I was in the lab part of MH at the time under an NDA. Not in the general sales/demo area. ADSL was around yes, but the VDSL was their next step. They also demonstrated Pico wifi which was similar to the current home-WiFi.

On the Backbone it is down to Ofcom to make sure all part of the backbone are upgraded, whether it's the old Racal networks, the Powergens taken over by Sky etc; not just the BT stuff. Sure people will have to pay, but Ofcom and the telcom companies are used to raising the funding.

My apologies, I have realised my mistake now,

I did mean "USC" and also got this confused with the Superfast figures, so currently the USC is 2Mb/s by 2016!

The figure I was referring too was the Superfast figure that is currently said to be 24Mb/s to 90% by 2016 rising to 95% by 2018...

I think the "loose talks" you speak of might of been where I got the 100Mb/s from.

About a month ago I had this response direct from Joe Garner in connection with Superfast Broadband:

"... To answer your question, the 80% (confirmed by Ofcom yesterday) refers to property level nationally, so neither cabinet nor exchange."

From that I presume it is 95% of property in the UK by 2018

I'm assuming it will be based on serviceable addresses using a national address database!

Please explain how Ofcom raises funding?
And how does Ofcom force Sky to upgrade its backbone?

This why the Ofcom boss is paid about twice the salary of David Cameron. Ofcom needs to get out there and make sure the UK has the infrastructure it needs to compete with other countries. Unless Ofcom provide leadership the telecoms industry will focus on short term profit.

The Ofcom consultation on the future of Digital Britain is critically important in this respect.

In the end it all comes down to money! If Ofcom allows the companies to charge consumers for the upgrade it will happen, but leadership and backup sanctions are required to avoid drift

Ofcom has never stopped Sky and TalkTalk from charging what it likes.

Ofcom price controls only apply to the dominate operators BT and KC.

On Wales maybe a look at the current ultrafast stats might help

https://twitter.com/thinkbroadband/status/6408200110...

24 Mbps or faster available to 90% of premises by end of 2015
24 Mbps or faster available to 95% of premises by end of 2017

86.2% currently (85.4% at 30 Mbps coverage)
http://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/

Yes I did wonder what is meant by "premises" or "property". A "Household" I can understand. However does a 15 storey block of flats count as one property. Does a farm house in remote Northumberland also count as one property? Does it mean a 24 mbps+ cable is connected to the premises?

The important question is however if the fibre infrastructure can support a 24 mbps demand if 95% of properties were all connected?

Joe Garner was quite clear the figure is not based on 95% of street cabinets.

I'd say a much more acceptable definition would be if 95% of households and businesses are connected to a 24 mbps link or can be connected within 30 days of order.