UK Government Told to Focus Superfast Broadband Funding on Rural Areas

LONDON - April 8, 2013 - PRLog -- A new web-based poll conducted with 1045 Internet users in the United Kingdom (*) has found that 81% of respondents want the government to put more public funding into rolling out faster broadband internet connectivity (up from 69% when the same question was asked two years earlier **). In addition 62.5% said they would like the effort to focus on connecting the most remote rural areas first.

The survey also asked respondents whether or not the country should set an improved national minimum broadband speed target. The government's current Universal Service Commitment (USC) is for internet download speeds that deliver at least 2Mbps (Megabits per second), which must reach everybody by 2015, and yet only 2.8% supported this.

What should the national minimum broadband speed target for 100% of the UK be set at?
25Mbps+ - 31.5%
10Mbps+ - 27.5%
100Mbps+ - 25.5%
5Mbps+ - 8.8%
Do not define by speed - 3.6%
2Mbps+ (current policy) - 2.8%

"It's no surprise to find that most people would like to see the country set its minimum broadband speed target at a level that is significantly above today’s 2Mbps mark," said ISPreview.co.uk's Founder, Mark Jackson. "Unfortunately it's perhaps not realistic, short of an extra multi-billion pound investment from the public purse, to expect some of the more dramatic speeds (e.g. 100Mbps+)."

"Never the less it's already clear that a minimum speed of 2Mbps is fast becoming the modern day equivalent of a dialup connection and will soon struggle to handle the latest content. Ofcom itself suggested in January 2013 (***) that a minimum of 8-10Mbps might be more appropriate, before adding that even this was 'unlikely' to be sufficient come 2020."

"In our view it should have been set at 10Mbps from the very start, so as to encourage the correct level of investment, technology choice and to better account for future needs," concluded Jackson.


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* Online poll conducted between 11th March 2013 and 8th April 2013 with 1045 UK internet connected readers of the ISPreview.co.uk website.

** http://www.ispreview.co.uk/cgi-bin/polls/_polls.cgi?archi...

*** http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2013/01/ofcom-strate...