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[Bowdon]

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2018/07/gov-detail-major-changes-to-boost-uk-full-fibre-broadband-and-5g.html

The UK government has today set out a range of new proposals (copper switch-off, regulatory reforms etc.) as part of their Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review (FTIR), which seeks to help boost investment and support for future 5G mobile and “full fibre” (FTTH/P) ultrafast broadband. But there are caveats.

At present a combination of new regulation stemming from Ofcom’s recent Strategic Review and support from the government, such as via a 5 year business rates holiday on new fibre optic lines, improvements to the Electronic Communications Code and several large investment / funding schemes to support 5G or “full fibre” development, are already having an impact.

The government recently made clear that they want 15 million premises to have access to Gigabit capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) by 2025 and then nationwide to all by 2033, although the latter date would require a huge public investment and is currently just a vague aspiration (i.e. responsibility for 2033 is likely to fall on the shoulders of a future government, which may have other plans).

One often overlooked fact here is that, thanks partly to the Broadband Delivery UK programme, rural areas currently have proportionally more FTTP than urban ones but this will soon change. Otherwise only around 4% of the UK (1.2 million premises) are able to access a pure fibre optic broadband ISP connection, but Ofcom now predicts that this could reach 20% by 2020 (due to the above schemes and changes etc.).

For example, over the past year Hyperoptic has said that it aims to cover 2 million urban premises with FTTH/P by 2022 (aspiration for 5 million by 2025), while Vodafone with Cityfibre will reach 1 million by 2021 (aspiration for up to 5 million by 2025) and Virgin Media plan 2 million by around 2019/20.

Not to mention all of the work by smaller operators and Openreach’s (BT) own plan for 3 million premises by 2020 (aspiration for 10 million by c.2025). TalkTalk is also proposing something similar. Suffice to say that progress is being made but so far this has been predominantly focused upon tackling the more commercially viable urban areas (i.e. the low hanging fruit).

Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review

Lots more information and quotes on the ispreview site.

[Ixel]

Interesting times ahead, especially if this is what happens. Could make G.fast appear even more of a foolish idea than it already seems to have been .

[johnson]

One often overlooked fact here is that, thanks partly to the Broadband Delivery UK programme, rural areas currently have proportionally more FTTP than urban ones but this will soon change.

Really? BDUK areas get FTTC boxes, not FTTP, unless they mean the "option" to order FTTP if you pony up the £10K+ to have them dig to you...

[shambly]

Really? BDUK areas get FTTC boxes, not FTTP, unless they mean the "option" to order FTTP if you pony up the £10K+ to have them dig to you...

We're a BDUK area, and in our village the 'easy' 210 got FTTC and the 'difficult' 40 subsequently got FTTP. So FTTP really is happening under BDUK...
Notably, though, the FTTC cabinet has been full for 9 months and is being expanded (by Nov) rather than the FTTP footprint being expanded...

[johnson]

Fair play, well I'm shocked. I'm in a BDUK area too and the initial cab was at capacity just months after installation, 1+ year later they stood a newer cab that is now at capacity as well. There are many "difficult" outliers who cant get the target 24mbps, but to my knowledge none have been offered FTTP.

[Chrysalis]

Yeah what is happening here is in difficult areas FTTC becomes less viable, FTTP may also be less viable but the degree it becomes less viable is not as extreme, so the viability between FTTP and FTTC shrinks and hence we see FTTP been used more in rural areas.

[sevenlayermuddle]

To be taken with a very large pinch of salt.   Just like previous govt suggestions of fast internet for everybody, smart meters in every home, stopping nuisance phone calls etc, full fibre for everybody in UK simply won’t happen.  Not by 2033, and probably not ever.

These planners pin their hopes on the principles that by 2033...
(a) the plans will have been forgotten
or
(b) the plans will have been superseded by different plans
or
(c) fttp will have been obsoleted by something else.

Just my opinion and happy to be proven wrong, as always.

[Chrysalis]

well it comes down to one thing really, in politics its easy to make long term targets, as often by then the individual making the promises wont be in a position to action it out.

It may or may not happen, but its easy to pull out of the promise if needed.

FTTP for everyone clearly never going to happen, I am already assuming by everyone they mean something like most people in reasonably populated areas not already covered by cable.

