Thinktank says UK will have problems providing broadband for all

Broadband thinktank Point Topic found that nearly 30 per cent of all households in Northern Ireland and more than a quarter of homes in Wales are currently unable to achieve internet speeds of two megabits per second, which the Government promised would be available to all homes by 2012.

"Towns such as Basingstoke and Milton Keynes which people might expect to be well connected have notspots," said Tim Johnson, chief analyst with Point Topic. "The scale of the task is massive and in order to achieve it there needs to be co-operation between government, the regulator and operators such as BT," he said.

Point Topic has produced a regional breakdown of areas that currently do not have much net speed. The thinktank has produced a map showing which areas of the country lack the infrastructure needed to deliver the high-speed broadband access outlined in the recent Digital Britain report.

The report’s author, Lord Carter, pledged that every UK home would have access to broadband by 2012, and set a minimum speed level of two megabits per second, a speed which the Government has determined would be sufficient for the delivery of online services.

But critics have warned that unless the internet infrastructure throughout the UK is sufficiently improved over the next few years, the Government’s target will remain unobtainable.

"We think that fibre is the right way to go. That will provide the UK with a future-proofed network," said Mr Johnson. BT has pledged to provide fibre to around 40% of the UK but with the caveat that "market conditions must be right".

The report, the full version of which is due in May, laid out the government's commitment to broadband and suggested that some of the gaps in coverage could be filled with mobile broadband.

But mobile broadband has met with criticism too, as it can be expensive, slow and service can be affected by the volume of users. “There are issues with the network and services drop off the more people who use it,” said Alex Salter, from broadband measurement site SamKnows.

Internet usage has become almost universal across middle Britain and over 15 million households have broadband. The average broadband Brit now spends more than 16 hours a week online and downloads can be 200 times as fast as in the last millennium. Many now rely on it as a tool to work fulltime from home or anywhere.

“Now we’ve reached the point where losing your connection or just being in ‘slowband land’ can be incredibly frustrating. Fast internet access has changed the way we work, listen to music, watch TV, stay in touch with our friends, shop and plan our lives, “Johnson points out. “It has touched every corner of our lives not just everyone’s life.”

“If you live in a densely populated area in the UK, chances are you’ll have access to over 2Mbps of bandwidth. About 84% of households are in the right place to get reasonable speeds according to our analysis,” says Johnson.

Home workers in Scotland on the rise

Home is not only where the heart is; for one in nine Scottish workers it is also where their work is according to The Herald. A rise in the numbers who choose, or are allowed to, work from home was shown in findings from the Scottish Household Survey, issued in November 2008 by Scottish Government statisticians.
The trend has been upward since the question was first asked nine years ago, when one in 14 workers were counted as home workers for at least part of the working week. A major factor behind the change has been the growth in access to broadband, which is now linked to 44% of homes throughout Britain.
The move to home working, or tele-commuting, is being encouraged by the Scottish Government, as part of the strategy to reduce the environmental damage caused by commuting and traffic congestion.
It includes those who are self-employed, and some whose entire job is done from home. One of the growth areas has been among travel agents, replacing the cost of high street shops.
However, a survey of British employers published in May 2008 found more than two-thirds of them never or only occasionally accept requests from employees to work from home, with the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development finding the bosses feared they would not have sufficient control over staff.
Yet only 8% of employers in the same survey found that home workers were less productive, and 30% thought they can be more productive.
Managers also say the long-term impact of the social and employment shift is that they need less office space. Telecom company BT has 20% of its staff working full-time from home, and claims to have saved £70m as a result.

Success story
George and Barbara Brown have run their leadership management consultancy business from their home in the south side of Glasgow for four years.
Mr Brown said: "Economic reasons were behind the decision. The cost of rent, electricity, fuel for travel costs were all reflecting on the price I was charging to customers. Our clients are mainly local authorities so our customers were ultimately the ratepayers."
Mr Brown was not surprised at the rise in home working. He recommends it for other small businesses, especially when starting out to help with costs.