UK Broadband isn’t up to scratch
UK Broadband isn’t up to scratchAccording to a report by Cisco Britain is only the 25th country (out of 66) in preparing for a digital future
The BBC website has reported that the countries such as Latvia and Bulgaria are more prepared for the next generation broadband than the UK. Despite well publicised fibre optic broadband tests in Kent. The report, commissioned by Cisco, ranks the UK 25th out of 66 countries.
Japan and Korea are running ahead with Gigabit lines promised by 2012. So where does this leave the 100 megabit broadband that we are being promised in the UK. May I also add that I am working on a 1 megabyte (at best) connection at my home.
The UK government needs to commit more to the Digital Age. There was rumours of a proposed 50p per month tax on telephone lines (see related links). So is this a commitment from the British Government to spend more of our money for us? Stealth Tax?
Is there a commitment from the British Government to aid Digital Britain when they are blocking UK initiatives like 
Project Kangaroo. Which was a project between ITV, Channel4 and BBC Worldwide to provide digital content to the world. The government quango, the Competition Commission, stated that this would be too much of a threat to competition in the emerging video-on-demand market. Yet we’ve got YouTube. Is this an attempt to give more power to non-English companies?
What about the BBC and their amazing iPlayer service allowing users to view programmes on the internet. This is great if you’re a soap addict and missed a vital episode, or in my case want to replay recipes from my favourite chefs. This service isn’t available outside the UK. Why? What about those people who live abroad for extended periods of times.
I remember at my first eMetrics in London I met a chap from one of the Baltic States and he was able to access broadband using a USB card reader and his national identity card. The speeds he was getting was amazingly quick (wasn’t sure how fast) but, why can’t we have this via our driving licenses or more importantly why isn’t the service available for free from the government rather than paying anything from ‘free’ to £30 per month for the service?
In short I am not happy with being in a country which says in one breath there is a commitment to Britain’s digitial future but, in the next breath putting up more red tape or stopping initiatives outright. We want gigabit broadband and an effective digital future by 2012.
Related Links:
BBC News Digital Britain Article
The Guardian – Project Kangaroo Article
Full Government Digital Britain Report
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