UK Broadband Plan Due

By DT Staff Published October 25, 2009

UK Broadband Plan Due — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Today the British government will release the findings of its review into ways to increase broadband speeds for customers. The hope is to be able to increase speeds to 100 Mbps in the future.

However, the minimum price tag attached is over $10 billion.

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Currently the average broadband speed is a little over 10 Mbps. Replacing old copper cables with fiber optic cables would enable much faster speeds. But one estimate is that it would cost over $56 billion to cover the entire country. Even taking fiber to street exchanges would cost $10 billion.

But the BBC states that the report, written by former Cable and Wireless boss Francesco Caio, says there is no case for the government to subside the move.

BT has plans to spend $3 billion on a network upgrade by 2012, making next generation broadband available to around 40% of British homes, while Virgin is also working to increase speeds.

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