Openreach, OFCOM and why we’re losing the tech race…
So the boss of BT thinks everything is great in his bit of Britain, despite almost every other internet service provider suggesting that things are terribly wrong, – in 2015 we scored 13th in global internet connectivity speeds with 13Mbps as our average speed. Netflix, for example, recommend a minimum of 5Mbps just for one HD stream. Modern connected households do not always want to watch/do the same thing at once!
Ever since BT lost their monopoly the system has been weighted towards BT, because while their OpenReach division might be run as a separate business unit (and that’s not always been the case according to some) it’s been BT who’ve set the goal posts, decided what technology to offer, and it’s the other service providers who are left reselling whatever BT decided to make available. It’s not hard to see why they’re less than thrilled. Only Virgin, with their own fibre infrastructure, and a handful of other small operations with their own kit, can escape the BT OpenReach mould and actually innovate.
Quite why it’s taken years for people to realise this, and quite why even now the boss of BT is able to get away with claiming that all is well, beggars belief. The Stickler is unimpressed. OFCOM has teeth, but seems impotent. Break up this monopoly and give the internet industry the “viagra” it seeks… and watch those speeds rise up, and stay up!
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