High Fibre for All
I am staggered by the number of people that seem to think people are responsible for their level of broadband service because they live or choose to live in an area where there is poor broadband.
When I last moved there wasn't ADSL broadband, only dial-up.
In the last 10 years broadband has boomed and changed how we live and although 56Kbps dialup was sufficient initially, now I get emails that would take the best part of a day to download at that speed. I wouldn't even attempt to download todays Microsoft Service Packs at that speed.
I cannot think of another invention which has had such a fast impact on our lives. It has led to a huge number of people owning computers, the creation of some of the biggest companies and and the birth of many innovative and worthwhile businesses. (El Reg as the most worthwhile obviously!)
So whereas 1Mbps seemed like luxury initially, it is not really sufficient today. Soon, with the advent of streaming high definition video content etc, 50Mbps is going to seem like a throttled connection. However, until the market in the those burbs where you can get 50Mbps becomes saturated with so many companies that it becomes unviable to update to any higher speeds, those of us in the rural areas will still be stuck on what will become an unusable speed connection.
We've see what a shambles that the market led industries with shoddy watchdogs has given us in terms of Water/Sewage, Gas, Electricity and Rail: Poor infrastucture, frequent shortages, intermittent services and rising costs.
There is an opportunity with fibre to provide an upgradable service to all of exchanges in the UK providing at least the infrastructure to provide high speed broadband universally. BT, the only carrier in the country with this ability say they will not do it and so it is down to the government to enforce the upgrade.
If not, then many businesses will start to become less viable, as services they will need cannot be provided to areas beyond the burbs, and as the market for LLU saturates, perhaps those beyound the cities will start to feel the restrictions.
It is short-sighted not to invest in fibre. Other countries will do it and their economies will overtake ours as it becomes more apparent to business that the internet is critical to their survival. For example, why would an international company invest in a country which cannot provide the ability for its employees to work remotely.
The same goes for mobile broadband.
It is not just rural communities. As others have pointed out, you get blackspots in cities. It is a postcode lottery - and as such almost discrimatory.
Yes it is worth subsidising fibre. It is not just TV and illegal downloads that the net is used for.