2009: A Year in Broadband

A lot has happened in the UK broadband market in 2009. Here’s a quick round up of the some of the big changes in broadband that have taken place over the last 12 months.

Tiscali gets bought by TalkTalk

Poor old Tiscali spent 2008 looking for a buyer without success and its woes continued into 2009. Despite many ISPs sniffing around hoping to steal a quick march on BT, nobody was willing to dig deep in their wallets. With deals collapsing at the last minute and its parent company losing millions of Euros on the continent times looked bleak for Tiscali’s UK arm. Then TalkTalk came to the rescue at the eleventh hour and swept Tiscali of it’s feet.

Speeding Up

2009 has seen a lot of speeding. BT, Orange and PlusNet all revved up their top download speeds to 20Mbps and 24Mbps in the case of Eclipse Internet. BT also released the Broadband Accelerator speed booster pack allowing customers to benefit from a more reliable broadband experience.

Virgin Media, BT and H2O Networks lay cables

2009 was a big year for Virgin Media. Having announced its 50Mbps XXL service last December it spent much of 2009 rolling out it’s new premium service across it’s entire network. Pledges to expand the cable network to help plug broadband ‘not spots’ were also announced, as were plans to trial faster 100Mbps and 150Mbps services. Tantalisingly Virgin Media hinted that it could start offering these speeds next year.

BT also got in on the fibre optic action and started digging up roads in London’s Muswell Hill and Cardiff’s Whitchurch areas. Trials of next-gen fibre connections providing top speeds of 100Mbps also got the go ahead at a new housing development in Ebbsfleet, Kent.

H2O Networks also fired dark fibre networks in Bournemouth and Dundee. Dark fibre is a cost effective solution which could be seen UK households able to benefit from up to 100Mbps speeds without companies having to dig up massive stretches of road and cause traffic problems. Using the existing network of sewer pipes, H2O Networks has been busy cabling up over 5,000 homes and businesses in Bournemouth. Businesses in the city centre of Sheffield have also benefited from some dark fibre love.

Digital Britain and Broadband Taxes

The long-awaited Digital Britain report was finally published (in 2 parts) in 2009 and was not without controversy. The Report which outlined a roadmap for the future of of Britain’s broadband infrastructure, which would see every home in the country able to receive broadband speeds of at least 2Mbps by 2012. 2Mbps is the minimum speed required for the BBC iPlayer, meaning that every UK home would be able to watch the London 2012 Olympic Games online. That logo is still going to look awful whatever your broadband speed is. Anyway…

How this would go ahead was not made abundantly clear. The report mentioned that roll out of additional connections could be funded by a raise either in the BBC licence fee or by way of a ‘Broadband Tax’ on lines. In September is was unveiled that the government was very much in favour of the latter option, hoping to raise £175 million a year from a £6 annual duty on broadband lines.

The Digital Economy Bill and the Pirate Finder General

As well as the so-called broadband tax, there was further controversy with the Digital Economy Bill which proposed disconnecting homes which are suspected of illegally sharing copyright-protected files – chiefly music, movies and games. The bill, which has not yet been passed, has attracted criticism from ISPs including TalkTalk and Be Broadband. Because the proposals would grant the Secretary of State emergency powers to increase the jail sentences of those accused of copyright infringement, many have subbed the current Secretary Peter Mandelson the ‘Pirate Finder General’.

TalkTalk, which has issued a petition to the government, has said that the current proposals will lead to “wrongful accusations” of file-sharing at that the approach is of the ”guilty until proven innocent” nature. Be Broadband said that the proposals are “open to errors,” and is concerned about a “lack of technical understanding.” Currently there is no way to tell what types of files are being shared between individuals on a P2P network, whether it’s free and legal open source programs, or illegally obtained music and films. Andrew Heaney of TalkTalk created a proposal at petitions.number10.gov.uk, which currently has over 30,000 signatures.

O2 trials LTE: Super fast mobile broadband

Last week O2 announced trials of new technology which could revolutionise mobile broadband. LTE (Long Term Evolution) mobile broadband technology is theoretically capable of supporting top download speeds of 150Mbps on a wireless connection. This could not only change the shape of broadband on laptops and mobile phones forever but could also prove to be useful for supplying fixed-line broadband services to locations where piping cables through would be impractical or impossible. Results for this trial are due to be published in the new year so hopefully in 2010 we’ll get a better picture of the advantages LTE could bring to the broadband market.

That’s it for Broadband Finder for 2009. We’ll be back next year with some changes to the site and a few other surprises. We’d like to wish all of our regular readers and customers a Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year. See you in 2010.

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