BT offers twice its current internet speed in 2011
Every internet service company seems to be offering faster speed, but BT is way ahead with its plan to provide 24Mb by year 2011. This will mean almost doubling its current ADSL+2 service reach to over 75% of homes and businesses in the United Kingdom.
This recent announcement from BT was most welcome considering it will make the download time of music just a few seconds, and TV programs just a few minutes. The company currently provides 8Mb speed to most of its subscribers, with variations in certain regions due to phone exchange line and proximity.
Having the BT ADSL+2 in any telephone exchange will mean that more people could avail of faster connections, and at the same time increase speeds in slow lines.
On the other hand, BT is also undertaking building of an ultimate-speed broadband network using fiber optic technology projected to serve up to 40Mb per second. This service is aimed to be operational in 2012 and serve over 40% of households.
In related reports, cable network provider Virgin Media which serves over half of the country with 50Mb per second, is feeling pressure from the government. The latter has expressed plans that it hopes will allow more users to benefit from superfast connections, and has proposed 50 pence monthly tax on all phone lines in the United Kingdom.
Treasury minister Stephen Timms who lead the Digital Britain plan did comment that the proposed tax will help raise the funds to augment the roll-out of speedier broadband networks to rural communities. Though the public perceives this legislative plan out-of-timing with the next election so close, Timms said the tax will surely be passed by parliament before that period.
The government also committed to have 2Mb per second speed provided to all homes by 2012.
For related details, click here: The Guardian
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
Rwanda sees bright hope in new fiber-optic ring
Holding promise of providing high-speed internet access for East Africa, a national fiber-optic ring will go online before the end of this year, at the turn of year 2010. The link will have undersea cables connecting Kenya to the internet in less than two months, and go further to provide internet access to Rwanda as well.
For an impoverished and war-besieged country, Rwanda now sees itself an advanced player in development with this recent news of internet access. Despite its being among the poorest nations thriving on agricultural activities, Rwanda deemed it necessary to gain progress with information and communications technology pursuits, along with their plight to have electricity, water and stable livelihood undertakings.
At present, there are very few internet providers mostly found in the capital, Kugali. Heavily reliant on only one satellite for their communications, the few internet service providers charge expensively and at limited speed and availability. This seemingly vastness of poverty extends to lack of skills and education in the field of computers, very low numbers of mobile phone users, and lack of electricity connection. Considering these three are essential to progressing in the field of information and communications technology, Rwanda’s present condition does seem dim and in dire need for connection to the rest of the developed world.
The arrival of East Africa’s fiber-optic cables is seen a step toward changing all these bleak scenario, and further boosts the Rwandan aspiration to make technology be the solid base of their other undertakings, be it economic, health and educational, basic utilities, communications and peace and order in their country.
Despite being dubbed as a too-great-a-leap for his constituents, Rwanda’s president Paul Kagame, considers the fiber-optic ring project to alleviate living conditions of the citizens. Indeed, the news of having high-speed internet opens more opportunities for this country that dreams of being the “Singapore of Africa.”
Click here for related information: BBC news
East Africa gets broadband internet
East Africa has finally shed the tag of being the only broadband-less region with a undersea fibre-optic cable which linked it to networks in India and Europe went live. This should reduce the cost of high – speed internet services as well as voice calls.
A Nairobi financial analyst, Aly-Khan Satchu, said that they have gone into the 21st century from the medival age in a very short time. This is a big economic boost, he said.
Local companies have been fixing fibre optic cables in and between cities in anticipation of the arrival of these undersea cables while internet providers have been reducing the price of modems in order to woo more customers.
Seacom, an internet provider, said that their customers were now paying about 90% - 95% less for a megabit of internet connection. Retail prices should also fall considering the high capacity of the networks and the low intake of customers currently.
The main reason for increase in undersea cables worldwide is the popularity of video sites like YouTube, which is causing demand to double every 1.5 years. Another reason is to prevent loss of productivity in case some cables are accidentally severed.
The cheaper cost of internet should result in the growth of the outsourcing and call – centre industry in Kenya. ISPs hope that the growth of internet usage will rival that of mobile phone usage, which increased from 15,000 to 17.4 million within a decade. Internet access is expected to spread more through mobile phones as laptops continue to be expensive.
In addition to slow speeds, the main reason for lack of internet penetration had been the cost of internet. Even after price rivalries in Kenya, a 3G connection with 5 MB of bundled data with the leading telecom company, Safari.com, cost nearly 55 pounds monthly.
Source - guardian.co.uk
Digital Britain funds to be insufficient to cope with demand for superfast broadband
The plans by the government to assist financially with 12 million pounds in the rolling out of fibre – optic broadband are most likely to fall extremely short of the potential growth in demand for super – fast broadband, a research by Point Topic says.
Tim Johnson, the main analyst at Point Topic, says the amount is not enough to cope with the potential challenge of meeting this demand. This cash is meant to ensure that high – speed broadband is available in areas where companies would find it unviable to roll the technology out themselves.
The latest forecast by them says that nearly 9 million homes still don’t have internet access and this number is not falling as much as expected. 5 years down the line, there will still be 6.5 million homes without access to the internet.
However, Point Topic is quite about the increase in the number of households with access to broadband and has made the necessary adjustments.
