Super-fast broadband

Statement published today

By Marco Marini

Quite a lot has happened in the past few months – the Digital Britain interim report is clearly one of the highlights. Over here things have been quiet, at least on the surface (i.e. on this blog). Actually, the Ofcom NGA team has been working pretty hard and today we are publishing the statement closing our super-fast broadband consultation.

In this document we clarify our policy positions on private investment in NGA. We believe this will give current and potential investors the certainty they need for taking informed decisions. The market is already making progress in the delivery of super-fast broadband, and our work so far has been focused on ensuring that this continues to be the case.

Clearly, the story is far from being over – one could even say it just started. Among other things, we will continue to engage with the government and other public sector institutions to understand what needs to be done to ensure super-fast broadband has the widest possible reach.

In typical Ofcom-style, the statement is a bit bulky, but this time we put a one-page summary upfront. If you reached the end of this post you may as well take another 3 mins to read it. No excuses not to!

Pipes or Plumbing?

By Damian Radcliffe

Two well know strategists, Robin Foster and Kip Meek (both of whom worked at Ofcom several years ago,) have written an interesting paper for the Social Market Foundation on the future of Public Service Broadcasting (PSB).
 
As with super-fast broadband, the issue of funding is at the cornnerstone of the current debate on the future of PSB. You can find out more about this debate by visiting our PSB blog. In both of these debates the issue of who will pay – and the value of the wider social and economic value of this investment – is never far away. 
 
Ofcom research published in September 2008 suggested that to maintain existing levels of PSB in the UK a total funding requirement of between £330-420m p.a. is needed to sustain public service provision by 2012. By the same token, estimates of the sums needed to deliver a super-fast broadband network across the UK vary from anywhere between £5-30 billion, depending on speeds, deployment technologies, and so on.

With so many demands on the public purse; from banks to hospitals, schools to defence, there's only so much that Government can do and clearly the decision makers will have some tough questions to answer in the near future.
 
Foster and Meek have an interesting take on this, amalgamating the two debates by placing the emphasis on creating high-speed broadband networks, but suggesting that through these networks citizens and consumers would be able to access as much, if not more, PSB content than at present.
 
The document, supported by the BBC and Five, is well worth a read, even if it hasn't attracted as much comment as might have been expected.
 
From my perspective, it does add something new to the mix. Much of the public debate about PSB seems to focus on preserving the current broadcasting ecology, whilst this proposal outlines a different way of doing things. Part of the challenge is that arguably you're not comparing like with like; PSB programming is accessed – and paid for – by almost 100% of homes, whereas existing internet penetration is 68%, with only 58% of homes signed up to broadband.

So, if you were a Minister in these uncertain times, where would you put your money? Would you look to the future by upgrading the existing broadband infrastructure which only two-thirds of the population tend to utilise, or shore up the structure of our current – widely used – PSB broadcasting system?
 
One thing's for sure, it’s not an easy decision to make.

Boys with Toys

By Damian Radcliffe

Sometimes, I am such a boy. I read this, and thought "how cool". It also reminded me that I really need to sort out my Airtunes over the holiday. I suppose taking it out of a box would be a start...

Now admittedly, Bill Thompson's experience may not be representative of most people's home environment, but it is an insight into both the future and what is already a reality for some.

Clearly bigger pipes will create more opportunities for this type of domestic networking, but similarly some people could probably do more than they realise using their existing broadband provision.

So, if you've a home hub, or you get various broadband enabled toys for Christmas, then do let me know both what you got in your stocking and how well they work. If I finally take the toys out of their boxes, I promise to do the same.

Then again, after too much turkey there's a real risk that all I will want to do is sit back and watch lots of TV delivered down my phoneline. Well, it is a holiday afterall!

Shifting Expectations

By Damian Radcliffe

There’s a risk that we all think super-fast broadband is a “good thing” (copyright Sellar and Yeatman), and so Kate Bevan is right to ask in The Guardian today whether we actually need connections at 50 Mbps or more.

