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1980s switch to optical

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Weaver:
My question: considering the current switch to optical everywhere, FTTP replacing DSL and the end of POTS/PSTN, could the exact same switch to optical have happened in the late 1980s? (Yes I know there might be no marketing drive for it because the www hadn’t been invented yet, but just disregard that for the purposes of the hypothesis.) This is about technical and practical capabilities. What do you think?

Edinburgh_lad:
I don't think so. Openreach has been the monopolist when it comes to telecoms and due to that, slow to invest. Always good to have competition as it keeps the others on their toes.

gt94sss2:
Yes - and that's what BT wanted to do according to https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/world-of-tech/how-the-uk-lost-the-broadband-race-in-1990-1224784

Weaver:
@Edinburgh_lad - True enough, however this isn’t about money. The hypothetical scenario assumes colossal government funding, as has been happening in recent years.

Alex Atkin UK:

--- Quote from: Weaver on January 22, 2022, 04:52:46 AM ---@Edinburgh_lad - True enough, however this isn’t about money. The hypothetical scenario assumes colossal government funding, as has been happening in recent years.

--- End quote ---

The point is it was already happening, investment in fibre manufacturing was already ongoing so it ended up being wasted money.

Plus as it was nationalised at the time, profit needn't be a motive for where and when to roll out and once the assets DID make a profit it could go back into network rather than shareholders pockets.

I do not believe any essential services should be private, we're seeing how bad that's going now with energy prices skyrocketing.  Prior to that Post Offices closing as the profit-making Royal Mail used to subsidise them.

I didn't agree with Jermy Corbyn saying we should have a single nationalised ISP, that's too ripe for abuse (plus competition at the ISP level seems to have worked well in the UK), but I do believe the underlying infrastructure probably should be.  Our telecoms network was second to none before it was privatised.

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