Re: Shonky speed illustrations
Gigabit network here - I could shift 7Gb in under a minute.
Admittedly, it's an internal network with well-specified hardware, but that's do-able.
Also, patch download times and Google load times? I question your network setup. INSTALLATION time is an entirely different matter and nothing to do with the Internet line, but download should be at line-speed from any Microsoft update server. And Google used to tell you the page generation times, but if it's not an instant-return, you need to fix your connection.
Although I agree in principle, a Gigabit line is enough to run a HUGE workplace from quite happily, and everyone to get something they consider blazing fast in terms of Internet. I'm in a school with a 100Mbps leased line (symmetric, but I'm automatically removing symmetric scenarios like uploading), and with proper management it's instant and fast and the only delay is actually our web filter (which downloads, interrogates, then relays, so it adds latency - but speed tests still return near-line-speed once the connection is downloading).
And although it's different on the ISP line, we've been handling Gigabit connections connected to a central location with hundreds of such connections for years. Admittedly it's Ethernet-backend but those kinds of connections are far from unusual and Gigabit-to-the-desktop has been my minimum spec for nearly a decade now. If a £20 switch from Amazon can handle it, I'm sure the expensive telco equipment can do too.
Now they have to push it through to a series of peering points, sure, and those are large, sure, but that's always been the case and it's basically the POINT of an ISP or telco to have that expensive gear and push it down to us. We've gone from 56K to 10Mbps being standard in a matter of two decades, and that's a 182-fold increase. In that time, the ISP backend must have increased at least 182-fold as well, and that's not something that's ever going to stop until we hit technical barriers (given that sub-ocean cables are capable of taking much more with no visible upper limit yet, we shouldn't need to worry about getting from BT headquarters to Telehouse Docklands, for example, for a long time yet).
Cost? Of course it's not going to be cheap. But that's the point - ISPs buy the big expensive pipes, and squeeze all their customers down it, and charge them a percentage. And I guarantee they still have plenty of room for profit, other services, installations, equipment upgrades, etc. by doing just that.
But Gigabit to the home is a reality in many countries, with comparable distances to cover and comparable peering arrangements, and they can even do it cheaper than BT can.
Past gigabit hasn't really been necessary or properly standardised yet, mostly because even most PC's can't do more than gigabit themselves, let alone home networking gear, but it's nowhere near being unachievable.
That it HASN'T been done in the UK is more a sign of profit-over-investment, and an incumbent telco, rather than physical capability.