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• Broadband speeds will dive without fibre
• Ofcom warns against public spending on broadband
• Broadband speeds are on the decline
• Business broadband to benefit from fibre by 2012
• Home broadband twice as fast as mobile
• Device puts an end to cold calling
• Ministers to consider broadband for all
• Broadband speed tests use 'dirty data'
• BT Openreach announces fibre broadband pilot sites
• BT in hot water over 'best broadband' claim

• Broadband speeds will dive without fibre

  The UK risks a future of declining broadband speeds if it does not get its act together regarding next-generation broadband, an analyst has warned.
  
  Speaking at a Westminster eForum keynote seminar on next generation broadband, Ian Fogg, research director at analyst house Forrester Research warned: “"If we get this wrong — which we might do — or if we're slow to do it, tomorrow's broadband speeds may be the same as today's broadband speeds. They may be worse without that investment.
  
  "People use iPlayer, they use World of Warcraft, they use these things more and more and if there isn't the network investment going in, the actual speeds that we enjoy will actually reduce over the next few years. We need to get this right and we need to get this right today."
  
  

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  11/11/2008 22:23:00 Published by Alice Galletly Category Telecom

• Ofcom warns against public spending on broadband

  The public sector should take a minor role investing in high bandwidth broadband, according to communications regulator Ofcom.
  
  Peter Phillips, partner for strategy and market developments at Ofcom, said public investments should be “targeted at areas left behind by the markets”
  
  Speaking at Westminster eForum conference, “Next Generation Broadband”, Phillips stated that Ofcom believed that the infrastructure for super-fast broadband should be funded largely by the private sector.
  
  This reflects both Ofcom’s belief in the dominance of private investment, and the view that the current economic climate makes heavy public investment less appropriate.  
  
  

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  10/11/2008 18:45:00 Published by Alice Galletly Category Telecom

• Broadband speeds are on the decline

  The average speed of broadband is dropping, according to new research from broadband analysts broadband.co.uk
  
  "Average download speeds UK wide peaked at 3.6Mbps in July 2008, since then the average has dropped every month and is now almost 10% lower at 3.3Mbps" Says Edd Dawson from broadband.co.uk.
  
  The results came from thousands of broadband speed tests on the broadband.co.uk, taken by ordinary UK broadband users during October 2008.
  
  "Not surprisingly we are seeing the biggest drops during the evening peak time slots where the average speed has now dropped below 3Mbps for the first time since March 2008. We suspect that the increased use of media streaming services such as BBC iPlayer are a significant factor in these results" added Dawson.

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  04/11/2008 15:33:00 Published by Alice Galletly Category Telecom

• Business broadband to benefit from fibre by 2012

  Research firm point topic has predicted that over four million homes and businesses will be using a fibre-based broadband connection by 2013.

  Fibre-based broadband provided by cable networks is expected to account for 23% of the UK's domestic broadband market by 2013, whereas basic DSL copper lines are expected to see a drop in market share from 78% to 57% over the period.

  Point Topic anticipates that most of the fibre connections will be fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC), with the final few hundred yards from the cabinet to the home connected via copper DSL lines. This would give the majority of users download speeds of 20 Mbps or more.

  “This is probably the first moment when it has been possible to make a plausible forecast for fibre in the UK, based on some real plans and activity,” said Tim Johnson, chief analyst at Point Topic.

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  30/10/2008 11:46:00 Published by Alice Galletly Category Telecom

• Home broadband twice as fast as mobile

  Home broadband is now more than twice as fast as mobile broadband, according to new research.
  
  Research by broadband comparison site Broadband Expert shows that the gap between home and mobile broadband speeds is widening. 
  
  The research follows a ban by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), on an advert that claimed mobile broadband offered “all the benefits of home broadband on the move.”
  
  Based on over 308,548 fixed line broadband speed tests, Broadband expert found an average fixed line broadband speed of 3.16 Mbs, whereas in 5,345 tests, mobile broadband clocked an average speed of just 1.57 Mbs.
  

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  28/10/2008 13:35:00 Published by Alice Galletly Category Telecom