people aren't able to shop online, aren't able to view certain websites or use social media applications such as Facebook and Twitter and they can't watch the BBC's iPlayer," said Mr Salter. For commuters it could impact the way they work. "It prevents flexible working. If the problem is fixed it means a lot more people could work from home which offers a very real way to improve society," said Mr Salter. To date it has been difficult to get an exact picture of where notspots around the UK are or even how to define them. Under 1% of homes in the UK cannot get any broadband at all. Many official bodies around the globe define broadband as anything more than half a megabit per second. But the Digital Britain interim report, which represents the government's strategy for broadband, raised the stakes by promising 2Mbps to all homes. The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, charged with delivering the Digital Britain report, has acknowledged that current definitions of broadband are "outmoded" in a world where some countries enjoy speeds of up to 100Mbps. "Our view is that given the prevailing conditions and usage in the UK 2Mbps is right," said a Berr spokeswoman. Ewhurst in Surrey is a prime example of a notspot. It is prime commuter belt but of the 1,000 or so properties only a handful can get speeds over 2Mbps. Retired telecoms engineer Walter Willcox has been campaigning on behalf of residents for better broadband. He has contacted both BT, which is planning to upgrade a percentage of its telephone cabinets with Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) technology and Virgin Media, which is upgrading its cable network. Both have said extending their networks to Ewhurst would not be economically viable at the current time. Lord Carter's Digital Britain report, due next month, will lay out the details of how it believes notspots can be eliminated. Berr told the BBC it will be considering a range of technologies for communities such as Ewhurst. "There are different ways of doing this which will vary from location to location. In some non-rural areas that are currently underserved the answer may be FTTC. Or it may be that the economics mean a wireless solution is the best option," said a Berr spokeswoman. Broadband news site ThinkBroadband has launched its own NotSpot map, inviting people to enter their postcode if they think their broadband is slower than 2Mbps, as a means of launching grassroot campaigns to find solutions. "Hopefully the map will show people that it is not just them suffering. If there are distinct clusters we can put people in touch with each other," he said. People will be invited to comment on their speed which could reveal some easy solutions. "There are some common problems such as the state of the wiring in a home or an old modem that are easily solved," said Mr Ferguson. For others the solutions may be harder to come by. He thinks the government could easily reach its target of getting 2Mbps broadband in every home by 2012. "There are satellites up there which cover the whole UK and 3G could have been rolled out to more areas," he said. But it will come down to a question of cost. "Some places will be just too expensive to enable. If you say to someone you can have broadband if you pay ?400 to have a satellite installed they might just say no thanks," he said. source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carmatic Posted May 27, 2009 Share Posted May 27, 2009 i have a feeling that its all about fleecing as much money out of broadband customers for as little cost as possible... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yeoo_andy_ni Posted May 27, 2009 Share Posted May 27, 2009 I heard this on the new this morning. What does the government class as "speedy broadband"? I would have classed speedy broadband as at least 4mbit, at the very least. I'm on approximately 5mbit at home and I'm happy with that, but want more. Kind of expect more really as I'm in one of the towns that first got broadband in Northern Ireland. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+InsaneNutter MVC Posted May 27, 2009 MVC Share Posted May 27, 2009 I would class ?speedy broadband? as anything 10mbit or better, If I had ADSL it would take 4 connections to get speeds of over 10mbit here... good job we live in a cable area. It?s quite bad that some places can?t even get 2mbit ADSL, I know some one whos stuck on 512k:still :s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carmatic Posted May 27, 2009 Share Posted May 27, 2009 hmm, so they are saying 2mbps is right when other countries are already at 100mbps ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MightyJordan Posted May 27, 2009 Share Posted May 27, 2009 I would class ?speedy broadband? as anything 10mbit or better Agreed. Although I think 5Mb can be plenty as well, as I'm on Virgin Media 20Mb and I've been throttled a few times down to 5Mb, so I know what it's like under somewhat stressful use (me surfing the net and watching YouTube videos, and my brother playing online on Xbox Live, and my parents surfing the net downstairs). I wouldn't be surprised if some of those homes that are