Arguably, based on current consumption patterns the answer for most people is "no".

But if we took that view then we would never see any innovation, and society would risk standing still.

Harry Warner, one of the studio founding Warner brothers, opined in 1927; "who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" Later that year Al Johnson’s The Jazz Singer – Hollywood’s first talkie - was released and movies changed forever.

But Warner’s comments weren’t as ridiculous in 1927 as they might seem now. Talking movies were an unproven technology and many people thought they would be little more than a passing fad. In contrast, silent movies were a proven winner with large scale audiences. Now there’s only one year-round silent movie cinema that I know of (in LA, and it’s fabulous,) whereas every one horse town has a talking movie cinema.

When we talk about the possibilities for super-fast broadband, we’re not in too dissimilar a position to Warner et al in the late 20s. We’ve already speculated about some of the possible uses of super-fast broadband from HD movie downloads to multi-player gaming, but arguably the real innovation will come about as the technology is embedded and becomes established. Consumers will probably start to do things with the technology we haven’t considered or thought to be niche. This is exactly what’s happened with SMS or many Web 2 applications and will, I’m sure, be equally applicable to a super-fast broadband age.

As they say (repeatedly) in the Field of Dreams, build it and they will come. Who they are, and what they will do with it, of course is another matter altogether…

Virgin Media launches 50Mbps broadband

By Marco Marini

So it's finally here. The 50Mbps broadband product has appeared on Virgin Media's website today.

VM's cable network covers about 45% of UK households, but not all of them will be able to get 50Mbps straight away. According to their FAQs, the offer is now valid for 1.3m homes in parts of Scotland, the Midlands and South London. There's a postcode checker, too, but it does not seem to be working properly, right now, at least for me. Too many server requests, perhaps? Still, there's a question I'm struggling to answer...

Is a SW postcode on the north bank of the Thames considered as South London? In other words, is Santa Claus going to bring me a cable modem? :)

Anyway, Virgin says it will roll-out the service gradually, reaching full coverage of its footprint by the middle of next year.

Apart from the 30 families or so already connected to FTTH in Ebbsfleet, those signing up to this offer will be the first to enjoy super-fast broadband in the UK. But how super-fast is it really going to be? Just faster downloads? Or rather, a game changing experience, putting the basis for a whole lot of brand new applications and services?

We'll see..

Consultation closes today

By Marco Marini

Today is your last chance to submit a formal response to our super-fast broadband consultation.

I know it sounds definitive, but.. it actually is so! We published our consultation document 10 weeks ago and the deadline for submitting reponses is tea time 5pm today.

Quick!

Hulu

By Damian Radcliffe

I’m just back from catching up with some friends in the States, where aside from eating too much, I also managed to spend some time playing around with what some people are already calling the new YouTube; Hulu.

At the moment the site only works in the States, where it allows you to watch clips, TV shows and movies from broadcasters like NBC, Fox and others. It’s pretty extensive and catching on fast.

Analysts are predicting a pretty quick upward curve in its usage. In some respects what it offers doesn’t strike me as entirely new, US MySpace users have been able to watch episodes of their favourite shows on the social networking site for a while. However, where I found Hulu came up trumps was with its high definition offer, something I’m not sure that MySpace offers.

So, the other Sunday I hooked my laptop up to my friend’s wireless home network and streamed a high definition movie which I watched on my 10" screen with their three year old. I forget what I watched, but I know it involved characters that were vegetables and that it looked like a Wallace and Gromit film, but with fewer references to cheese.

The cool thing about it, aside from the quality of the movie (by which I mean the imagery, not the already forgotten story,) was that it was entirely free. Every 10 minutes or so I’d get a 30” advert for something. But, as this constituted much less advertising than I might get through standard US TV watching, I figured this was a good deal.

I then used the service again at a couple of airports to watch some short Family Guy clips (no ads) – again streamed in very good quality (although I don't think that Hulu classed them as HD). Each one was a couple of minutes long and they certainly looked as good as the new high quality streams on the BBC's iPlayer.

