By Mark Collins, Director of Strategy and Public Affairs, CityFibre
RECENTLY, Ofcom revealed that over the past decade, Britons have evolved into tech addicts. According to the regulator’s latest digital dependency report, the average adult now checks their smartphone every 12 minutes, one-fifth spend more than 40 hours a week online and more than two-thirds consider internet access to be an essential part of their life.
While many will feel nostalgia for days gone by, it’s important we acknowledge the positive impact technological progress has delivered over the past decade. Information is now at our fingertips, our loved ones are at the touch of a button and technology can help us live better and enjoy much more flexible working lives.
The future looks pretty bright when the potential is endless. But, for this potential to be realised, there are some pretty basic barriers that still need to be addressed.
Today, the UK ranks 35th globally for broadband speeds, which, frankly, is unsurprising given that around 96 per cent of the nation’s premises still depend on pre-internet copper infrastructure for their internet connection.
This situation now starting to change as industry, government and regulators work together to make the environment more conducive to next-generation infrastructure investment. In fact, the Chancellor, Phillip Hammond, in recent weeks has announced new targets that will see every premise in the UK connected to full fibre by 2033.
So what is this “full fibre”? Physically, full fibre delivers an uninterrupted fibre connection all the way from the exchange to your premise, while “part fibre” uses fibre to a street cabinet, then a copper cable (or in some cases aluminium) from a street cabinet to the premise.
This difference is crucial.Technologically, full fibre is faster, more reliable, capable of providing near limitless bandwidth and as fast at downloading as it is at uploading. Part fibre, on the other hand, tends to be slower, less reliable and more limited in terms of bandwidth due to the final copper cable taking it to your home. In other words, it is unfit for the digital age.
Encouragingly, this basic foundation – digital infrastructure in the form of gold standard full fibre networks specifically built to carry data – is starting to be built across the UK, albeit a decade or so later than our European neighbours.
However, this process is being held back by antiquated advertising rules that are leaving people confused about the connection they are paying for.
Currently under Advertising Standards Authority guidelines (which it chose to uphold in November), advertisers are not required to distinguish between full fibre and part fibre when marketing a broadband service, even though they are worlds apart in terms of reliability, speed and capacity.
At CityFibre, we believe this is fundamentally misleading. You wouldn’t call a “hybrid” car “electric”, so why can you can a copper connection “fibre”? The Scottish Affairs Select Committee agrees. In its latest Digital Connectivity in Scotland report released on July 23, 2018, it argued that the ASA should “revisit” its decision to allow last-mile copper solutions to be referred to as fibre broadband, because “as more companies offer full fibre services it is important that customers know exactly what they are paying for.”
This month, we launched our campaign to “unearth the Coppersaurus” and end this practice. Consumers are driving the digital revolution and they deserve to know the truth about the services they pay for and have their say on the advertising rules. It’s time the ASA listened to them.
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