Broadband Researchers Get Support from TSB
The Technology Strategy Board (TSB) has reported that network researchers working on developing a technology capable of providing speeds of up to 10Gb via broadband connections, are going to receive about £1 million to carry their research further. The fund allocations for sums between £30,000 and £100,000 have already been decided. TSB is sponsored by the department For Innovation, Universities and Skills.
BT’s plan, on the other hand, has so far been that it will provide broadband speeds up to 40Mb to 40% of the total population of the UK by the year 2012. TSB has been working hard at its new initiative, making BT’s plans look ridiculously under-ambitious in comparison. Moreover, TSB plans to take the new network across the entire EU instead of being restricted only to the UK.
Mike Biddle, TSB’s lead technologist spoke on the matter, saying that the main challenge was to find a way to solve the technological limitations that are being faced in the implementation of ultra-fast broadband. He also mentioned that collaborations with the EU countries could play a major role in making this plan a success.
TSB says that once this technology is available and the network is implemented, it will give the European community speeds like never before and would help the region gain a huge advantage over the rest of the world in terms of competitiveness. To compare current services, click here to compare broadband.
However, the Broadband Stakeholder Group recently estimated that the total cost for such an optical network across the entire UK alone would be about 29 billion pounds, and it is not clear whether the government would be ready to make this kind of an investment.
