HOWZAT

“BT is absolutely confident in its broadband coverage claim of 99.6% of the UK population,” Angus Flett, a director at BT Wholesale, said. “BT has provided data to illustrate this claim to Ofcom and the DTI, both of which have verified this information. At no point has any analyst firm disputed the 99.6% UK population broadband coverage figure with BT. Indeed, UK broadband penetration has just passed the United States on a per-capita basis. This is the highest broadband penetration in the G8.”

BT calculates its total from connection speeds starting at 256kbps, yet as a benchmark for broadband, this is a relic of the 20th century that many believe should be doubled. Ofcom, too, is keen to make dial-up seem a distant memory, claiming that 10.5m connections in the UK are “broadband” (residential and business), although these are industry figures supplied to Ofcom, which accepts them at face value. Its own definition of broadband starts at the ludicrously medieval base rate of 128kbps.

Yet neither a paltry 128kbps nor 256kbps will keep subscribers on the right side of a digital divide being widened by ever more demanding multimedia services, which will soon include video on demand and live television (IPTV) from BT, BBC and Sky. Your distance from the telephone exchange is vital, because the new services rely on much higher speeds, and these fall off drastically the further they travel.

According to BT, its basic domestic package offering “up to 2Mbps” reaches 60% of subscribers, with an upgrade to 8Mbps expected this year. Once that is in place, residents in Newbury might enjoy almost 8Mbps, but only if they live within 1.2 miles of the exchange (as the phone line lies, not as the crow flies). By the outskirts of the town, at, say, 2.5 miles, the speed is likely to have dropped to 2Mbps, and it will peter out entirely before reaching Hamstead Marshall, four miles away.

Last month, Enders Analysis delivered some contentious research that BT has since asked the company to withdraw — even though it is based on BT data. Not only does Enders emphasise “the increased uncertainty of line speed above 2Mbps”, it warns about marketing services as “up to xMbps” to families living three miles from an exchange: “Paying for a service where some customers connect almost four times faster is unlikely to be tolerated by many.” So, two families living three miles apart, but paying the same price for “up to 2Mbps”, might find that the speeds they actually receive differ dramatically (see box, below left).

Point Topic believes that 3.8m homes will never be able to log in at 2Mbps, the minimum it says is needed for a real-istic television-over-internet service. BT itself admits it will have no idea which rates subscribers will attain until its service is up and running — a worrying state of affairs for broadcasters.

Let’s not lose sight of the greatest potential offered by high-speed broadband, which is not only to provide a further source of television, but to deliver enough capacity for all members of a family to work, game and download separately and simultaneously.

Andy Williams, of the Broadband- 4Britain campaign, said: “If you accept BT’s figures for broadband, then almost everyone has access. If you move that to 12Mbps, almost nobody has a service. That was the benchmark used in North America as the minimum needed to provide television (HDTV and standard), broadband and telephony — what they see fit for the triple play of television, internet and telephone. The UK is only on the first rung of the ladder, and should not be celebrating.

“For ADSL to go much faster, you have to move equipment out of the exchanges and into roadside cabinets, so the signal has a much shorter distance to travel over copper wire to the home. That means laying optical fibre from the exchange — a significant investment. Nobody is willing to do that, especially when the regulatory framework is so confused.”

The blunt fact remains that ADSL is not fast enough to handle the newest services because it has measurable limitations, reliability of speed being among them. The government has made much noise about commitment to the internet, but has left commercial forces to fashion Broadband Britain. Companies with shareholders will provide services only where they are profitable, which excludes vast areas of the UK from enjoying speeds that are taken for granted in Asia and North America.

Instead of congratulating ourselves for meeting unambitious official targets, we should be striving for a network built for next-generation multimedia services. Korea’s widespread superfast network, for example, was the result of a multi-billion-pound government investment. Without taking fibre closer to people’s homes, we cannot hope to stay in the information race with new economies.

BROADBAND TELEVISION 'UNLIKELY' TO REACH BEYOND THE CITIES

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