PAUL CHURM BROADBAND ROLLOUT
SUPERFAST BROADBAND HOW TO ENSURE SWIFT ROLLOUT
The pressure on the UK’s broadband network has been intense throughout 2020 and 2021, and will only continue post-pandemic as increasing numbers of homeowners and tenants hybridise home and office-based working. Yet with the UK’s current copper-based infrastructure unable to cope with skyrocketing levels of data demand, new alternatives need to be rolled out quickly. Taking this into account, Paul Churm , Telecommunications Specialist at REHAU Telecommunications UK, explores the technologies available to ensure a fast and effective superfast broadband rollout.
A ccording to figures from the UK’s Office of National Statistics last year, 46.6% of people in employment worked from home in some capacity. But with many reliant on fast internet speeds to effectively carry out their day-to-day duties, a lack of fast broadband speeds could impact both their own and their companies’ overall productivity. Many organisations forced to adapt working habits during the pandemic have taken lessons from this disruption, and now plan to hybridise employee working conditions to include both home and office working. This can be seen from a recent BBC survey of the UK’s 50 biggest employers, where 86 percent of respondents – 43 firms – said they do not plan to bring staff back to the office on a full-time basis.
landline phone communications in mind, rather than the high-speed internet that is now required.
are no longer a luxury for UK householders – they are a necessity.
This is further underlined by the growth of smart, data-intensive technologies that are being introduced into the country’s homes. According to Market Watch, the worldwide smart home device sector is set to rocket in value, growing from US$55billion in 2016 to US$174 billion by 2025, with the UK’s own smart home market – which was worth over £900 million in 2017 – also set for massive expansion.
GIGABIT CAPABILITY
Statistics from a February 2021 Ipsos MORI report into the Government’s Superfast Broadband Programme also make for interesting reading in this regard. Specifically, while the report shows that while 96 percent of UK homes can access superfast broadband, a previous Ofcom report calculated that 11 million compatible households are missing out on this potentially transformational technology. With the Government pledging to ensure all UK homes have access to gigabit-capable broadband by 2025, the question is simple – how do we ensure these 11 million hard-to- reach homes can be connected? One long-standing option for homeowners could be multimedia over coax (MoCA), which uses copper wiring surrounded by a concentric conducting shield and insulation. Thicker than a standard copper wire this coax cable can transmit larger data packets quicker to the home than its thinner counterpart, which was designed with the phone in mind.
FUTUREPROOFING AND RECOVERY
With Market Watch’s projections in mind, uptake of smart technologies has doubtlessly increased since this report was first published. Additionally, innovation within this sector continues apace, with increasingly data-intensive technologies arriving on the market with each passing year. It is therefore clear that the twin pressures of hybrid working and the fast-growing smart technology market represent major challenges for the UK’s broadband infrastructure, which is predominantly copper-based. This is further exacerbated by the fact the network was built with older technologies like cable television and
SMART HOMES
The fact that flexible smart work models are here to stay is bound to have massive repercussions in a country where only 15% are currently connected to superfast fibre- optic broadband. Simply put, the events of 2020 have shown that fast internet speeds
10
| ISSUE 24 | Q2 2021
www.opticalconnectionsnews.com
Made with FlippingBook. PDF to flipbook with ease