UK government makes 10Mb/s broadband a legal right - Sensationalist Headlines

[url]http://www.bit-tech.net/news/tech/networking/uk-government-makes-10mbs-broadband-a-legal-right/1/[/url] [QUOTE][B]The UK government has announced that high-speed broadband connectivity - defined as 10 megabits per second (10Mb/s) and upwards - will become a legal right from 2020, as a Universal Service Obligation (USO).[/B] Announced late yesterday by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DMCS), the new Universal Service Obligation (USO) would require that everyone in the UK has access to internet service providers (ISPs) offering connections no slower than 10Mb/s by 2020. Any region with connectivity slower than this will see enforced investment in speeding up their connectivity ahead of the deadline. [/QUOTE]

Awesome, finally some good news in the UK

Man, uh, if only we Americans were that lucky to have [I]any[/I] government officials with common decency

Fun fact there is actually [url=https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/information-for-industry/telecoms-competition-regulation/general-authorisation-regime/universal-service-obligation]already a legal right to internet in the UK[/url] [sp]at 28.8 kbps[/sp]

Says nothing about the prices they'll enforce on people.

yay only 2 and a bit years till i can leave my 300kb/s download and 100 kb/s upload speeds behind

[QUOTE=WJS;52997960]yay only 2 and a bit years till i can leave my 300kb/s download and 100 kb/s upload speeds behind[/QUOTE] I still can't believe there are people in developed countries that still have internet speeds that slow. And that includes here in the United States. I live in a mostly rural state and most people still have access to 10+ Mbps. Heck, I have gigabit down. :v:

God I love my 36kb/s upload speed. On a good day I get 45! :speedfap:

I had satellite internet in the US for years, 1Mb/s was a good day. Things like this make me think it may be worth moving overseas.

[QUOTE=FordLord;52998262]I had satellite internet in the US for years, 1Mb/s was a good day. Things like this make me think it may be worth moving overseas.[/QUOTE] Average internet speed nationwide is 12.6mb/s. Most relatively cheap, non-satellite services will get your more than that anyway.

Hopefully it has provisions for reliability and capacity too. I'm on 10Mb/s here but that doesn't mean shit when the rains come and shut the whole thing down or when it's prime time and everyone in the area trying to use the internet at once slows it down to dial up speeds.

[QUOTE=Demache;52998020]I still can't believe there are people in developed countries that still have internet speeds that slow. And that includes here in the United States. I live in a mostly rural state and most people still have access to 10+ Mbps. Heck, I have gigabit down. :v:[/QUOTE] What i cant believe is the fact that there are datacaps in 2018

So you can access all those government warnings about websites blocked for "offensive content" even faster after they implement their "porn filter." It's great that they're doing this, but when they're actively working to censor the internet and messaging programs, it makes me wonder if they're not just doing this in an attempt to make people forget about those things.

[QUOTE=Adarrek;52998547]What i cant believe is the fact that there are datacaps [B]in 2018[/B][/QUOTE] What is the future like? Did we get Trump?

They enforce 10mbs speed but then try to take away our porn what the hell.

[QUOTE=Demache;52998020]I still can't believe there are people in developed countries that still have internet speeds that slow. And that includes here in the United States. I live in a mostly rural state and most people still have access to 10+ Mbps. Heck, I have gigabit down. :v:[/QUOTE] I live close to a city centre in Australia and I'm lucky to get the same speeds as WJS on a good day. It's extra frustrating for a lot of people here because our current government has been trying it's hardest to make the rollout of a new network started by the previous government as slow and horrible as possible. Lucky I'll be on the new network by mid next year but the wait has been really annoying because it could have happened years ago with a better network and better speed.

What exactly does it mean to be a "legal right?" Let's say I live out in the country somewhere, far from any city or even town. Can I sue the government for not providing me with 10Mb/s internet?

[QUOTE=sgman91;52999520]What exactly does it mean to be a "legal right?" Let's say I live out in the country somewhere, far from any city or even town. Can I sue the government for not providing me with 10Mb/s internet?[/QUOTE] Exactly. This will be vague because I highly doubt legislators know/care about the tech. You can get "10"Mbps but due to contention ratios and other factors you might not even get half of that. Can you sue then? Officially you are being given 10.

[QUOTE=sgman91;52999520]What exactly does it mean to be a "legal right?" Let's say I live out in the country somewhere, far from any city or even town. Can I sue the government for not providing me with 10Mb/s internet?[/QUOTE] To be honest this feels like a karmic follow up of promises of "up to" specific speeds. Fluctuations may make sense, but providers in many countries will not provide you with the "possible" speeds for even majority of the time.

I dont think that 1.25MB/s is an acceptable form of "broadband" maybe its just me but i define broadband as speeds of at least 2MB/s

Here in greece unless you are in the city center or one of the big cities like athens or thessaloniki you are screwed with a internet speed of 1mbps or even less in some areas unless you sign on a contract for extra speeds. And dont get started if the area only has one isp cable in range creating a monopoly where they dont have improve anything and they know that the consumers cant change to any other isp so they take their sweet time fixing any issues with the internet if any show up.

As someone who's connection fluctuates ridiculously frequently between 50kb/s to 2.5mb/s (and this is despite having had fibre-optic cabling installed almost two years ago), this is most welcome news.

