Networx Generation

Oh dear. Why is it so hard to make sure people get the broadband speeds they pay for?

Dozens of Computer Weekly readers have written to say how their connection speeds never reach the holy grail of the advertised “up to 8 mbps” figure and yet operators are allowed to continue charging and advertising against illusory headline rates.

Broadband is rising up the political agenda and you can help with a bit of direct action.

Are the days of misleading broadband claims and bad service finally coming to an end?

Not according to our readers. Here's what one had to say:

Baroness Shriti Vadera has just been named as the new UK broadband minister after Stephen Timms moved on to the Department for Work and Pensions.

I really hope that she stays in this position longer than her predecessor.

Cabinet reshuffles happen all the time and ministers move on.

But businesses in the UK need the assurance that the government takes broadband development seriously enough to appoint someone with a sense of permanency; to see network development through to the end.

Neil Berkett, CEO of broadband provider Virgin Media, said the government’s current ‘hands-off’ approach to regulating investment in broadband was the right one and warned off intervention which could “disrupt the market”.

“Regulation is neither necessary nor recommended. It would disincentivise companies from investing in networks,” said Berkett.

At the same time, Mark Swarbick, Deputy Director at BERR (formerly the DTI) said that there would be those that would be left without access, because it would be uneconomic for operators to invest in certain areas, and that the government would need to intervene in some way.

Sigh.

Operators are telling the government to leave them to it, when we all know the market isn’t perfect. Government knows it should be doing something, but doesn’t know what. And Ofcom is scared if it does anything at all, then broadband development will come to a standstill.

Meanwhile, Joe Public and Joe Public Ltd have to go on with sub-standard broadband.

"There is no evidence to suggest that those countries that have deployed fibre are in any way better off economically than those that haven't"

Mark Swarbrick, Deputy Director, BERR (formerly DTI)

"Does connectivity impact on the economy? We don't know for certain yet, but there is an understanding that it does."

Antony Walker, CEO, Broadband Stakeholder Group, which the government set-up to investigate broadband access in the UK.

Nice to know that the right hand knows what the left hand is doing.

From B3ta's FedSki

The UK government must set a deadline for ensuring ubiquitous access to high-speed broadband if any plan to improve access is to succeed, a Japanese minisiter has advised.

At an address to the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, Kiyooshi Mori, the Japanese vice-minister for communications policy, said that Japan had already rolled out 100Mbps fibre broadband to 85% of households.

Japan expects ubiquitous access for businesses and consumers to high-speed broadband by 2010 – the result of a four-year government programme designed to improve access.

“Studies showed that the ICT industry accounts for 40% of real Japanese GDP. This helped the government realise the importance of starting a programmme for ubiquitous access with a deadline.”

Mori said the government also introduced competition policies to make it easy for new ISPs to enter the market and for open, shared access to networks. As a result, the price of broadband per 100kbit/s is 0.07 dollars compared with the UK where it is 0.69 dollars.

Internet services between India and Europe have been disrupted after a ship accidentally severed two undersea cables in the Mediterranean.

Full story here

One UK software company told Computer Weekly that it had taken four hours to send a 3K file to its offices in India.

Do you have offices in India that you need to communicate with? Have you been hit? Post a comment let me know.

Services went down on Wednesday at 2.30pm Indian local time when the cables were accidentally cut. Repairs could take up to 15 days according to RS Perhar, secretary of the ISP Association of India.

Competition in broadband markets may be increasing, which is good news, as it means potentially lower broadband prices. But is the quality of broadband connections getting any better?

The European Commission’s approval of telecom regulator Ofcom’s proposal to de-regulate markets illustrates how fast Ofcom can act on information.

Ofcom identified markets with strong competition and has relaxed regulations that require broadband operators who have built their own networks to open them up to other providers.

I think this is fair, since making an investment in network infrastructure requires that these operators can make a return which they can then feed back into building more networks with better quality connections.

But if Ofcom can act with such swiftness on deregulating, why can’t it work equally fast on issuing regulation to improve access where it is poor? Especially since it was revealed today that the average broadband speed in the UK is only 3mb.

You have to wonder…

So the average UK broadband speed is approximately under 3mb, eh?

