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Only BT can really benefit from high speed nationwide broadband
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Dennis .
Posted: 08 February 2012 14:24:42(UTC)
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Long term it is clear that optical fibre is the way forward to deliver multichannel on demand and personalised services to the home. No radio or satellite technology can compete on a truly large scale. This means that BT is strategically placed to benefit given its existing infrastructure and ownership of poles, ducts etc. (the largest cost element in installing cables and fibres is digging the trenches and doing the "civils" part of the job).
For companies such as Virgin it makes sense to compete in large towns and conurbations but beyond that BT has such an advantage that they will clean up (regulator permitting).
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Spartacus
Posted: 08 February 2012 16:48:47(UTC)
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Radio including satellite is by it's nature a shared medium and thus a natural performance bottleneck. In addition geostationary satellite add a very significant latency to internet traffic so it'll never be anything but a niche player.

Long term it does look like the good old BT network will be a valuable commodity, but competitors feel they have the right to use the bits of it they want and at a low price. I'm sure I could build a successful business by renting shelf space in Tesco at a peppercorn rent...
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terence radley
Posted: 10 February 2012 13:18:14(UTC)
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Joined: 08/02/2012(UTC)
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Knowing BT of old I would agree I hate them! Bit like Tescos - anything for a buck.
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Dave Buchanan
Posted: 10 February 2012 17:09:12(UTC)
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As Spartcus points out the regulatory framework was established to avoid BT having monopoly powers in the network by forcing them to offfer use of their network at a regulated price.
BT's argument over high speed is that it has to build and then hope 'they will come' therefore it bears all the risk so they should get more benefit from the investment - e.g. a higher price or some first mover advantage.
The alternative is to get the government to build a fibre network [???] or the Uk outside of major urban conorbations gets used to the current bandwidth.
I am no friend of BT but don't see why they should be criticised in this instance anyway. They have 'holes in the ground' and customer names and they have to leverage those assets as best they can.
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1 user thanked Dave Buchanan for this post.
Harri on 11/02/2012(UTC)
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