330Mbps Broadband is on the Way

What happened? 

BT has named eight locations for trials of its 330M bps fiber-to-the-home broadband. The service will only be rolled out if customers are willing to pay the full installation costs. BT won't be selling the service direct at the moment, but will instead offer it to other ISPs to then resell to the public.

The announcement came as The Country Land & Business Association warned that the government is set to miss its target to get 90 per cent of the UK on broadband of at least 24M bps by 2015, with the remaining 10 per cent on at least 2M bps.

How will it affect you? 

If you're lucky enough to live in High Wycombe, Bristol South, Watford, Cardiff, Basingstoke, Manchester Central, St Agnes in Cornwall, or Waverley in Edinburgh, you could have ridiculously fast broadband. It's hard to imagine exactly what to do with 330M bps, but we're sure you'll think of something. On the f lip side, many people will continue to suffer speeds below 2M bps.

What do we think? 

These two announcements highlight the continuing digital divide in the UK, which is sure to widen unless the government overcomes the bureaucracy that blocks broadband improvements. Private firms such as BT are looking after mega-fast speeds, so the government should focus on bringing better connections to the rest of the UK, especially rural areas. In many ways, meeting the 2M bps goal is much more important than the 24M bps target.