I’d like to start this by freely conceding that given the problems going on in the world at the moment (Ukraine/Russia), complaining about the quality of internet within the UK right now might sound like a rather frivolous point. Having a crap connection to your home is one thing, but having it blown up by a missile clearly puts things into a better perspective of importance! – Attempting to put that to one side though, it is still hard to deny that as a supposed 1st-world country, the UK’s internet is currently rated as the 43rd ‘best’ (as ridiculous as that sounds) in the world. A figure that, I think many would agree, is pretty pathetic.
With the government having recently reaffirmed, only last February, its continued plan to bring ‘gigabit’ fibre to 85% of UK homes by 2025 (with total coverage by 2030) though, the snail’s pace at which that supposed ‘roll-out’ is happening clearly demonstrates that the chances of this target being achieved, at this precise moment, would appear to be optimistic at best and outright stupid at worst! – Oh, and just to put this speed factor into context, the UK government, rather quietly I might add, changed their definition of ‘gigabit’ around a year ago. Almost certainly as a means of making the target slightly more achievable.
With all this in mind, though, would a huge expansion of 5G be a far better short-to-medium-term solution than an improbable and potentially impractical fibre project?
Just to make the point clear, for those of you already feverously typing in the comments, I am not for one second suggesting that 5G should act as any kind of alternative to home fibre. The latter is, by far and away, the best long term solution. Largely because it opens the door to even more speed improvements being made in the future. – Living in a rural village, however, I am under no illusions that the chance of fibre landing on my doorstep within the next 3 years seems more than a little ridiculous.
So, stuck with fairly crap internet I am. With this in mind though, I find it more than a little frustrating that even with an upgraded copper landline broadband connection, incidentally, the first upgrade my areas phone service has probably seen in the last 40 years, the speeds I can get on my relatively cheap 5G smartphone can often exceed that (with comparable latency) by up to 10 times.
As such, I put forward the following question: Since the 85% fibre rollout target seems about as likely as me fitting into my 28″ jeans again, should the government consider utilising and/or supporting greater 5G coverage/rollout as a solid interim alternative?…
Again, I feel compelled to once again state that I’ll be jumping with joy when fibre lands at my house. Until that point though, whenever it might happen, I still view 5G as the best short-to-mid-term solution the UK has to get its internet in better order! – What are the benefits and problems this will bring though? Well, let’s take a look at some of the key factors on both sides:
Why it could work:
Why it probably won’t happen:
Why the fibre rollout has so many problems:
So, I’ve attempted to lay out my case for why 5G expansion might be a better interim solution to the UK’s internet issues while a better more practical timespan could be allowed for the much needed UK fibre rollout, but what do you think? – We’d love to hear your comments whether you agree with this sentiment or not!
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