It’s not surprising given that the majority of providers still use ADSL connections, which, given the web applications people are using today, has a limited lifespan.

As a consolation, some providers have begun using Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line 2+ technology, which delivers more bandwidth over greater distances.

But both of these technologies pale in comparison to fibre optic connections, which need to be rolled out nationwide for us to compete in a global economy, especially in the case of SMBs.

Small and medium sized UK businesses aren’t competing with the business down the road anymore, they are competing with businesses worldwide.

Shriti Vadera, minister for business and competitiveness (and broadband), said in a recent Business Zone article: “Enterprise, especially small businesses, start ups and growing companies are the heart of the UK's economy.”

If that’s the case, why is she doing nothing to help them get decent broadband?

Get in touch if you still have problems with your broadband where you live.

It takes a big man to admit when he is wrong, but luckily, I am not a big man.

A case in point that illustrates this is the posting I made last week about how the government was dragging its heels over improving broadband speed and access for businesses in rural areas.

Then last Friday, The Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform said it would launch a review to see how government could work with broadband providers to roll out faster networks.

A cause for me doing a complete 180, perhaps?

Well, no, frankly.

The Pipe Dreams report by the Broadband Stakeholders Group in 2007 on how to make fast broadband a reality said:

“For next generation broadband to move from pipe dream to reality in the UK, steps need to be taken now. The issues are complex and there are few clear or obvious solutions at this stage. However, there is a limited window of opportunity between now and April 2009 to get this right.”

This means that the government has until April 2009 to get its act together on broadband.

Given that we’ve already lost Stephen Timms, who was in the process of talking with ISPs, but published no recommendations publicly, and given that we have a new minister who is in the process of learning her brief, I’ll continue not to hold my breath.

The annual Communications Management Association conference takes place today.

The CMA has been supporting telecoms and ICT professionals and organisations within private and public sectors for almost 50 years.

They were due to host a presentation by Stephen Timms MP Minister of State for Competitiveness, but because of the cabinet reshuffle, had to pull out.

Sources close to the CMA told me that they had extended the invitation to Shriti Vadera, the broadband minister, but that she turned them down.

Now it could have been that the baroness was busy, but given that the government launched a major review of broadband last Friday, the CMA conference would be an opportune time to meet the people she is representing.

Given that she said last week:

"We must be ready to respond to future technological developments, which will place unprecedented challenges for our communications networks over the coming decade.”

If there are really “unprecedented challenges for our communications networks” ahead, then why isn’t she attending a conference for network managers who might be best place to advise her?

Matt Yardley at Analysys used the following quote on Net Neutrality from CEO Edward Whitacre at AT&T:

“How do you think they [Internet Content Providers] going to get to customers? Through a broadband pipe. Cable companies have them. We have them. Now what they would like to do is use my pipes free, but I ain't going to let them do that because we have spent this capital and we have to have a return on it. So there's going to have to be some mechanism for these people who use these pipes to pay for the portion they're using. Why should they be allowed to use my pipes?”

Maintaining quality networks while delivering innovative new services will be the next challenge, but should content providers who generate traffic foot the bill?

Intellect has announced it will conduct a study with the University of Warwick to help businesses users go green.

John Higgins, Director General of Intellect, said there are four main areas where businesses need education when buying ICT equipment:

1-How much does the UK IT industry contribute to carbon emissions?
2-What practical steps can IT managers take to become green?
3-What green criteria does an IT manager specify in a RFP when buying equipment?
4-How do you break the psychology of the upgrade cycle?

The last one is the most interesting for the ICT industry to consider. Maybe part of going green isn’t specifying energy efficiency in products but making sure the ICT equipment you buy lasts longer with the applications you want to use five years down the line.

BT OpenReach has been criticized by attendees at the CMA conference here today for not guaranteeing SLAs to end users.

The funny thing is, is that end users aren’t OpenReach customers – it’s other ISPs that offer broadband services on to end user businesses that are BT customers, and they [ISPs] can’t guarantee service quality for a network they don’t own.

If you’ve been affected by BT OpenReach problems, let me know or post a comment.

BT launches its first range of broadband ADSL2+ services on its 21CN next week, but some readers have written in complaining about SLA problems with its existing Openreach service.

If you have had a problem, send an email or post a comment.