Despite the government maintaining that the UK is on track to deliver broadband just about everywhere in the country, regulator Ofcom said economics mean that’s just not going to happen.
Ofcom said in a report that communication services are used by an average UK adult for over half of their waking hours.
That means, coverage, capacity, and reliability of the digital infrastructure are of fundamental importance to both people and to businesses.
But, said Ofcom: “The economics of networks means there are parts of the UK that will not be fully served by the market. There are also some services which may not be provided to all by the market.”
Either Ofcom or the government could intervene to make life better for people/
Ofcom said that fixed broadband technology is “almost universally available” – the average download speed is 23Mbit/s. But broadband speeds vary quite a lot, the organisatiion said.
The government aims to provide universal availability of at least 2Mbit/s – only three percent of UK sites fall below this. But this causes difficulties for those affected.
Fifteen percent of UK households can’t get 10Mbit/s speed/
Ofcom said that the government target to deliver superfast broadband to 95 percent of premises by 2017 “is an aggressive target”. About 18 percent of households still don’t access the internet, whether fixed or mobile.
