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Superfast fibre optic broadband: Too good to be true?
Friday 30th September 2011, by Simon White
One of Britain's leading internet service providers (ISP) has suggested that superfast fibre optic broadband may not be as easy to achieve as they may have expected.
BE Broadband, the subsidiary for telecoms provider O2, has dampened hopes about the quality of its broadband upgrade plans, conceding "traffic management" could prove a hindrance to achieving the highest speeds.
In a post on the company's BE There blog, the ISP managing director Chris Stening said the firm is currently in the process of "crunching the numbers" for different routes to faster broadband customers.
However, he concedes that, while determined to be the best in the market, he does not expect BE will be able to offer the cheapest service.
Responding to demands for unlimited broadband, Mr Stening said BE's plans for fibre "have to be something unlimited and unshaped too, otherwise it simply defeats the object of having greater speed".
"It's great to be told you could get speeds up to some high level, but with traffic management it is unlikely you'll get it for long," he suggested. "Practically, we'd really like to launch our service later this year ... hopefully you'll feel it was worth the wait."
ISPs are rushing to set up superfast broadband services in a bid to capture a large segment of this emerging demand from customers early on. However, the industry continues to face criticism over its advertising of speed claims, which will no doubt make shoppers wary about any service they are offered.
Earlier this week, the Committees of Advertising Practice sought to clarify regulations on advertising broadband speeds.
The organisation said that advertisers should be able to demonstrate that at least ten per cent of customers are capable of achieving maximum speed claims.
However, providers were also told they would be allowed to make claims about unlimited service, as long as limitations are clearly explained within the advertisement.
The regulations have since been criticised by consumer watchdog Which? for giving advertisers free rein to mislead.
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