At last some good news – of sorts. The Government has finally told BT that universal supply of broadband is mandatory and everyone must get minimum speeds. The catches are; it is not until 2020 and the speed is just 10 Mbps. Contributor Dave Millett – Equinox.
Whilst 10 Mbps may have been reasonable when the target was set several years ago it is now outdated. It is not suitable for the growth of the Internet of Things and the steadily increasing range of streaming services. By contrast the EU is proposing a minimum of 30 Mbps as being the lowest that is sufficient for the digital age.
Ten Mbps will not significantly raise our ranking of average broadband speeds from 31st in the world, and does nothing to help the roll out of FTTP – where the UK is bottom of European league table. If the Government focused on that, then people would be getting far more than 10 Mbps as a minimum. But it a step in the right direction – albeit a small one. We’d have preferred a big leap – something that would really tackle the UK’s abysmal broadband infrastructure.”
