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Fibre, not wireless
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05/03/2007
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A six month study conducted on behalf of Ofcom has determined that wireless cannot realistically compete with fibre for the provision of future broadband requirements over the whole of the last mile.
The research, led by Plextek, was commissioned to consider the transition, over the next 10 to 20 years, from today’s ADSL broadband to the future requirement, termed ‘Broadband 2.0’.
Steve Methley, a senior consultant with Plextek, said: “The last mile requirement will increasingly be one in which there is convergence of the services and platforms providing communications and entertainment to the home. Future high definition tv services are likely to demand undiluted access to streaming content at 10 to 15Mbit/s, per channel; massively in excess of what today’s ADSL systems can support. Not enough people understand that today’s ADSL is a contended service – delivered rates may fall to only hundreds of kbit/s.”
Plextek’s study concludes that Broadband 2.0 must be based on fibre and it adds this must reach further into the access network – and potentially all the way to the customer premises. Fibre can solve the contention issues by increasing back haul capacity and can solve the last mile issue by acting as a point to point solution alone, or as a feeder to DSL distribution technologies - thus effectively reducing the length of DSL lines required.
The study also finds that wireless has a role to play as a last mile feeder element, using Gbit/s wireless as a fibre replacement and within the home.
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Author
Graham Pitcher
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