Boris promises fibre for everyone in UK by 2025. Realistic?

Gidster

How practical is new UK Prime Minister's Boris Johnson's promise to get fibre to 90% of UK homes and businesses, to deliver super high-speed internet, by 2025? And is it really needed? What benefits would it bring? Isn't the real challenge getting decent connectivity to those living in broadband black-spots who are struggling to get more than 2mbps?

VioletChepil

Good question. @Jack I see you are in the UK. I wonder your thoughts too ^^ 

RichCreedy

people who work from home would benefit greatly from fibre broadband, as would families who stream a lot of content on multiple devices at the same time.

TheCustomCave

If it's any consolation, this was already a planned endeavour anyway as BT have been working on this before Boris mentioned it.
BT are trying to retire their old copper PSTN infrastructure which would require something else in place. If you try and sign up for a new account they're trying to offer up their fibre connections over copper for this reason.

Gidster

Story on the BBC over the weekend where the main fibre broadband companies lay out the key challenges that need to be resolved in order to deliver on this promise, including: planning reform, lifting of what's called the "fibre tax", commitments on regulations for new builds and addressing skills shortages that could result from Brexit:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-49209013

D00B

It will be interesting to see where all the trained personnel come from to carry out this work. Someone will be on a huge recruitment drive!

ddaw215

Not if the parts are coming from Germany... LOL

Pooh

6 years? Somehow I don't think so. In the towns and cities, sure, but across the UK?
The advantage here is the 90% figure: this I assume is the easy cop out for houses deep in the Yorkshire dales, nestled in the Welsh valleys, or those dotted around the lochs of Scotland - and that just for starters. In fact I could see that this could therefore preclude large amounts of blighty as a result - which would be a shame.

Gabolino

Politicians are quite good making promises (gives them votes!)... problem is he won't be there in 6 years time to be held accountable and will blame someone else for not having reached the target :P

RHH

I think 5G will be a better option as less labour intensive to install and can reach more people quicker, provided the rural areas get 5G this would be a huge improvement, and should cost less than installing fibre.

Pooh

@RHH if the UK is anything like the US when it comes to TelCo's priorities. rural Britain will be at the bottom of the list of rollout locations. TelCo's go for the highest profit margin - and sadly despite it being wireless to the consumer, it's still a major investment.

For example, here in the US, compare a high population density area such as Manhattan in New York, with rural Loving County in Texas. Whilst the median income is broadly similar ($85K in Manhattan to $80K in Loving County) the population density makes rural broadband in Loving County a virtual no-go, with the revenue per mile in Manhattan being $347K and Loving County being just 50 cents... 

Money always talks.

Murray

The answer is No - just grandstanding.

keith

5G speeds great but an aerial every 5klms or so not very practical for rural.
4G LTE is a better choice, but can we get enough towers, say 10-15 klm spacing.
Fibre to everyone, does the average consumer want to stream 100 videos at one time?
IMO fibre to the kerb seems a great compromise.

keith

D00B said:

It will be interesting to see where all the trained personnel come from to carry out this work. Someone will be on a huge recruitment drive!

An example, in au, nbnco handle ALL the infrastructure usually up to the premises.
The bulk of the work is pretty basic, very little training, a week or so.
Isp/rsps the same, 3 days traing in most cases.
Back office obviously very high level staff, but none like that in the front line.
Our largest rsp has all support os. (India and Philipines,  better staff usually trained in the  united states!)
Nbnco support is local but firewalled from end users, who must deal only with rsps.
$50B+ approx to rollout in Australia.

Pi_DD

I just saw another flock of pigs land! - another of Johnson’s fantastical claims calculated to drum up votes.
In any event, what proportion of households really need superfast? We have a steady 70mbps and it does everything we need.