BT goes in for what I would call trailing edge Broadband. The rest of the world is leaving us behind

I dont really blame BT. With no competition why bother with anything other then the cheapest fix and at lowest cost. The customers cannot go anywhere else as there is no competition so they still keep their market share regardlees of whether the service is adequate or not

Edited by deleted (Mon 11-Apr-11 18:59:08)

In reply to a post by Bob_s2:

BT goes in for what I would call trailing edge Broadband.

Probably not unrelated to the Great British Public being only prepared to accept trailing edge pricing.

Telecomms is no different to anything else- you get what you pay for.

Yup

Plus you'll find most other countries get additional funding

In reply to a post by Bob_s2:

The main reason for lack of interest in VOD is that current Broadband speeds do not really support it properly. Yes it can be done but the result is not good

I think that's only part of the reason. You don't actually need a very fast connection for TV. The UK average of 5Mb/s is more than the peak rate used on Freeview:

http://dtt.me.uk/

Note the average:13Mb/s for four channels. That's an average of just over 3Mb/s. Perfectly fine for SD TV as long as the ISP has the capacity.

A lot of people just prefer to watch stuff live. Either that or they just tune into a favourite channel and watch whatever comes on. You can see it with PVRs - most of them are used like VCRs - occasional use if the owners are busy doing something else. From the discussions I've seen most people just don't like the freedom and choice that comes from time shifting everything. There was also an article on TheRegister a couple of months back about a survey that suggested the same thing.

Now personally I time shift everything and I love it. I wish there was a real VoD service - not just catch-up like iPlayer but a proper service where anything and everything is available forever 24/7. It does seem though that I'm in a minority there. It really doesn't bode well for VoD. Not enough interest and even those who are interested wouldn't pay for it.

Edited by Andrue (Mon 11-Apr-11 19:30:14)

Just as this thread started to get repetitive, Beekie saves the day!

Not enough interest and even those who are interested wouldn't pay for it.

I, like you, am interested and prepared to pay for it. But I have been paying BT 26 odd quid for 18 months and got a completely useless service of just over 1 meg.

Yes a lot of people pay less, but BT can't deliver to those who are prepared to pay. More competition can only reduce their share. It seems to me it is more of a case of won't, not can't.

Woe is me, my £10 a month is not buying me cutting edge broadband - what a surprise.
Harsh words, but perhaps a grain of truth.

So we have Welwyn Garden City and Milton Keynes as two terrible broadband not-spots, strange when parts of MK are getting FTTP so someone is doing something about it, WGC has VM cable in place, and WiMAX was/is coming to parts of MK at one time.

ADSL when it started at 0.5 and 2Meg in the UK, back in 2000 was limited to 42dB attenuation lines at just 400 exchanges at launch time. Fully rate adaptive was not for some years, and the record line length is some 10km for ADSL working over it.

Where have other countries rolling out FTTC/Docsis/FTTP networks started roll-outs - densely populated areas.

TalkTalk is moving on it seems, fibre boost, am sure others will follow once take-up of FTTC means they see customers choosing the faster services.

When LLU can do the average speeds for just a tenner month though, who is going to almost double the cost of their broadband, to save a few minutes on downloads.

Only people I can see doing this are:

1. Geeks
2. Homes with multiple people using broadband
3. Those using video rental services e.g. PS3/Xbox - 8GB movies take a while at 5Mbps
4. People working from home, but don't want to buy a decent business service.

On number 4, fuel costs are getting to the point, that metro ethernet might be cheaper than commuting for some people, and give the ultra high speeds and reliability needed.

1. Geeks - will many of these live alone, constituting single occupancy?

2. Multiple users in the same home - multiple occupancy?

3. People downloading video, PS3 etc - see 1 & 2 above?

4. People working from home who won't pay for a decent connection - small businesses couldn't supply you small business prices if they were to pay for leased lines.

I wouldn't call that "only". Pensioners aside, that covers just about every domestic consumer in the UK!

The difficulty is that faster speeds will drive faster applications. But until those applications become widely adopted by the end user, where is the need for the greater speeds? Somebody has to take the bull by the horns eventually.

I wouldn't expect BT to roll out to every hamlet in the country. But if I wanted to open a health club in every small town in the UK, would it be the taxpayers job to put half the money in, on account of everyone generally needing to do more exercise?

In reply to a post by mrnelster:

Pensioners aside

Pensioners like FTTC because if they're stuck at copper speeds they can't be sure they'll have time to finish the download