UK government announces plans to bring full fiber broadband to the entire country by 2033

[Polycount]

In brief: Keeping rural and urban areas on a level playing field where broadband connectivity is concerned has been an ongoing struggle for global governments and ISPs alike. In short, it's expensive and difficult to bring high-speed internet to remote locations. However, despite these roadblocks, the UK wants to bring full fiber connectivity to every home in the country by 2033.

It's no secret that bringing broadband internet to rural locations has been a struggle for US-based ISPs. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai announced a proposal recently that could give ISPs $500 million in funding to do just that, but not much has come of it so far.

It seems the UK is looking to eclipse the US in this regard, though. In a press release published today, the UK's Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport announced that fiber broadband would be coming to every single home in the UK -- especially those in rural locations -- by 2033.

That's not all, though. The UK also wants fiber broadband costs to be "slashed" in the coming years, though specific price cut proposals haven't been announced yet.

UK DCMS Secretary of State Jeremy Wright explained the government's reasoning behind its broadband goals in the following statement:

We want everyone in the UK to benefit from world-class connectivity no matter where they live, work or travel. This radical new blueprint for the future of telecommunications in this country will increase competition and investment in full fibre broadband, create more commercial opportunities and make it easier and cheaper to roll out infrastructure for 5G.

These changes will come as a result of the UK's recent Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review (FTIR), an in-depth analysis of the current state of the UK telecom industry. The FTIR led to numerous recommendations that seek to improve the lives of UK citizens.

These recommendations include proposals for new legislation that will "guarantee" fiber connections to new buildings projects and homes, reforms to the "regulatory environment" for fiber that will increase investment and competition, and an industry-led transition from copper to fiber connections coordinated by UK communications regulator Ofcom.

One of the FTIR's primary goals is to level the playing field between rural and urban environments. "...[rural areas] must not be forced to wait until the rest of the country has connectivity before they can access gigabit-capable networks," the press release reads.

This is certainly an admirable aim. After all, the UK notes that only about 4 percent of its internet connections are 5G, putting it behind many of its "key competitors" by a considerable margin. 71 percent of Spain's connections are fiber, for example.

At any rate, as great as this plan sounds, it won't be cheap to implement. By the UK's own estimates, bringing full fiber to every home in the country could cost anywhere from £3 to £5 billion (about $4 to $6.6 billion).

Whether or not the government can raise those funds, and ensure they are funneled in the right direction, remains to be seen.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/75619-uk-government-announces-plans-bring-full-fiber-broadband.html

 

[cliffordcooley]

Congrats UK! We might get it here, in the US by 2133.

 

[IAMTHESTIG]

Seems like a waste of effort to me, considering going completely wireless is the desired standard for homes. Just get fiber to more cellular towers to cover these rural areas, that's all that is really needed. Current cellular networks, assuming they are not overloaded, are already fast enough to handle the bandwidth needs of your typical home network

This I think is a case of too little too late. 15 years ago this would have been ideal, but 15 years from now we'll have moved on.

Just my opinion... hate it if you wish.

 

[EClyde]

They should bring freedom instead

 

[toooooot]

They should bring freedom instead

That's up to us now. After all, we brought freedom to ourself, now is the time to expand to motherland.

 

[Uncle Al]

Bravo, bully, bully to the Brits......just hope it dosen't turn out for them the way it did when all our Telco's made the same promise 35 years ago with fiber in the USA ....... which most of us are STILL waiting for.

 

[Lounds]

Seems like a waste of effort to me, considering going completely wireless is the desired standard for homes. Just get fiber to more cellular towers to cover these rural areas, that's all that is really needed. Current cellular networks, assuming they are not overloaded, are already fast enough to handle the bandwidth needs of your typical home network

This I think is a case of too little too late. 15 years ago this would have been ideal, but 15 years from now we'll have moved on.

Just my opinion... hate it if you wish.

Yeah isn't that what 5G is about?

Also 3-4Billion ain't that much when you consider the government paid the DUP 1 billion into NI coffers to get a majority.

