| Stephen Timms, the UK's minister for | | | | £15Bn, Ofcom, the UK's |
| competitiveness, warned last year that the UK | | | | telecommunications regulatory body is having a |
| risks falling behind in the race to providing | | | | hard time trying to convince any one company to |
| super-fast broadband networks, claiming the | | | | invest. |
| situation to be "21st century's equivalent of the | | | | It's been raised that what Timms didn't take into |
| great arms race". | | | | consideration is the concentration of residence in |
| Timms drew up comparisons between our | | | | Japan and South Korea, where network speeds |
| current broadband networks to those used in | | | | are at their highest. As, once you move out of |
| Japan and Korea, the world's leaders in broadband | | | | the big cities and into the vast rural areas, the |
| speeds, questioning why the UK should be allowed | | | | situation with slow or no broadband access isn't all |
| to fall behind. | | | | that dissimilar to that experienced here in the UK. |
| The average advertised speed in Japan was | | | | Realistically it would seem that there is no |
| 93Mbps in 2007, and South Korea's 43Mbps. | | | | "quick-fix" solution to the problem. |
| Compare this to the average advertised speed of | | | | Various experiments and trials are being |
| 10Mbps in the UK, with actual download speeds in | | | | commissioned around the country with regards to |
| the region of 4.5Mbps its easy to see where | | | | implementing fibre networks, which will of course |
| Timms is coming from. | | | | help towards the cause. |
| The answer, it would seem, to stepping up our | | | | Moreover, even though it does not compare to |
| broadband networks is easy enough - a | | | | other countries' networks, the UK is expected to |
| nationwide roll-out of fibre optic networks. The | | | | be able to have the networks in place to increase |
| practicability and cost factors involved with such a | | | | advertised broadband download rates to 24Mbps |
| roll out however, are where businesses and | | | | over the coming years; which is a considerable |
| government officials start to stumble. | | | | improvement based on current standards. |
| With an estimated cost of £7 to | | | | |