Number of broadband connections in use increased to oever 17.8 million in the 6 months of this year, 100,000 more than initial predictions. Due to this, PT has increased their total prediction by 36%.
The coverage of next – gen BB is not much, but, in 5 years, it should go to 50%, says PT. At this rate, the target for 2017 should be achieved, though it does depend on some form of subsidy to get to remote areas.
PT expects over 7 million next – gen fibre lines to be there by 2014, by when there should be over 20 million houses as well as 1.7 million businesses with at least one broadband line. Next – gen BB should take up 30% of the market, with DSL accounting for 49% and cable taking 21%.
Source - computing.co.uk
BT confirms fibre optic roll-out in January 2010
In pursuit of serving more households and businesses even in rural areas, BT announced with finality that it will launch its fibre optic broadband in January of 2010. It aims to serve 1.5 million homes and businesses in the United Kingdom after six months of its launch.
The first commercial rollout of the BT Company’s advanced fibre-optic broadband was announced by its managing director, Bill Murphy. In the same interview with CBR, Murphy further elaborated that the 40Mb plus fibre-to-the-cabinet broadband internet service is part of their continuing expansion to areas with slow connections or without any connections just yet.
Further, the BT official stated that such a move will complement the growth of its high-speed ADSL2+ services which will bring speed of up to 20Mb to over half of the United Kingdom’s population.
BT sees a positive outcome of their plans for early next year, particularly on the rolling out of the fibre-optic broadband connection, saying that like any successful network, they are keen on offering a service which is highly competitive, reliable and speedier connectivity.
Murphy said that what BT currently provide has been found sufficient, particularly the speed, but more and more consumers are clamoring for even added speed. This is why BT is offering newer, faster solutions through the fibre-optic broadband connection.
On the other hand, BT also just recently piloted the Broadband Enabling Technology called BET in parts of Inverness and Dingwall in Scotland. This move came in response to having their broadband services delivered over long distances. The company targets the same piloting of the BET in other parts of the United Kingdom as well. This plan is to realize the need to provide broadband services to rural areas located about 12 kilometers from a local telephone line exchange.
More details regarding this post could be found at top10-broadband.co.uk
Fiber-Optics – making Broadband Possible
Fiber Optic or optical fiber cables are pervasively deployed by telecommunications companies to comprise their main backbone network infrastructure. These cables are often laid out in underground conduits as well as on ocean floors over long transoceanic distances to carry high-density high-bandwidth transmission capacities from which telecoms service providers and ISPs can tap into for their networking requirements.
Fiber Optic cables are most suited for main telecoms backbone as they carry the most signals compared with the traditional copper cables that are subject to corrosion and throughput diminution over time. In fact, most network providers have started replacing their old copper cables with more resilient high bandwidth fiber optics in many countries undergoing telco infrastructure improvements.
Advantages
- Electrical signals when converted to light suffer lesser interference and attenuation over fiber optic cables than they would through regular metal cables.
- This low attenuation is ideal for carrying signals over long distance communication.
- Data throughput is very high typically reaching the Gigabyte range as each fiber in a fiber optic bundle can carry many channels independently using various light wavelengths in a propagation method called wavelength division multiplex.
- Light is immune to electrical interference so signal integrity can be conserved from point of origin to destination over long distances with the cable going through high interference density location.
Disadvantage
- Fiber Optic cable installation require training as its successful installation hinges on compliance with cabling and termination standards not strictly required in regular copper cables
It’s expensive to install but is cost effective when high bandwidths are needed as the cost per megabit can be lower. Fiber Optics is strongly recommended in cabling tall buildings or premises where many users are expected to tap into the premise network so that cost can be equitably spread among users.
FTTH (“Fibre to the Home”)
Getting High Speeds
Any telecommunication network infrastructure that deploys optical fiber technology as part of its local loop network or in its last mile connection to the home instead of the usual wireless or copper wires is termed as FTTH or Fiber to the Home. It is part of the wider FTTx assignation to describe various last mile networking configurations to the point of termination such as Fiber to the Building (FTTB), Fiber to the Premises (FTTP), etc.
Fiber for the Internet
Fiber optic cables are made of fine glass strands thinner than hair strands. Each strand can carry data signals in excess of 2.5 gigabits per second or Gbps. The internet network backbone is now made almost exclusively of fiber optic cables laid out under the sea in bunches connecting different points around the world. Their massive bandwidth capacities are suitable for the millions of concurrent users on the net. These cables get terminated in telecommunications companies in a backhaul configuration from where different networking technology can be used for the last mile connectivity to the home.
Using copper cables have their inherent bandwidth limitations that can create bottlenecks in online applications that increasingly require larger bandwidths. Here, fiber to the home configurations opens up the bottleneck nicely.
Typical DSL bandwidth that uses standards copper phone cables have a bandwidth hovering in the 1.5 Mbps point. A telecommunications company can provide a commercial grade FTTH with a bandwidth of 100Mbps which is about 66 times a lot faster than any DSL.
An Expensive Solution
Fiber to the home services are an option that can be costly to most homes and consequently are used instead in condominiums to serve its many dwellers or in office buildings for their commercial tenants. Even the lower end FFTH offering just 10 Mbps can be off-putting if you are just a casual user. But over time, these charges are expected to go down as bandwidth costs are fast declining.
