Superfast broadband in the UK: the realistic picture

A more interesting development, with potential for widespread high-speed net connections, is the first few experiments in Next Generation Access, or NGA. Improvements such as BT’s 21CN are aimed at helping the core of the phone network improve, making it possible to bring higher speeds to the local exchange.

NGA is about improving that last link, from the exchange to the home or office, usually by replacing some or all of it with a fibre-optic link.Two acronyms you’ll hear a lot about in this context are FTTH (fibre to the home) and FTTC (fibre to the cabinet, also sometime referred to as fibre to the kerb).

The first of those is pretty self-explanatory – the connection into your home will be by a fibre-optic cable, providing much faster speeds than other connection methods.

And it’s not science fiction – at a new development in Kent called Ebbsfleet Valley BT has committed to a trial where 10,000 new homes will have direct-fibre connections, providing them with 100Mbits/sec connections.

Pricing is yet to be set, but the system is due to go live in August 2008 – and it’s something that could be rolled out in future to other new-build developments. But as BT told us, it doesn’t anticipate huge amounts of internet data being downloaded – in its view there aren’t that many compelling uses for such a fast connection right now.

Instead, it thinks the main use will be for delivering things such as high-definition TV, with a 100Mbits/sec pipe allowing several different HD streams to be viewed in different rooms simultaneously. At the home a device called an Optical Network Terminal (ONT) connects to the fibre, and, as well as an Ethernet connection for data, can provide other connections for telephone and video services.

Sadly, while FTTH is a great technology, there are problems that mean it can’t be used everywhere in the UK. In many cases, though, FTTC is an attractive alternative.

In this system, the links to the local junction boxes – those familiar, green street cabinets – are replaced by fibre, bringing the high-speed connection much closer to the home, and making possible something known as VDSL, or Very High Speed DSL.

Essentially, this is a variant of the ADSL and SDSL that most users are used to, but since it’s running over much shorter cables, far higher speeds can be reached, up to around 50Mbits/sec.

Investment problem
Fibre is undoubtedly one of the most future-proof ways of delivering connectivity at the moment – but there’s a potential problem. BT Openreach, which owns the network, is a privatised company, like the rest of BT. As such, it’s expected to create a return for its shareholders.

Under the current regulations, though, if BT rolls out a new service on its network, then it’ll be expected to make it available wholesale to all comers – so just as any ISP that resells BT’s ADSL service will be able to resell services on the 21CN network later this year, so they’ll be able to resell any services built on a future BT FTTH network. And that’s just what will happen around August in Ebbsfleet.

For BT – and for the rest of the country – this presents a thorny problem. What’s the incentive for BT to invest billions of pounds upgrading the local network to fibre when it will have to allow other companies to come in and profit off the back of that investment?

It won’t be a small investment either, with some figures suggesting £10bn for fibre to the local cabinets, which would support VDSL, and £15bn for fibre to the home.