Faster broadband access part of talks by Peter Mandelson
The leaders of the top five mobile phone networks in the country have been called up for a meeting by Lord Mandelson as part of ambitions by the government to enable access to fast broadband internet access in the country by 2012.
The meeting, held on Tuesday, is the second such meeting in 2 weeks that the business secretary has personally intervened in this horse – trading before creating a digital economy bill during the autumn. This legislation is set to implement some of the recommendations of June’s Digital Britain report, but some of the proposals have fallen foul of the realpolitik of Westminister.
One of the main recommendations of the report, which was a 6 pound annual levy on phone lines to finance the next – gen super – fast fibre optic broadband cables, has already fallen over as it won’t get approval from the Conservatives.
Universal broadband access, according to the report, could be possible only if there was a more wide use of mobile broadband as well as increased coverage in remote parts of UK.
However, the access to universal broadband largely depends on the 5 networks reaching a deal on the usage of the 900MHz wireless spectrum that was given to Vodafone and O2 when they had started operations during the 80s. this spectrum would be great for rural broadband due to its capability to carry signals over a long distance. The other networks don’t have it.
A deal to re-apportioning the 900MHz airwaves should be arrived at before the government tries to sell the 800MHZ spectrum which will be returned to it when analogue TV signals are discarded in 2012, which is also great for mobile coverage in rural areas.
The meeting with the chief executives will aim at ‘banging some heads together’, according to some insider information.
In return for this, mobile phone companies will have their 3G licenses extended into the indefinite future, thereby saving them a large amount of money, which fixed – line operators say could be used to finance next – gen broadband networks.
Source - guardian.co.uk
Broadband growth in urban areas to continue
The mainstream acceptance of high – speed broadband internet connections in the country is likely to continue to radically change the way people use online items like video, music and telecommunications, a report mentions.
In a report which was compiled by experts and researchers at Gartner earlier this week, they had noted that the urban areas of the country will continue to take in packages which give the best speeds possible.
However, the report also mentioned that people in rural as well as less populated places in the country could possibly be neglected due to this, which could result in a ‘bandwidth divide’ which could come about within the next couple of years.
The main research analyst in the group, Fernando Elizalde, said that efficient web connectivity could become possibly a big issue which all governments in countries across the world will have to deal with as the demand for the best service available continue to increase across all age groups.
He also said that the service providers were responsible to make high – speed internet available as a premium service, saying that this will make sure that broadband is not commodised and that they will be able to strike a balance between charging more for the service and the willingness of the consumer to cough out money for the incremental speed.
The report also mentioned the definition of these premium services, saying that they should be able to have a downlink speed of 50 Mbps or more. The report also noted that in addition to the amount of entertainment that these packages are capable of providing, they will also give lots of opportunities for service providers as well as for app developers.
Just the last week, thinkbroadband.com’s Andrew Ferguson mentioned that customers are still not clear about the misleading messages that companies always use when marketing the quality of these broadband packages.