What would that be in Mbit? I got 100Mbit now and usually download at 20 mb/s on Steam, so would that make 50Mbit a legal right? I'm not the best at maths so I'm probably wrong

[QUOTE=Zovox;52999880]What would that be in Mbit? I got 100Mbit now and usually download at 20 mb/s on Steam, so would that make 50Mbit a legal right? I'm not the best at maths so I'm probably wrong[/QUOTE] That means you have ten times faster speed than legally required. Congratulations. You just need to read the snippet from the article.

[QUOTE=dingusnin;52997956]Says nothing about the prices they'll enforce on people.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=TacticalBacon;52998492]Hopefully it has provisions for reliability and capacity too. I'm on 10Mb/s here but that doesn't mean shit when the rains come and shut the whole thing down or when it's prime time and everyone in the area trying to use the internet at once slows it down to dial up speeds.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=NGC;52999571]Exactly. This will be vague because I highly doubt legislators know/care about the tech. You can get "10"Mbps but due to contention ratios and other factors you might not even get half of that. Can you sue then? Officially you are being given 10.[/QUOTE] The [url=https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/634016/USO_consultation_document.pdf]latest draft[/url] (subject to change in the final version) addresses all of these points [quote]● A proposed minimum download speed of at least 10Mbps (Section 3); ● Proposed additional quality parameters of [B]1Mbps upload speed, minimum standards for latency, a maximum sharing between customers (a ‘contention ratio’ of 50:1), and data cap of at least 100GB per month[/B] (Section 3); ● The technologies which can deliver the USO. Given the proposed specification of the USO, FTTP, FTTC (VDSL and LR-VDSL), fixed wireless and mobile technologies are expected to be in scope, but based on its current capabilities, we expect that satellite is not. (Section 4); ● A proposed [B]cost threshold of £3,400 per premise[/B], and that demand aggregation should be an essential feature of USO implementation to ensure as many people who want to get connected, do get connected (Section 5); ● That there should be [B]uniform pricing[/B] for the USO (Section 6);[/quote] According to Ofcom's model, this would leave 99.8% of the UK with speeds above 10Mbit, while 0.2% of properties would be above the cost threshold of £3,400 and would have to pay the rest of the installation cost themselves [QUOTE=sgman91;52999520]What exactly does it mean to be a "legal right?" Let's say I live out in the country somewhere, far from any city or even town. Can I sue the government for not providing me with 10Mb/s internet?[/QUOTE] AFAIK it means that ISPs are legally required to deliver a 10Mbit service to your property, as long as the cost of doing so doesn't exceed £3,400. We already have USOs for phone and dialup so it would be similar to how they work

[QUOTE=LittleBabyman;52999888]That means you have ten times faster speed than legally required. Congratulations. You just need to read the snippet from the article.[/QUOTE] Oh shit I'm dumb But it does say [B]10 megabits per second (10Mb/s)[/B], 10Mbit aint the same as 10Mb/s though I googled and 10Mbit would mean download speeds around 1.25Mb/s, it's not much but hopefully it will mean that higher speeds will be cheaper

[QUOTE=Zovox;53000115]Oh shit I'm dumb But it does say [B]10 megabits per second (10Mb/s)[/B], 10Mbit aint the same as 10Mb/s though I googled and 10Mbit would mean download speeds around 1.25Mb/s, it's much but hopefully it will mean that higher speeds will be cheaper[/QUOTE] 10 megabits per second is 10 Mb/s. The small b means bits, and the large B means bytes. So 10 Mb/s equals 1.25 MB/s. 8 bits in a byte.

The only problem with making this a law is that they'll get to those speeds then stop pushing the tech much like our minimum speed for broadband was woefully outdated for years

Hopefully it means my area can finally get a VDSL cabinet, at the moment the only decent provider is a SLU (they install their own equipment) which basically makes them a monopoly and they can charge what they like with no competition. Also I'd kill for 1.25MB\s, best I can get at the moment is ~250kB\s on a good day which is barely usable.

You know what's really spurred competition in home internet in Canada? A decision from the CRTC that Bell/Rogers have to allow third-party ISPS full access to the "last mile" of infrastructure. Before this decision in 2011, 3rd parties were limited to a maximum speed of 7Mbps, but could offer unlimited data usage, whereas Bell charged for usage. In 2011, Bell petitioned to charge these 3rd parties usage as well, which would have basically killed them and ruined our internet. The CRTC initially approved this, but the Conservative government told the CRTC "If you don't change your mind on this, we'll legislate a change in your mind for you." So the CRTC, seemingly to spite Bell for making the government angry at them, did a complete 180 and not only told Bell they can't charge usage for 3rd parties, they also have to stop capping their speeds. This meant that by 2012 Bell, who hadn't offered an unlimited usage plan in years, was forced to offer unlimited usage to compete with prominent 3rd party ISPs like Teksavvy who offered unlimited usage. Within just one year this decision had a profound effect on the "Big" ISPs (Rogers/Bell in Ontario, Shaw/Telus out west). Now Bell has actually put direct Fibre in almost all of Toronto. We went from 25/10 to 300/100 just last month, and we're paying $15 per month less than before. Competition, rather than government mandates on service levels, is what truly spurs development, however sometimes a government mandate is needed to ensure that competition is present in the market. I know if Bell had had their way in 2011, we'd be paying some of the highest prices in the world for internet in Canada right now.