In
the whole debate about broadband infrastructure, it’s very seductive to follow
the logic of the ‘satisficing’ brigade – those that defend the status quo in
bandwidth on the basis that ‘it’s adequate for most peoples’ needs’. I’m afraid to say that I’ve even heard this
kind of argument – several years ago - from senior staff at Ofcom. You know the sort of thing: “so long as it’s
enough to download repeats of ‘Coronation Street’, 2Mbps is fine as a minimum
threshold…
I’m
glad to say that even the DCMS has seen the weakness in this argument. Not long
before he left the department, Jeremy Hunt made a speech in
which he rejected the ‘satisficing’ idea, instead comparing the government’s alleged
forward-looking broadband strategy to that of the Victorian planners:
“…When it came to sewers, we got it right. In the 1860’s Sir Joseph
Bazalgette ignored all the critics when putting in London’s sewers and insisted
on making the pipes six times bigger than anticipated demand. He could never have predicted the advent of
high rise buildings – lifts had not been invented then – but he had the
humility to plan for the things he could not predict as well as the ones he
could”.
This has to be the right approach – getting well ahead of
the demand curve. It was therefore worrying to see a major ISP, Zen Internet,
sending out some mixed
messages this week:
“Over half of premises in the UK can
already access FTTC broadband, a solution which avoids disruption and
guarantees high performance and reliability. Most organisations don’t need the
330Mbps promised by FTTP, and will find 80Mbps more than enough…”
On
closer reading, Zen’s concern appears to be that, possibly unnecessary FTTP
aspirations are suppressing FTTC uptake – quoted at just 18%. Might this evidence of apparently limited
demand have the effect of discouraging subsequent FTTP deployment? Well that’s a tricky one…
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