![]() ![]() The NextGenUs approach essentially offers local communities a future-proof fibre optic based Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) broadband network, which they call the "4th Utility", that is asset locked and where a minimum of 65% of surplus is returned to the local community. In effect the group puts people first over profits. For example, NextGenUs deployed FTTH with the RNLI Humber crew and families at Spurn Point in summer 2009, the first FiWi (Fibre Wireless) deployment in the remote rural parish's of Newton-upon-Rawcliffe and Stape (North Yorkshire) in February 2010 and the UK's first rural FTTH village in Ashby (Lincolnshire) during November 2010. As a result NextGenUs's / Fibrestream's founder, Guy Jarvis, has a somewhat unique insight on the best way to get Britain hooked up with the next generation of super-fast broadband services. Naturally we wanted to know what he thought of 2010's various broadband developments and his feelings on the new government's current direction.
Q1 - The UK government recently delayed its target of 2012 for making a minimum broadband download speed of 2Mb (Megabits per second) - Universal Service Commitment (USC) - available to everybody in the country, instead pushing it back to 2015. What is your perspective on this target (speed and date); do you think the original 2012 timetable was ever achievable (expensive quick-fix Satellite solutions notwithstanding)?
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