News roundup September 2016
A roundup of September’s broadband news and developments:
Ofcom announced a new voluntary Code of Practice intended to provide more protections for users of business broadband services. The Code includes provisions to ensure more accurate speed information is made available prior to signing a contract and new rights to exit contracts without penalty if speeds fall below minimum guaranteed levels.
Broadband Genie published its first Annual Business Broadband Report; overall business broadband satisfaction was rated at 76%. Twenty-nine per cent of respondents encountered broadband issues at least once a week or more and on average it costs a business £904 for every hour their broadband is down during working hours. On average businesses spend £139 a month on their broadband.
Further to this month’s Companies News Update, the Financial Times reported that the Chief Executive of Telenor, Norway’s telecoms regulator, had written to Ofcom Chief Executive Sharon White warning against enforcing legal separation of Openreach from the rest of BT. The letter warns that such a move would be a “dead end for the UK and European consumers and the telecoms industry” and would not stimulate the “massive investments needed for 5G and ultrafast fixed broadband networks”.
A European Commission supported study, carried out by InterDigital, Real Wireless, Tech4i2 and CONNECT (Trinity College Dublin), found that 5G deployment could provide a potential annual benefit to member states of €113.1 billion annually as early as 2025. It is also expected to create 2.3 million jobs in EU28 Member States. The study estimates that in EU28 Member States the total cost of 5G deployment will be approximately €56 billion by 2020.
CenturyLink announced it had completed the largest deployment of G.fast technology in North America. It installed the technology in 44 multi-dwelling units (MDUs) to provide internet speeds of up to 500 Mbps and higher to nearly 800 apartments in Platteville, Wisconsin.
The Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development published its 2016 State of Broadband report. India has now overtaken the United States to become the world's second largest Internet market, with 333 million users, trailing China's 721 million. However just six nations – including China and India – together account for 55% of the total global population still offline, because of the sheer size of their populations. While Internet access is approaching saturation in richer nations, connectivity is still not advancing fast enough to help bridge development gaps in areas like education and health care for those in poorer parts of the world.
Australia’s NBNCo announced the first anniversary of its launch of fibre to the node (FTTN) services; 745,000 FTTN premises aren now ready for service and the network now reaches a total of 854,000 premises via FTTN and fibre to the building (FTTB) deployments. It also announced that fibre to the distribution point (FTTdp, also known as fibre to the curb) would be deployed to up to 700,000 premises. More on the nbn’s technology mix here and also in this previous post.
ISP Review reported that a joint team of researchers working for Nokia Bell Labs, Deutsche Telekom T-Labs and the Technical University of Munich in Germany has successfully used a new technology to push 1Tbit/s of real-world data transfer over a pure fibre optic cable to hit close to its theoretical maximum.
Computing reported that a London-wide network intended to connect Internet of Things (IoT) devices was switched on this month, with plans to roll out further networks in other major cities across the UK. Things Connected, led by Digital Catapult, comprises free-to-use 50 LoRaWAN (long-range wide-area network) base stations located across London that will be free to use for IoT devices.
The U.S. State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) published The Broadband Imperative II, advocating increases in broadband speeds and improved access to broadband both in and out of U.S. schools.