under 2Mb are on BT Broadband meant to be getting something over 2Mb, and they're just victim to BT's crappy service:p; :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+John Teacake MVC Posted May 27, 2009 MVC Share Posted May 27, 2009 Im one of them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salty Wagyu Posted May 27, 2009 Share Posted May 27, 2009 Was on 2mbit fixed speed package and it's starting to feel old in the tooth. Trying ADSL Max again now (since yesterday) but only getting an extra 1mbit out of it. So 3-5 would be in my opinion the minimum for "speedy" just for this year perhaps. BT need to up their game tho :/ with Virgin Media's 50mbit/sec cable service, BT's rollout of adsl2 24mbit (21cn, between now and 2012) is a bit tame in comparison, plus this won't improve existing 0.512-3mbit connections or reach most homes either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coldgunner Posted May 27, 2009 Share Posted May 27, 2009 I am subscribed up to the highest tier BT has (either 8mb or 16mb, can't remember). I only get between 1mbps-1.5mbps on a good week. I live in the suburbs however I think its rediculous I can't get any higher without getting cable. Also, ISP's need to stop overselling their bandwidth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antiprophet Posted May 27, 2009 Share Posted May 27, 2009 the governmet need to stop backing the main telcos in the uk and ireland. BT and Eircom have the monopolies and are giving crap compared to what is available on cable. In saying that BT Ireland are going in full whack and rolling out 21cn from the outset in major cities, but they are a small fish here at present. If the governments invested in a full cable network it would be so much better, but then again adsl is a whole lot more profitable than cable. im just glad I get my 20 meg in Ireland. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WelshBluebird Posted May 27, 2009 Share Posted May 27, 2009 Back home we're lucky if we get over 3Mbps. Here at uni, I'm currently on campus, so get 10Mbps through the uni. Next year though, I have to choose between 20Mbps with stupid fair use thing (virgin), or a possible 6Mbps (any ADSL ISP). Am thinking the slower speed atm, because in a house of student's, we'd hit virgins caps pretty quickly. Its all well and good having the speed, but until ISP's get rid of their stupid caps / fair usage stuff, It's pointless. Who wants to be able to stream a HD movie when you can only watch the first half hour before your speed is capped so much you can't watch anymore of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Axel Posted May 27, 2009 Share Posted May 27, 2009 Because of my distance from the exchange I only manage to connect at about 3.5Mbps on a max 16Mbps service.... So annoying when I know so many people who get MUCH better speeds than me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thealexweb Posted May 27, 2009 Share Posted May 27, 2009 I'm one of these homes. I pay for up to 8mb but I get 0.5mb at best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MightyJordan Posted May 27, 2009 Share Posted May 27, 2009 I'm one of these homes. I pay for up to 8mb but I get 0.5mb at best. Are you on BT? If so, I can see why. One of my friends is on BT paying for 8Mb to, and he barely gets 2Mb most of the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WelshBluebird Posted May 27, 2009 Share Posted May 27, 2009 Are you on BT? If so, I can see why. One of my friends is on BT paying for 8Mb to, and he barely gets 2Mb most of the time. No he doesn't. He pays for up to 8Mb. The actual speed he gets depends on the length of his telephone line from the exchange, the quality of the line, any internal wiring or any other interference. That's what this thing is about. The fact that most people cannot get near the top speed, because of the way ADSL works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thealexweb Posted May 27, 2009 Share Posted May 27, 2009 Are you on BT? If so, I can see why. One of my friends is on BT paying for 8Mb to, and he barely gets 2Mb most of the time. I'm with Tiscali. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MightyJordan Posted May 27, 2009 Share Posted May 27, 2009 I'm with Tiscali. Even worse! :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hotdog666al Posted May 27, 2009 Share Posted May 27, 2009 Yeah, net here sucks :/ I get 5.5mbps though, not too shabby! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+InsaneNutter MVC Posted May 27, 2009 MVC Share Posted May 27, 2009 Was there not a company planning to provide fibre to people?s homes via the sewers in Bournemouth? That could be the way forward for broadband in the UK. From what I understand the BT 21CN upgrades aren?t really going to improve things for anyone who can already get broadband from LLU operators such as Be. I know it will help people in some areas but for a lot of people I wouldn?t imagine the speed of broadband will have increased much by 2012 unless you have cable. Hopefully I understood that right anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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