Networks review of 2010

Is the UK's broadband strategy on the road to nowhere?

There was considerable speculation following the election in May regarding how the new coalition government would untangle the knotty problem of ensuring that high-speed broadband was delivered to every citizen in the UK.

After a long wait, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), Jeremy Hunt, announced the coalition's broadband strategy, entitled Britain's Superfast Broadband Future, last month, more of which later.

BT instantly ticked off

The year began inauspiciously for UK incumbent BT following the launch of its fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) broadband service. The service, which forms the basis of the UK's optical fibre rollout, was branded Infinity, and BT's adverts promised that it would deliver 'instant internet'.

However, Infinity sparked a number of complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) most of which were a response to the claim that users could "upload and share high quality photos and videos instantly; Download their favourite music instantly; Enjoy multiple web sites and online content instantly; and stream HD movies and TV shows instantly".

The ASA said BT's claim was erroneous. BT's Infinity service cites download speeds of up to 40Mbit/s, a fair way off 'instantly', and so the claim has been removed from BT's adverts.

Everything Everywhere - including snow

Early in February as the country ground to a halt after the first serious snowfalls of 2010, the Office of Fair Trading asked the European Commission (EC) in a written request to investigate the UK aspects of the Orange UK and T-Mobile-UK joint venture, announced in September 2009.

Did the OFT seriously think that the EC, which is dominated by France and Germany, would impede a move by France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom to set up the largest mobile operator in the UK market?

Well, the deal was approved in May after the EC's blessing, and the new 'super' mobile operator combo branded as 'Everything Everywhere' launched in July, promising instant access to - well - everything everywhere. Perhaps the ASA should look into this claim, too.

BT's ducts and pensions

Also in February, BT announced it would allow other comms providers to access its infrastructure, including telegraph poles, and the network ducts connecting its exchanges to the green street cabinets.

Although BT chief executive Ian Livingstone said that allowing such access would not be the silver bullet to get fibre to every home, he did argue "that open access to all ducts, not just ours, might help BT and others extend coverage".

That "not just ours" was a challenge to BT's rival Virgin Media, the question being, if we're opening our ducts, shouldn't Virgin Media be doing the same?

As well as announcing its Q3 financial results in February, BT announced the triennial funding valuation of its pension scheme, which it would be submitting to the Pensions Regulator.

The 17-year recovery plan BT hopes will sort out its pension deficit, will see it make deficit payments of £525m per year for the first three years, £583m for the fourth year, with increments increasing at three per cent per year. BT's pension scheme was to surface later in the year, leading to 2010's most surreal headline, more of which later.

BDUK starts on the UK's next-generation network rollout

In March, a little-known organisation called Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK), set up on the back of Lord Carter's June 2009 Digital Britain report, began its task of getting the UK's network infrastructure to move to next-generation technologies.

However, the small matter of the general election had to be considered before BDUK could make its first presentation to the great and good of the comms industry scheduled for July.

The general election and UK broadband

The general election took place on 6 May 2010, and just under a week later the Liberal Democrats formed a coalition with the Conservatives.

Labour's Digital Britain plans had been for a universal service commitment (USC) of a minimum 2Mbit/s download connectivity across the UK by 2012. There was to be a next generation optical fibre rollout scheduled to reach 90 per cent of the UK by 2017, with rollout to the final third of difficult-to-reach areas, funded by a 50p per month Broadband Tax payable by everybody with a phone line on their premises.

Before getting their hands on the seals of office, the Conservatives had campaigned to scrap Labour's Broadband Tax, threatened to scrap Ofcom, and said they would look at reviewing one of the biggest impediments for optical fibre rollout by ISPs, the Valuations Office Agency business rate on optical networks - also known as the 'fibre tax'. The Broadband Tax was duly scrapped, but the VOA business rate and Ofcom issue remain largely unchanged.

The IPv4 conundrum

For the past five to 10 years there have been increasingly regular Shock! Horror! stories stemming from the fact that IPv4 internet addresses are running out.

Any device connecting to the internet needs an Internet Protocol (IP) address, and currently IPv4 is the major protocol supplying those IP addresses.

However, since the address is a 32-bit one, this limits the number of addresses to around four billion. With tthe world's end-user population increasing exponentially those addresses are running out.

The next-generation protocol able to fix this is IPv6, which has in effect an inexhaustible supply of IP addresses.

