http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2017/01/ispreviews-pick-top-uk-home-broadband-isps-2017.html

 

See the last comment on ISP VFM in mainland Europe . . . eastern Europe that is:-

 

In summary.

 

Fibre service 1000Mbps download (500mbps contractually guarenteed)

 

> . . . wait for it . . . £13 a month.

 

Nick

Edited 7 March, 20179 yr by Clunkclick

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2017/03/uk-drop-7th-place-2017-eu-broadband-connectivity-progress-report.html

 

Not good if we are Brexiting

 

Public Service on-line presence still lags behind the European average !

 

And the majority of of internet use is on Social media !

 

Not to worry, the Chancellor's got a cover story for tomorrow:-

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/11/22/autumn-statement-philip-hammond-pledge-1bn-better-broadband/

 

Nick

Quote

It would allow users to download an entire television box-set in less than a minute.

 

Which serves no purpose at all! You have at least 30 minutes in the first episode. netflix at peak account for around 1/3rd of the entire interwebs bytes... 

 

If they reported what they really need the bandwidth for, more so the better.

 

A place I stay in scotland, has fibre now. Mobile wise, it has 2 bars of signal, and at a push I can get emails. 12 months ago it had no signal! All it needs is one mast to bridge the gap, either side of the village is 4G. Other countries benefit from not having a ground breaking system to bring along. If you never had lines, it's far easier to lay new fibre than to dig a whole without breaking the old copper, or god forbid, disconnecting the precious monkeys for 5 minutes.

 

 

 

As I've said before on here, compare and contrast . . . 

 

North Sea Gas Conversion 1968-76. . . . every house in the UK visited . . a shed load of gas mains replaced . . .and those that weren't replaced had strengthening rings applied to the joints . . . new pumping stations, processing plants and cryo storage built. There isn't a road in my local area that doesn't still bear the scars.

 

. . . . and the economy was less than half as big as it is today.

 

Whereas, fibering up the UK, IMHO of equal strategic importance . . .is still patchy, ... incomplete, and a total commercial pig's breakfast. And replacing copper with fibre has in prospect a "Copper bounty" !

 

With movement logistics at a premium and Brexit in prospect, you'd have thought the "Moving the information" rather than the person holding the info was more important.

 

Can only presume that the powers that be see the decentralising effect of mass IT distribution  as some sort of threat, and/or that economic activity is set to decline UK side - hence the development of retail IT as a status bearing consumer product rather than a functional economic aid.

 

But if you look to the USA, big providers are shifting away from cables of any sort. Huge deals done to acquire mobile networks, same happened here with BT.

 

There is far less cost in terms of laying, but also all the equipment behind it compared to a super mast.

 

The cost of laying a 'new' connection to every residence, heck even just businesses in the uk is stupidly high, it's a dead technology. 5G is good to go in the US late this year or early 2018. If the investment in UK fibre at 50p in the pound on 4g/5g/network cov. then we'd be in a better place 5 years from now. Same goes for so many stepping stone projects, like HS2, it's dead before it's complete. 

 

Wireless, 4g/5g can be fast enough and will be... 10Gps should be fine for most people.

As you say, it looks like the economic arguments will prevail in favour of mobile comms.

 

But, if my experience, locally, is anything to go by, the transition period  to full 4/5G adoption may be difficult for people using other RF systems  until they fully migrate, and personally, from a health view point, I'd feel safer with cable rather than RF.

 

Locally, I'm within 200 metres of three different mobile masts. These have been in place  for at least 10 years and  I have had no substantial detectable  adverse effects.

 

However, coincident with the introduction of 4G I started getting severe interference on other RF based systems - I regularly get total loss of audio, for periods of 5-7 seconds, on terrestial TV and get wi-fi connections breaking. Recently, I added an in-line 4G filter to the TV and it made no difference whatsoever.

 

If the 4G signal is causing this, then the signal must be pretty penetrating. One wonders what the energy density is compared to 3G and whether it has ant health implications.

 

Nick

IIRC the 4G frequencies are quite close to the digital TV bands and the 'problem' isn't the 4G,  but the TV aerials not being able to block out the unwanted RF. 

52 minutes ago, john999boy said:

IIRC the 4G frequencies are quite close to the digital TV bands and the 'problem' isn't the 4G,  but the TV aerials not being able to block out the unwanted RF. 

Mostly Vodafone and O2 iirc who have a programme running to fit some kind of device to homes affected? 

Topology of much of the UK makes wireless impractical in many areas.

 

We have to use a mixture of networking technology to reach many areas.

 

We should really be in the habit of laying dark fibre along with any new road or road extension, or rail or any sort of significant ground work that connects two areas.