Is Google Planning To Fibre Britain?

Barence writes with this excerpt from PC Pro: "Google has emerged as a surprise contender to invest in Britain's fibre broadband network. The search giant yesterday announced plans to build a gigabit fibre broadband network in the US. The test network will see Google deliver fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) connections to up to half a million US homes. The move raises the possibility that Google is behind the Conservative Party's ambitious plans to deliver nationwide 100Mbits/sec connections by 2017. Parliamentary sources have told PC Pro that the Tories' plans were based on foreign investment in the UK broadband network."

Comments

Is Google Planning To Fibre Britain?

[edittard]

Is Google Planning To Fibre Britain?

No, because there is no such verb as fibre (nor fiber, for that matter).

Re:Well someone has to.

[neoprint]

The main problem in NZ isn't between the home and the backbone, it's the international link and the pathetic download quotas our ISP's give us. Every single person in NZ could have fibre, and the net could actually slow down as everyone now tries to access overseas sites, saturating the southern cross cable

The problem in Britain is the last mile

[bheer]

There are lots of places as little as 2 miles from the town center that have piss-poor broadband because of the way telephone exchanges are located. Fiber to the Home/Fiber to the Cabinet is the obvious solution, but British Telecom have a monopoly on last-mile wiring in the UK*, and have very little incentive to deliver high-speed broadband to homes. And let's not even talk about exchange capacity, or their traffic-shaping practices. So yeah, if Google or anyone else is going to get involved, more power to them. Britain's positively stick-in-the-mud compared to Scandinavia, Korea and Japan**, and it'll take a lot of doin' to bring it into the 21st century.

*except for Hull and some cabled areas (and I think Virgin's cable ducts were dug by BT)

**though to be fair, most of the high-speed internet in these places is to be found only in densely populated urban areas. Anyone know what broadband in lightly populated small towns/villages is like in Scandinavia/Korea/Japan?

PS. There's a great site for UK Slashdot readers -- Broadband Notspots UK, it's worth a visit if you're checking out what a particular place is like broadband-wise.

Re:The problem in Britain is the last mile

[Richard_at_work]

Fortunately, you are wrong.

BT is mandated by OFTCOM (Office of Fair Trading - Telecommunications) to allow competitive and fair access to the last mile and termination space in exchanges, so any competitor that is willing to supply their own infrastructure can supply the same services to the end user without the worry of the last mile.

With regard to the Virgin Media fiber - its laid by whomever Virgin contracts it to be laid, and they dig their own trenches. They made a nice mess several years ago cabling through my town, but not cabling the houses (they did every major road, and put in junction boxes - they just didn't take it to each house). But in surrounding towns they dug up to the house themselves.

Re:The problem in Britain is the last mile

[Tim C]

STOP CALLING US BRITAIN! If you are trying to reduce keystrokes, call us The UK. Bloody foreigners. British people are from the UK, not "Britain". No one says Britain here. In fact, very few people class themselves as British even if their passports say so. I'm English. Others are Welsh or Scottish.

Speak for yourself mate. Pretty much everyone I've actually spoken to about it uses Britain and the UK more or less interchangeably. In fact, I don't remember ever seeing anything described as being "from the UK", while "British" is stamped on absolutely everything possible and frequently used in adverts (e.g. "made using 100% British beef", etc)

Being English born and bred, I am from England, (Great) Britain and the UK as the situation warrants, and describe myself as English (birthplace), British (nationality) and above all human (as I wish we'd evolve away from our petty nationalism).

Re:Eh?

[Linker3000]

Well my fkn broadband connection is (UK South Coast). I hope Google do step in and do this because BT sure as hell take little interest in my little village (that's assuming Google will!)

Surely "From the department of making shit up"?

[Curmudgeonlyoldbloke]

In case anyone doesn't realise, there's going to be an general election in a couple of months or so. The current extremely unpopular party is likely to be replaced by another slightly less unpopular one with broadly similar policies, the main difference being that instead of being fronted by a dour Scotsman they have a posh ex-PR bloke with a nice smile. At this time politicians on all sides are more likely than ever to say stuff and not mean it.

What the Tories actually said was this:
http://www.conservatives.com/News/News_stories/2010/01/Conservatives_to_deliver_nationwide_superfast_broadband_by_2017.aspx

The key weasel words there are "up to 100mbps" and "the majority of homes". Roughly 50% of UK homes have cable available now, and Virgin Media are already offering headline speeds up to half that. 100Mbps by 2017 is hardly flying car territory.

They were actually responding to a Labour suggestion of universal (i.e. 100% not 50%) of UK homes getting 2Mb coverage by 2012:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7858498.stm

The Labour plan sounds less exciting but would actually be much harder to achieve (not that they'll have to - they're unlikely to get reelected and have been careful to say it only in an "interim report").

As to what orifice the PCPro writer pulled Google out of, your guess is as good as mine.

Re:Language abuse

[anaesthetica]

You fail it. (It is: getting the Calvin and Hobbes reference.)