Broadband Speeds Increasing?

By Stephen Mason

Regulator OFCOM has launched a consultation running until December to discover ways in which the UK can keep up to date with the speeds of broadband in other nations.

Regulator OFCOM has launched a consultation running until December to discover ways in which the UK can keep up to date with the speeds of broadband in other nations.

The speeds we are currently running on have a natural limit yet expectation and demand will soon outstrip our current capabilities of bandwidth.

In other countries, network speeds of 100Mbps are already being rolled out and some experts are worrying that the UK is falling behind its competitors.

The debate on whether the UK should put a nationwide fiber network in place continues, which would provide users with speeds of up to 50Mbps. But at a cost of up to £15bn is this solution very feasible? OFCOM underlines the fact that no single technology will solve the growing needs for more bandwidth and to this end Virgin Media are currently trialling speeds of up to 50Mbps.

According to OFCOM, current broadband speeds in the UK reach an average of 4.6Mbps, which will be increased to up to 24 when next generation ADSL (named ADSL2+) begins rolling out next year.

Elsewhere in Europe, a 75 year old woman from Karlstad in central Sweden has been thrust into the history books with the world's fastest internet connection. Sigbritt Lothberg's home has been supplied with a 40 Gigabits per second connection, many thousands of times faster than the average residential link and the first time ever that a home user has experienced such a high speed.

Sigbritt, who is the mother of Swedish internet legend Peter Lothberg, has never had a computer before. Lothberg, along with Karlstad Stadsnat (the local council's network arm) has arranged the connection.

Network boss Hafsteinn Jonsson says, "This is more than just a demonstration. We're trying to persuade internet operators to invest in faster connections. [We] wanted to show how you can build a low price, high capacity line over long distances".

Sigbritt is now able to enjoy 1,500 HDTV channels simultaneously. Or if there is nothing to watch there, she will be able to download a full HD DVD in two seconds.

The secret behind this ultra-fast connection is a new modulation technique which allows data to be transferred directly between two routers up to 2,000 kilometres apart with no intermediary transponders. According to Stadsnat the distance is unlimited in theory; there is no data loss as long as the fibres are in place.

Cisco helped with the project, says Jonsson. He says, "the most difficult part was installing Windows on Sigbritt's PC".

For further information, please contact stephen.mason@masoninfotech.co.uk.

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