 

[Lounds]

Bravo, bully, bully to the Brits......just hope it dosen't turn out for them the way it did when all our Telco's made the same promise 35 years ago with fiber in the USA ....... which most of us are STILL waiting for.

Probably not, we regulate our economy a lot more than you. All the major ISP's pay into the same pot of centrally managed infrastructure through BT open reach (which is also funded by tax payers money as well as bull **** line rental) apart from Virgin media but the two do still work together to get lines fitted etc.

 

[Burty117]

Seems like a waste of effort to me, considering going completely wireless is the desired standard for homes.

Na, a lot of people in Britain play Video Games (as an example) and low latency is more important than bandwidth, Wireless doesn't have anywhere near the same low latency (unless your the only person using 4G on the local mast of course).

Just get fiber to more cellular towers to cover these rural areas, that's all that is really needed. Current cellular networks, assuming they are not overloaded, are already fast enough to handle the bandwidth needs of your typical home network.

Current cellular networks are already overloaded, go into the center of London, down one street you can get over 100mbps download and 45ms latency, walk literally down the same road and once you get near a decently sized shop it drops to 20mbps and 90+ms. I live out of London and even then, 4G is half the speed of VDSL and latency is all over the place. When I first moved into my place, I had to wait the usual BT 1-3 months for a line to be installed and I used 4G then. Wireless simply doesn't work as well as Wired once you want to do multiple things and stuff that is latency sensitive.

This I think is a case of too little too late. 15 years ago this would have been ideal, but 15 years from now we'll have moved on.

You forget who's running the show, we could have had Fibre Broadband in the 90's. BT even built factory's to build the vast amounts of Fibre we'd need but the government killed it [Link]. 5G isn't ready anywhere in the world currently, Britain won't be the first to push 5G and by the time we do get round to it, We'll be installing Fibre in homes and it'll be faster or at the very least, consistent, something Wireless struggles to provide.

 

[Lionvibez]

Seems like a waste of effort to me, considering going completely wireless is the desired standard for homes.

Na, a lot of people in Britain play Video Games (as an example) and low latency is more important than bandwidth, Wireless doesn't have anywhere near the same low latency (unless your the only person using 4G on the local mast of course).

Just get fiber to more cellular towers to cover these rural areas, that's all that is really needed. Current cellular networks, assuming they are not overloaded, are already fast enough to handle the bandwidth needs of your typical home network.

Current cellular networks are already overloaded, go into the center of London, down one street you can get over 100mbps download and 45ms latency, walk literally down the same road and once you get near a decently sized shop it drops to 20mbps and 90+ms. I live out of London and even then, 4G is half the speed of VDSL and latency is all over the place. When I first moved into my place, I had to wait the usual BT 1-3 months for a line to be installed and I used 4G then. Wireless simply doesn't work as well as Wired once you want to do multiple things and stuff that is latency sensitive.

This I think is a case of too little too late. 15 years ago this would have been ideal, but 15 years from now we'll have moved on.

You forget who's running the show, we could have had Fibre Broadband in the 90's. BT even built factory's to build the vast amounts of Fibre we'd need but the government killed it [Link]. 5G isn't ready anywhere in the world currently, Britain won't be the first to push 5G and by the time we do get round to it, We'll be installing Fibre in homes and it'll be faster or at the very least, consistent, something Wireless struggles to provide.

^^^ You couldn't pay me to go from Wired internet to Wireless internet.

 

[pawel04]

Lets hope they can implement it better than the clusterf*ck thats known as the NBN in Australia..

 

[FPSChris]

All new builds are fttp.
There is a downside to this though, not all the suppliers are setup to provide it.
There's a few 3rd parties but prices are £200+ a month
BT offer 50mb for £30/£40 which is fine for the average family. All this speed, no way to get it cheap enough.

 

[Reehahs]

They are talking about this as it is more important than utilities. There are still places in the UK that are not connected to the mains utility supplies including villages that have to rely on stupidly expensive LPG and fuel oil for heating.