If we want growth in the UK we should invest in large scale infrastructure projects, but not the sort that cut 20 minutes off the journey from Birmingham to London. We should invest in infrastructure that allows cheap high definition video conferencing between Birmingham and London cutting the journey time between the two largest Cities in the UK to 0 minutes. This would also cut the journey time between Edinburgh and London to 0, Bognor Regis to Cockermouth to 0, Dicks Mount to Crapstone….etc. etc.

The existing broadband links in this country are generally very Crapstone. I know this because until recently I spent half my working life talking to support lines at ISPs and explaining to clients that the issues they are having are down to their Internet connections. Tech Support Group now looks after enough clients that at any one time at least one is having an issue with their broadband (3 Clients). Broadband problems in the UK come in many flavours the most common of which are slow speed, high latency, intermittent dropped connection or complete failure. All are annoying, all slow down business and cost money and all are avoidable.

It is possible to install a decent Internet connection in the UK (If you are in the right part of a city) as you can install fibre links. Not the fake fibre that BT are bandying around under the name Infinity. Infinity works by pulling a fibre link to a “nearby” distribution box from which they use the same old copper pair that your old broadband circuit runs on to get the connection into your house or office. This method of delivering fibre is a metaphor for BT as a whole: Its half a job, crap and lazy. If we took this approach to building the new high speed train link between London and Birmingham we would build a 200 mile per hour stretch of track which would convert to a 5 mile per hour track 30 miles outside of Birmingham (…this is probably what we are doing, isn’t it?). Those numbers are proportionally about right, with the right kit you can put 1000mb down a fibre link but you can only get 40mb down a copper pair. Real end to end fibre, the sort enjoyed by Tech Support Groups more affluent clients costs ~£2500 to install then ~£600 a month and delivers between 25mb and 100mb synchronous, reliable, silky connectivity. Of course most small offices and households can not afford these fibre connections so we settle for copper pair asynchronous unreliable broadband.

In some other countries such as Japan, Finland, Korea, Sweden… you can get real end to end fibre installed in your house or small office without breaking the bank.

To be continued