A new study by broadband analysts Point Topic has revealed that up to four million UK homes and businesses will be connected to high speed fibre optic broadband in the next five years. It is estimated that in 2013, 20% of Britain’s 22 million broadband connections will operate under the super fast broadband service. Whilst the shift will have little impact on cable usage in the UK, the number of customers using DSL technology is likely to fall from today’s ratio of 78 percent to a mere 57 per cent, according to the report.
The projections come in the light of new fibre trials from BT and increased pressure to commit to a national fibre-based network.
Tim Johnson, chief analyst at Point Topic, explained “This is probably the first moment when it has been possible to make a plausible forecast for fibre in the UK, based on some real plans and activity”.
He added that BT’s plans to roll out fibre optic broadband to 10 million homes in the UK by 2012 was probably a little optimistic, but predicted there would be “a lot of other players coming into the market too”.
Referring to the benefits of super fast broadband, Johnson said “People will be able to mix video telephony, TV, audio, online games and virtual worlds, all high quality and high resolution, into the total experience they want at that moment. In fact it’s what today’s teenagers are trying to do right now and in a few more years the technology will catch up with them.”
The main method of installing fibre optic broadband will be FTTC, (fibre to the cabinet), whereby optical fibre is taken up to the local telephone cabinet. The cabinet is then connected to the home by copper-based high speed DSL. Broadband transmitted over a fibre-optic network is much faster than Britain’s current copper wire network, delivering speeds of between 40Mbps and 100Mbps.
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