Posted: 15th Jun, 2009 By: MarkJ
Tomorrow’s publication of Lord Carter's final Digital Britain report is widely expected to outline plans that aim to make broadband speeds of 2Mbps available to everybody in the UK by 2012. However Elfed Thomas , the CEO of fibre optic ( FTTH ) broadband provider i3 Group , has warned that concentrating on the consumer demands of today may not be enough to tackle the requirements of tomorrow.
Mr Thomas notes that the Digital Britain report is to be welcomed as it is imperative that the UK has plans to ensure digital inclusion – at the moment around 35% of households do not have the Internet - as in the very foreseeable future broadband or connectivity will be as fundamental as any other utility to the home. But solving this is not just an issue of speed.
Mr Thomas told ISPreview.co.uk : “Though the speed of the network is important, we seem to be once again focussing on the consumer demands of today rather than what is going to be needed in the future. By the time the consumer is demanding next generation services the infrastructure is once again incapable of supporting delivery.
Other countries are streets ahead of the UK when it comes to next generation service access, delivering super fast broadband, remote health services and other interactive and content services that can be tailored to individual needs.
However, we want to change this in the UK and are building Fibrecities in Bournemouth and Dundee with plans to roll out to a further one million homes across the UK over the next 10 years. We are concluding negotiations with technical partners who will be the gateway for services via fixed-line, broadband, TV and mobile known as quadplay so that households in Fibrecities will be able to use their fibre to the home (FTTH) connections to full advantage.
Therefore limiting to 2Mbps will simply not support the interactive online services that the consumer could access in the future.”
In the near future, households connected to i3's Fibrecity network can expect to be able to access services such as online surveillance, health monitoring, online gaming, broadband and on-demand TV. Fibrecity expects to be able to announce the first of its service partners by the end of the summer. The networks in Bournemouth and Dundee will be completed by the end of next year.