Institute of Directors: Make broadband speeds 1000x faster than today's puny 2020 target

Anyway...

call me cynical and paint me purple, but the IoD specialists who would help compile this report no doubt have interests in the ISP / comms field, and would love to see a big old wad of tax payers cash head their way even if they've no realistic hope of delivering. I've no empirical data here, but subjectively it seems that a company can profit even if it fails to deliver on a contract to UK GOV. All that happens is that the profits are less or zero when offset against expense, certain costs are written off against tax or some such shenanigans and the news of a (on the surface of it) lucrative government contract is enough to push share prices up and somebody makes a bundle.

I've got a lovely side-line in flying monkey butlers, and I recommend that the government immediately puts out to tender a contract for Mk 2 improved flying monkey butlers to be delivered by 2030, because we should all have one by now and the government has obviously failed to ensure that this essential service is available through lack of infrastructure investment which it must seek to redress through massive capital expenditure, but obviously done with respect to EU tendering rules to ensure value for money for the taxpayer.

Gbit FTTP

We have 1 GBit FTTP available for connection to the house here; the specs look impressive and include symmetric upload/download speeds so things like online backup become an attractive option. Sadly the cabling company have done a deal with TalkTalk...

On a side note, a new gang have just been round to redo the street cabling because the previous lot skimped on the work; contrary to a current stereotype the skimpers were from Eastern Europe and the rescue work is being done by some plucky Brits.

"Our digital economy has grown in spite of, not because of, our digital infrastructure."

And that's about the point of it.

One of the biggest drivers of the separation of Telco and Linesco in the NZ version of BT and Openreach were reports from the commerce ministries about how much the monopoly abuse was costing the economy.

Such analysis seems sorely lacking from UK government bodies. The damage being done is a commercial matter, not telecommunications and OFCOM is incompetent to assess it. It's no surprise they won't cleave openreach. The NZ version of OFCOM proved equally reluctant to do so and the push came from the treasury and commerce ministries (simple lever: Any further broadband funding is contingent on separation.)

'"Very high bandwidth and world-leading speeds in remote corners of the UK will never have the same positive dynamic impact as in a concentrated bustling city centre with thriving digital businesses," said the IoD report.'

Translation: Nobody who matters lives north of Watford.

I say forget about all this cabling nonsense. I want to get my internet by DroneFi - or possibly BalloonFi, and just worry about keeping them up there.

After all, didn't those clever folks in Japan come up with a really good wireless speed?

Then OpenReach would be OutofReach.