Suffice to say I’m already signed up to the potential of super-fast broadband, but the experience brought some of the potential alive to me in a way that simply reading about it cannot / does not.

Does anybody else have a similar experiences, or experiences, from places they’ve visited that they want to share?

4Ging ahead?

By Damian Radcliffe

Bad puns aside, The Times ran an interesting article on Saturday looking at different ways in which faster broadband might be delivered.

As our consultation document suggested, there’s many different ways in which this could be delivered.

The article places quite a strong emphasis on the potential (as well as the challenges) for using 4G mobile technology to achieve this. It makes for an interesting read….

Regulatory update: fibre power in the Netherlands

By Marco Marini

OPTA (Dutch regulator) yesterday published a consultation document on its detailed proposals for regulation of Fibre-to-the-home (FTTH). Assuming can read Dutch, you can find the document here; otherwise, you could have a look at T-Reg's summary in English, which is what I did.

As some of you may know KPN (the Dutch incumbent telephony operator) has been very active on NGA in the last few years, with technology trials starting as early as in 2006. Over time its deployments plans have evolved and it is now seeking approval from Dutch authorities for a joint venture with Reggefiber, an independent fibre networks company, to move things forward.

In its document, OPTA is proposing some very concrete measures for regulating access to 'unbundled fibre loops'. The technical principle is the same behind Local Loop Unbundling (LLU), but it is applied to fibre rather than copper.

KPN has issued a press release welcoming OPTA's efforts to provide regulatory certainty but also pointing out that plans for a full national deployment are still to be assessed. This basically contradicts the leaks that appeared on press and blogs last week.

Turning to the UK, we would really like to copy borrow ideas from our Dutch colleagues, but things are complicated by the fact that BT, as of current plans, is going to use network solutions different from those selected by KPN and Reggefiber.

However, we will continue watching with interest the Dutch situation as it develops.

Public intervention and super-fast broadband: when and where?

By Marco Marini

Fast broadband has the potential to deliver significant public benefits. No wonder why it is often argued that public money should be used for it. But there are also arguments against public intervention.

Indeed, balancing private and public sector activity is a key theme of debate in many sectors of the economy, and broadband makes no exception.

Super-fast broadband was discussed yesterday during the first day of Ofcom’s International Conference. With speakers from all over the world, it was interesting to see how public policy approaches to NGA can vary from country to country.

Over here in Europe, we usually see the need of public intervention in cases of ‘market failure’: if the private sector cannot find a sound business case, then public sector mechanisms should be put in place to deliver services with significant public benefits. Where the market delivers, instead, public money (which is far from infinite) is probably unnecessary.

In the case of super-fast broadband the private sector is starting to deliver, but it is pretty clear that these deployments will be far from universal – the costs involved are just too high. Indeed, geographical concentration of investment is a key feature of current broadband, too.

As shown in the slide above, taken from one of our industry briefings (you can see the whole presentation here), we think there is a stronger case for public intervention in those areas that are going to be left out by private investment.

So, where is the market going to deliver? And when? In some cases it might be too early to say. It takes time to deploy NGA and, more in general, investment plans may change while they progress. But, as the Communications Consumer Panel notes, those areas that today are still left without broadband have a clear chance to leap frog to NGA as soon as possible.

Many communities in various parts of the UK are already engaging with the relevant authorities to bring super-fast broadband to their local areas. Yesterday, Roger Darlington was in the audience of the Ofcom International Conference and he said he had already come across more than 20 UK local community projects. The Community Broadband Network is also performing a key co-ordination role, and it recently launched a ‘National framework for Local Action’. Isolation is probably the biggest risk faced by these local projects, and the CBN efforts are rightly pointed at avoiding it by encouraging the use of common technical standards.

Are you involved in a local community project for bringing fast broadband to your local area? If so, would you like to share your experience on this blog?

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P.S. Please remember we cannot authorise your comments if you don't provide a valid e-mail address. It's a shame we can't publish some of the comments we receive for this very reason, but we have to stick to the House Rules...