Superfast broadband to 800,000 UK homes

[super jumbe]

A government cash boost of ?50 million will be made available to local authorities in a plan to start the roll out of superfast broadband to 800,000 UK homes, announced Chancellor George Osborne.
The initial cash sum announced today is the first part of a much larger ?530 million promised by the government that will be spent during the next four years to ensure that all areas of the country will have access to the internet via the high speed broadband system including less commercial areas that would normally be excluded by the business market.
A commitment to making the superfast broadband obtainable to communities in all parts of Britain by 2015 was made by the government last year when they announced that they would make an ?830 million investment from public money to ensure that all parts of the country including rural areas and those presently worst served would have connection facilities made available to them over the next seven year.
TV licence fee revenue will be used to fund the ?300 million balance required and will be used for work needed from 2015 onwards.
Any broadband funding required by the local authorities to improve the broadband infrastructure available in their area will require them to submit an application to Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) which is a government body.

[stuckylad]

hmmm,another rise in the tv license fee then,or some other tax to pay for it.

[super jumbe]

Should able to communicate a bit faster with dk, good old Osborne keep us happy.

[janobi]

LMAO. Osbournes a tool!

50million ain't really going to do alot. It will cost 10x that to roll out a superfast network to people in cities, nevermind out in rural areas.

Only ADSL is available in rural areas, most are 13/14km away from the exchange. This is way too far for an adsl line to work or even lock on! So upgrading fibre to the cab will do nothing. The whole network needs to be fibre, get real Osbourne, and the Government.

[Tryst]

I think most of this will go in subsidies to existing network companies to roll out a network to other parts of the country. I doubt very much if our pro-privatisation government will want a government funded network.

Also, what do they call super fast? You can already get a mobile dongle that has a reasonable connection for places that are off the grid. If it's no faster than that, why bother to change? Especially considering that rip-off Britain will want to charge mega bucks for it.

[GastonJ]

Most likely dont't want to admit that the TV license is too much and has been for years. So invent a use for the money, mere drop in the ocean though.

[janobi]

I think most of this will go in subsidies to existing network companies to roll out a network to other parts of the country. I doubt very much if our pro-privatisation government will want a government funded network.

Also, what do they call super fast? You can already get a mobile dongle that has a reasonable connection for places that are off the grid. If it's no faster than that, why bother to change? Especially considering that rip-off Britain will want to charge mega bucks for it.

I would hardly call 2mb a high speed internet, and dongles use the mobile network, and very rarely are there any mobile masts in rural areas. The mobile signal is just as bad. So thats a non starter.

Also the money can only go to one network provider, as there are only 2 networks in the UK. They are the BT ADSL network, and the Virgin FO network. When the original FO network was laid, it caused the company to nearly collapse, but it has stood them in good stead since. However the BT network is not designed for internet or anything else, and requires a massive upgrade throughout. The fibre to the cab idea is great, you will get 50mb to the cab! Awesome, soon as it hits the copper pairs, or aluminum, then those speeds will drop drastically.

Get real Osbourne, your going to need more like 1/2 billion to setup a high speed network in the UK.

[EssexTech]

800.000 homes in the South East

[flyingpig]

Going back about 15 years it was around ?1m per mile to lay fibre optic cables. This includes the cable and all the civils required. It is not cheap at all.

Not sure if it is now cheaper, but I cant really see it as a lot of the cost was in the digging up roads, closures, replacement services, etc will not really of come down and possibly gone up -, and the material cost of a mile of the cable was high as well - this may of come down but not sure.