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Why is it that the tax payer has to subsidize the cost of some people getting 25Mb BB! Its stupid, its a luxury... even BB alone is a luxury so if you dont want it you dont get it, its not like we give away mobiles and sims with credit on so i dont see why we do it with BB.
Would be nice to have 25mb though... ill pay extra myself to have it though.
Originally Posted by snootyjim
Spud1 (13-05-2011)
I love how they've picked a speed 1MBps faster than ADSL's current limits
25/25 good
25/1 sod it.
□ΞVΞ□
I disagree. Broadband isn't a luxury anymore - Its practically impossible to bank/correspond with the government/run a business etc without it. While 25Mb might be a luxury having 8Mb+ shouldn't be - its essential.
nichomach (16-05-2011)
If the Government didn't step in the third of housholds that aren't commerically viable will never get any sort of upgrades. The mobiles and sims is bad comparison as it doesn't cost billions to cover lower populated areas with mobile coverage.
Normally someone will come along and say that those of us living in areas that can't get good broadband should move to somewhere we can. As if that is a sensible and viable option.
nichomach (16-05-2011)
Yeah right. It will probably be up to 25 which will actually be 4...
TaintedShirt (15-05-2011)
It should be a lot sooner than that. Come on, if we can't keep pace with the rest of the world, then we have no hope.
We need to catch up before we can talk about "keeping pace" with the rest of the world...
It's good to see investment into something worth while. If only they could put the same effort into keeping the web open, we have a chance of making progress when everyone is able to collaborate.
Pretty sure that the government basic cost of living breakdown now has broadband on it so whilst some may choose to do without it, the majority won't.
What about paying taxes for schooling - let's say that they make you pay it for 18 years to cover the cost of your own education but after that you don't/can't have kids then it's hardly fair to have to keep paying. Not even considering maternity leave, hospital bills, etc.
You can't pick and choose which public services to support, it's either in or out I'm afraid. BT should have pulled their fingers out years ago and now whine to the government when they don't offer a competitive service.
Sales person from BT recently rang me to try to convince me to change and when I said I downloaded large legitimate files (steam games, etc) she said well we offer 10gb. Lol, star wars the force unleashed was a 27gb download (too big and a crap port of a crap ps3 game, but for another time). PC Pro published a survey a few months back that said the average montly download now was 17gb or so.
All very well, but how many people can afford this super fast broadband?! I have 8Mb Unlimited for £15 per month, and that is the most I can afford so unless they're going to make the ISPs offer better rates then that is my lot! Not that I actually get 8Mb you understand, more like 5 on a good day!
Sorry but I have to agree with Hicks here - I really don't agree with the taxpayer picking up the bill for this expansion, it's NOT a public service, maybe when the telephone service was nationalised - but broadband is is strictly a private sector venture.
By all means the government should be able to buy a bigger share of BT's network infrastructure business, and invest that way (so that a return can be made on the investment), but effectively a straight handout? Bad idea in my opinion, especially given the current economic state of the world.
I also disagree that broadband is a necessity - you can nearly claim that the internet is, but the vast majority of the internet is accessible via a 56k modem - it's not a necessity to have flash (in fact it's a benefit to NOT have it!), streaming video/audio, fast downloads. You can bank, access government gateway services, send/receive email, search google..heck you can do all that on a 14.4k modem if you are prepared to wait a while.
Stupid policy that won't work anyway - if 90% of households have 25mb internet by 2016 i'll eat my hat and a whole lot more besides.. Surprised this has come out of the con/lib government..sounds much more like a labour policy when wasting this much money!
From what I read of the article the money is set aside for local authorities to invest... " "We have set aside the money and the expertise to make this happen," said Hunt. "Now local authorities need to step up to the plate by bringing forward their own plans setting out how they will deliver this level of ambition." "
That doesn't sound like a straight handout to me...
It's there in that quote though - "we have set aside the money and expertise to make this happen" - so they will be spending extra money on it directly, rather than investing it.
It really is like it's being treated as upgrading the road infrastructure, or recruiting more firemen - things that truly are public services..
Setting aside money does not indicate how it is going to be used. The second sentence Hunt utters, after the first one you focused on, furthers the context to indicate authorities would decide how to use the money. Maybe some area's will use it as you mention and possibly others will be more enterprising. All we can say is that tax payers money will be used to improve broadband.
When dealing with political language you should never assume anything, because there is no substance to what is being said. It is deliberately vague.
I believe that in this day and time, broadband should be available (to buy) in every home. However I disagree that 8Mbit is "essential". If you are running a business, you don't expect any subsidies. And for your email, banking and other modern day essential even 512kps is adequate. Certainly, I would not object to this country having much faster connections, but that -has- to be weighted against truly essential services.
[The reason I am in favour of national broadband access - unless it is absurdly economically prohibitive - for instance, lone isolated farm in the country side, is because I do believe that people should be able to buy broadband access for a flat monthly fee]
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