[sevenlayermuddle]

FTTP for everyone clearly never going to happen, I am already assuming by everyone they mean something like most people in reasonably populated areas not already covered by cable.

My own property is not covered by cable.   It is not even covered by mains sewage, we have a septic tank.  There are thousands upon thousands of similar properties.   There is no way in the world it would be viable to lay fibre to all such properties.

In recognition of this, I think a far better government objective would be a restriction on any commercial service that relies upon fast broadband, especially where it competes with a service that does not?

[Ronski]

Mains sewage is a whole different ball game, laying suitable pipework, suitable pumps etc. We don't have mains sewerage at work, on an industrial estate.

 I'd say if you have mains electricity then it possible to get fibre to you,  especially if you have a landline.    that would be a better comparison. I agree it will most likely rely on the government to fund it though, whether that happens only time will tell, but someone must of paid to install the phone line originally.

 I don't think stifling business just because of a minority is a good idea.

[sevenlayermuddle]

But what if that “business” is just a race to the bottom?

The only need I have for fast broadband is for home entertainment.   Yet 30 years ago, my options were so much better - BBC made some great programmes over terrestial broadcast as did ITV, and both would regularly show proper movies.   If you wanted to watch ITV live you could do so and keep your sanity, as advert breaks were only 2 mins.  BBC had no advertising at all in these days, a program listed as 30 mins would last a good 29 mins, leaving just enough space for a single announcement.   Nowadays, BBC have long interludes of self-promotion that is advertising by any other name.

If I wanted a movie 30 years back I’d pick one up from Blockbusters, who always had a range of proper box office movies that far exceeded what Netflix or Amazon offer.

Progress?

[Ronski]

Absolutely progress,  I still watch a fair bit of normal FTA TV,  never watch anything with adverts as its aired, always watch recorded, simply press a button on my remote and it skips 4 minutes which is the length of most adverts, other buttons do different intervals. With Netflix/Amazon Video we all can watch what we want when it suites.

If it's a race to the bottom, then so be it, sooner or later things will change and improve, you can't legislate for everything. Legislation has created some of the problems that OR now face preventing improvements.

How far would your nearest Blockbuster be today if they still existed? For me it would be at least a half hour round trip, add in trying to park, and the time deciding what to get, then I'll need to drop it back as well, I know I used to use Blockbusters. In the time that takes I've watched a film via streaming, when you work full time time is very precious, so I'll take streaming (just wish they'd improve the streaming quality of some films) any day over going to the Dvd shop. I used to use Love film via post, which was very convenient, but streaming even more so.

Weaver can't get out,  he watches a lot of streamed content, even with his lowly connection.

[Bowdon]

I think in the future its possible we're going to have a lot of TV-like channels coming down the broadband line. We've seen recently how Sky have opened the amount of channels people can get via their broadband, so its possible they might dump the satalite dish in the future.

I remember some years ago, maybe even 8 years, I used to watch a youtube channel that would stream a live programme in front of a desk and be talking about the news, as well as playing recorded interviews with people. Then they got some regulator group, I think called something like ADVOD or something like that, that wanted them to get a license for broadcasting videos done in a tv programme way. It was only a UK thing. I remember looking them up and they were a uk regulator for online programme content. So I suspect they were the initial toe in the water to attempt to regulate tv over broadband content.

I use Amazon Prime so I get the online service included.

I wonder if the BBC started advertising would we still need to pay our license fee?

[Chrysalis]

If I wanted a movie 30 years back I’d pick one up from Blockbusters, who always had a range of proper box office movies that far exceeded what Netflix or Amazon offer.

Progress?

Most definitely yes.

I can load up netflix and have a movie starting to play within seconds, vs travelling to blockbusters, picking up physical media, bringing it home, popping into the media player in the living room, and then afterwards taking it back again.  The blockbusters rental was time limited as well to 24-48 hours.

The limit of content on netflix is a problem, but if you think about it, you can imitate the blockbuster experience now.

So buy the movie on dvd, full choice now.
After watch sell it.
The money lost between buying and selling is the rental fee.

[Ronski]

I often do that with new films, buy a second hand Blu-ray, watch it and then move it, if the ultraviolet code is still valid you can sell that as well.