The director general of the Fibre To The Home Council has lambasted the UK's efforts to become a fibre broadband nation, claiming that we're lagging behind the rest of the world and need to do some serious catching up.
In an interview with IT Pro, FTTH Council director general Hartwig Tauber accused the UK government of not realising "the potential of telecoms, both economically and for society" with its low-target aims of 2Mb/s broadband for all.
Tauber points out that at the time the UK government was pushing the Digital Britain report which included advice to offer all UK citizens access to 2Mb/s broadband Internet connections, other countries - such as Japan - were already aiming for 1Gb/s and higher speeds over fibre optic cabling.
Tauber - who, it must be said, is far from unbiased in his views - believes that the government needs to make "positive investment" in fibre to the home technologies in order to drive broadband adoption and save the nation from a becoming a digital has-been - and if the investment is there, industry competition "in the last mile [between the home and the cabinets]" should take care of the rest.
While selected parts of the UK have a limited roll-out of fibre to the cabinet technologies - such as recent trials in Bournemouth, South Yorkshire, and Kent - most trials max out at around 100Mb/s, while Virgin Media's generally available fibre-optic broadband service offers a maximum 50Mb/s downstream speed and just 1.5Mb/s upstream.
Do you believe that the government needs to do something about the state of the UK broadband market, or are the speeds that are currently available good enough for now? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
In an interview with IT Pro, FTTH Council director general Hartwig Tauber accused the UK government of not realising "the potential of telecoms, both economically and for society" with its low-target aims of 2Mb/s broadband for all.
Tauber points out that at the time the UK government was pushing the Digital Britain report which included advice to offer all UK citizens access to 2Mb/s broadband Internet connections, other countries - such as Japan - were already aiming for 1Gb/s and higher speeds over fibre optic cabling.
Tauber - who, it must be said, is far from unbiased in his views - believes that the government needs to make "positive investment" in fibre to the home technologies in order to drive broadband adoption and save the nation from a becoming a digital has-been - and if the investment is there, industry competition "in the last mile [between the home and the cabinets]" should take care of the rest.
While selected parts of the UK have a limited roll-out of fibre to the cabinet technologies - such as recent trials in Bournemouth, South Yorkshire, and Kent - most trials max out at around 100Mb/s, while Virgin Media's generally available fibre-optic broadband service offers a maximum 50Mb/s downstream speed and just 1.5Mb/s upstream.
Do you believe that the government needs to do something about the state of the UK broadband market, or are the speeds that are currently available good enough for now? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
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