In May Computing interviewed managing director of the European regional internet registry (RIR) RIPE NCC Axel Pawlik. Asked specifically about the timeline for exhaustion of IPv4 internet addresses, Pawlik said it was two years away, contradicting the hysteria sweeping the internet during most of this year.

When Computing spoke to BT and Virgin Media, they both said everything was in hand and that they hadn't seen much demand for firms to move onto an IPv6 footing, but analysts have warned that firms should be looking at getting infrastructure ready so that they can move expeditiously to the new Internet Protocol. Expect more scare stories this year.

Hunt puts back USC 2Mbit/s rollout to 2015

In July BDUK held its first industry day at the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) in London. However, most attendees at the event were surprised when the DCMS Secretary of State Jeremy Hunt announced that the government would put back the date by which the USC should complete, to 2015.

The reason, claimed Hunt, was that Labour had under-estimated the amount of funding needed to complete the task.

At the same event Minister for Communications Ed Vaizey also stood up and announced that the VOA's fibre tax had to be revenue neutral - which meant it wouldn't be changing significantly, if at all.

BT averts strike

In August, BT and the Communications Workers Union (CWU) shook throats - sorry hands - in a deal to avert a threatened strike by CWU members who were irate at what they saw as them not benefiting from BT's profits. Unsurprisingly both sides claimed victory in the dispute.

Radio Spectrum auction put back to 2012

In November, another blow to the UK's plans to roll out so-called 4G network services surfaced, after Ofcom's head honcho Ed Richards outlined the roadmap for the radio spectrum auction at a London telecoms conference.

The auction would now occur in Q2 2012, as opposed to 2011 as originally planned, with the hope that 4G networks would be up and running by 2014.

Surreal headline of the year - BT to sue Ofcom

In November, ISP chief execs were left choking on their cornflakes after it emerged that BT was threatening to sue Ofcom if the comms regulator stopped BT from increasing the fees Openreach charges ISPs for network access. The reason for the increase in charges? It would help BT to reduce its pensions deficit.

Other ISPs were unanimous in their opposition to allowing BT to charge them for what they saw as its problem.

And the basis for BT thinking it had a good case to bump up charges for other ISPs? Chief exec Ian Livingstone [interviewed by the Financial Times] said: "One of the reasons Ofcom's fees to BT went up this year, was because Ofcom had to cover the deficit in their pension scheme. So if it's good enough for Ofcom it should be good enough for BT."

Virgin Media 100Mbit/s service launch [Buzz Lightyear broadband?]

In December Virgin Media launched its 100Mbit/s service, with pre-registration taking place in October. The lucky winners were: Heckmondwike, Farnborough, Colchester and Barry.

BT's 40Mbit/s Infinity offering launched in January, so perhaps Virgin Media should rebrand their service Buzz Lightyear Broadband - that is, 'Infinity and Beyond'.

DECC to control Smart Meter rollout

In August the government announced plans to accelerate the deployment of gas and electricity monitoring smart meters to businesses and residential premises, moving the date closer by three years to 2017.

Following this, in December it announced that the body to oversee that implementation would be the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), and not, as originally planned, the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem).

So why do we need smart meters? The theory is that we'll be able to see energy use in real-time, digitally, and be able to adjust such energy use accordingly - with the hope being that people will reduce their energy use accordingly. As if the vast increase in cost of energy hasn't resulted in that anyway.

And finally the Government's broadband strategy redacted

Early in December DCMS secretary Jeremy Hunt finally outlined the government's broadband strategy.

The major announcement saw plans for every community to be connected to an optical fibre hub, partly financed by the £830m the government is providing to make sure that rural areas also get high-speed internet access. The theory is that councils and comms providers collaborate to deliver these hubs for communities, but this announcement raises so many further questions - especially about communities, councils and comms providers, that would need another couple of thousand words to deal with the matter.

And the rest? Basically a rehash of all the announcements made throughout the year.


Another year over and deeper in debt

So there we have it, another year over, and as Britain reopens after the festive season, perhaps we should play in with the chorus from Tennessee Ernie Ford's classic ode to the coal miner - Sixteen Tons, and dedicate it to life at the coalface of the UK's economic recovery.

♫You load sixteen tons, what do you get, another day older and deeper in debt, Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go, I owe my soul to the company store.♫

So a peaceful New Year to all - but have your coal shovel raring to go for 2011.