The Times: Tech special - What you need to know about broadband
A high-speed connection in your home gives you 'always-on', instant access to the Internet for a flat fee. So why are less than one per cent of us connected? David Rowan untangles broadband
This, it is being said, will be the year of broadband, the high-speed Internet connection that makes online life a far more attractive proposition. Amid predictions that the number of broadband households in the UK will treble in 2002, costs are falling and take-up is gradually rising. So how excited should you get about what is effectively a more efficient way of carrying data than the standard phone line?
If you have spent much time online you will have experienced the frustrations of slow-loading Web pages and files which take forever to download. Those used to broadband connections, which are typically ten times faster than a standard line, tend to say they can never go back.
With a fast, "always-on" connection, at a single fixed monthly fee, you can use your computer to watch video clips of news and sport, call up television shows on demand, learn interactively, conduct video conferences, consult multimedia encyclopaedias, make cheap long-distance telephone calls, share music files, listen to radio stations around the world and play online games. Because you are always connected, you know the moment an e-mail arrives, think nothing of booking tickets, and can look up information online as easily as in a book.
Why, then, don't more of us subscribe to broadband connections? Across Europe barely 4 per cent of households are signed up, typically those comprising well-off young men who enjoy gambling and sharing music files. The Scandinavian countries are leading the way, followed by Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium, but Britain is lagging behind at below 1 per cent. By contrast, 13 per cent of US households had broadband connections by the start of the year.
There are three reasons for the poor take-up in the UK. First, it has been something of an expensive luxury, typically costing £40 a month as well as a few hundred £to connect. Secondly, the service has not been available in many areas where people wanted it. Thirdly, people are still not convinced that they need it.
Things are changing, however. Prices are falling: recent price cuts led by BT this spring have brought down monthly fees to around £30. As a result, up to 10,000 people a week are subscribing to BT's new broadband consumer service, which can be easily installed without an engineer.
The cable companies NTL and Telewest, which together deliver broadband to around 200,000 homes, are also fighting to build a bigger market, with services available for around £25 a month. Surveys suggest that take-up will grow significantly only when the price falls below £20.
Availability remains a problem. Cable reaches barely a quarter of the country; BT's alternative system, known as Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL), is available on just over two-thirds of phone lines. Smaller companies have criticised BT for making it difficult for them to access the exchanges they need to offer local services. The telecoms regulator Ofcom expected a process called "local loop unbundling" to solve this problem, but results have been limited.
There are alternative broadband technologies, such as satellite broadband, but these tend to be expensive and are not aimed at the mass market. Still, once you experience the benefits of broadband over standard "narrowband" connections, you will understand why it has so many converts.
(The Times, April 12 2002)
This, it is being said, will be the year of broadband, the high-speed Internet connection that makes online life a far more attractive proposition. Amid predictions that the number of broadband households in the UK will treble in 2002, costs are falling and take-up is gradually rising. So how excited should you get about what is effectively a more efficient way of carrying data than the standard phone line?
If you have spent much time online you will have experienced the frustrations of slow-loading Web pages and files which take forever to download. Those used to broadband connections, which are typically ten times faster than a standard line, tend to say they can never go back.
With a fast, "always-on" connection, at a single fixed monthly fee, you can use your computer to watch video clips of news and sport, call up television shows on demand, learn interactively, conduct video conferences, consult multimedia encyclopaedias, make cheap long-distance telephone calls, share music files, listen to radio stations around the world and play online games. Because you are always connected, you know the moment an e-mail arrives, think nothing of booking tickets, and can look up information online as easily as in a book.
Why, then, don't more of us subscribe to broadband connections? Across Europe barely 4 per cent of households are signed up, typically those comprising well-off young men who enjoy gambling and sharing music files. The Scandinavian countries are leading the way, followed by Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium, but Britain is lagging behind at below 1 per cent. By contrast, 13 per cent of US households had broadband connections by the start of the year.
There are three reasons for the poor take-up in the UK. First, it has been something of an expensive luxury, typically costing £40 a month as well as a few hundred £to connect. Secondly, the service has not been available in many areas where people wanted it. Thirdly, people are still not convinced that they need it.
Things are changing, however. Prices are falling: recent price cuts led by BT this spring have brought down monthly fees to around £30. As a result, up to 10,000 people a week are subscribing to BT's new broadband consumer service, which can be easily installed without an engineer.
The cable companies NTL and Telewest, which together deliver broadband to around 200,000 homes, are also fighting to build a bigger market, with services available for around £25 a month. Surveys suggest that take-up will grow significantly only when the price falls below £20.
Availability remains a problem. Cable reaches barely a quarter of the country; BT's alternative system, known as Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL), is available on just over two-thirds of phone lines. Smaller companies have criticised BT for making it difficult for them to access the exchanges they need to offer local services. The telecoms regulator Ofcom expected a process called "local loop unbundling" to solve this problem, but results have been limited.
There are alternative broadband technologies, such as satellite broadband, but these tend to be expensive and are not aimed at the mass market. Still, once you experience the benefits of broadband over standard "narrowband" connections, you will understand why it has so many converts.
(The Times, April 12 2002)
posted by David Rowan at Friday, April 12, 2002
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