Broadband Britain - Ofcom Report
For show 93 of FrequencyCast, we delve into Ofcom's annual report into the state of the UK's broadband and mobile networks.
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Listen to FrequencyCast Show 93 - Broadband Britain Report
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Ofcom's Annual Report:
A transcript of our look at the Ofcom report, from Show 93:
Pete:
FrequencyCast show 93. Hello Kelly, you're looking well.
Kelly:
Thank you, Pete – you too.
Pete:
And you survived all the UK storms, then?
Kelly:
Of course I did. I'm like a superhero. I would like, just fly through it.
Pete:
We, of course, were very worried. We're in the south of England, and we had all the storm warnings. Anything bad your way? – I was fairly safe, but anything your way, trees or anything?
Kelly:
I saw one tree down. A couple of fences were down as well. I actually had a very funny moment where I had a panic attack that my conservatory roof was coming off, because I could hear this crashing and banging. I ran all the way out into the kitchen to check, only to find out it was the washing machine coming to the end of its cycle!
Pete:
And you obviously don't recognise the noise of your washing machine, then?
Kelly:
Clearly not! That's how often I do it.
Pete:
Fair enough. Well, we survived. Did you keep up-to-date with any of the news while it was all happening? Were you watching the telly, or listening to the radio, or anything?
Kelly:
I was. I did see a lot of the broadcast updates, because I was unable to travel into work, so I was working from home, so what better way to keep up-to-date than to switch the TV on while working?
Pete:
Well, I had my BBC local radio station on, because telly just seemed to be full of people saying, send us your pictures, tell us what's happening. Local radio was very good, but Twitter was where it was all about - #ukstorm was the most up-to-date way of getting any information; no need for local radio.
Kelly:
Well no, but there was also quite a lot of, oh dear, there's a storm – my gnome fell over.
Pete:
Tempered by people saying, do you not realise what's going on in the rest of the country? Sorry, local radio, but I was on Twitter.
Kelly:
Ah well, I think that's where everyone is now.
Pete:
And talking about where everyone is, we're going to talk about an Ofcom document that was released three or four days ago. Have you read it, Kelly?
Kelly:
No.
Pete:
Why not? – it's only 104 pages long.
Kelly:
Oh, really? – and have you read the entire thing?
Pete:
You had to ask, didn't you? Well, they've got this summary sheet on the front – I skimmed that, but apart from that, no. They do this every year, and it's actually quite an interesting little snapshot on the state of the UK, so they look at broadband, mobile internet, digital radio, digital TV, and because that's our turf, I think it's worth a quick look. What do you reckon?
Kelly:
Yeah, why not?
Pete:
OK. I'm going to ask you some questions here. What percentage of people in the UK do you think are connected to the internet via broadband?
Kelly:
I would say approximately, 80%
Pete:
92% - so a lot of people with broadband. I'm worried about the other 8%, though. Does that mean they're not on the internet at all? – or they use dial up? Do you remember dial up?
Kelly:
I do remember dial up. I'm also quite grateful that dial up barely exists. I think, though, there's still a lot of people in the older age category that don't really want to embrace technology, and so they probably are that 8%, no?
Pete:
I hope you're counting Carl in that, who still doesn't have the internet?
Kelly:
That's true! I feel a bit bad, kind of counting him in the aging population, but yes, Carl in that one as well.
Pete:
OK, so 92% are on broadband. What percentage do you think are on fibre, the high-speed stuff?
Kelly:
15 to 20?
Pete:
Not bad. It's actually called superfast, and the definition of that is anything that's over 30 megabits per second. 73% of the UK can get it, they're in range of fibre, but only 22% have actually made the jump to superfast broadband, although that has doubled since last year. I'm guessing you're superfast, are you?
Kelly:
Of course!
Pete:
Because you're Virgin, is that right?
Kelly:
Yes, but don't start taking that in wrong ways!
Pete:
As I said it, I knew you'd pick up on that one. So there you go, 22% have moved over to speeds of faster than 30 megabits per second. The UK average is only 17 megabits per second, but of course there are lots of people out in the sticks there that struggle to get one megabit per second, poor lot. I reckon they should move.
Kelly:
Yeah, I think so, or at least beg, request, write a lot of letters, to get some faster broadband.
Pete:
Indeed. Apparently, according to this Ofcom report, the official government target is, by the end of 2020, 50% of all the connections will be over 100 megabits per second, which is quite a way to go to hit that target, but we shall see, there you go – one to watch. The report goes onto talk about mobile internet. What percentage of people, would you say, had a mobile phone in the UK?
Kelly:
That's got to be around the 90?
Pete:
94% have a mobile phone. What percentage do you think have a smartphone, of that 94%?
Kelly:
80?
Pete:
Not quite that – 51% of mobiles are smart.
Kelly:
Is that it? – I would have thought it was a lot higher than that. Bearing in mind not that many people actually buy their phones now, and they actually opt for contracts which give you upgrades, it doesn't make sense?
Pete:
53% of those people with smartphones use it for data, so even those with a smartphone are not actually using it for data. Presumably they're just using it for the camera, and to make those voice calls – do you remember them?
Kelly:
Strangely, yes, I do.
Pete:
I only use mine for data, I don't do voice calls on mine, but there you go. What percentage of the UK, do you think, has a tablet?
Kelly:
30?
Pete:
24, but a good guess, well done. Of course, the new mobile data service that's coming up is called ... ?
Kelly:
4G.
Pete:
4G, it's rolling out now, slowly but surely. The hope is that 98% of the UK, by 2015, will be able to get two megabits per second indoors on 4G.
Kelly:
Wow, that's quite impressive.
Pete:
What is also interesting is a nearly 200% increase in the amount of data sent over WiFi hotspots, so they are rapidly growing, and the mobile stuff is slightly shrinking by comparison, so hotspots is where it is.
Kelly:
Fabulous!
Pete:
And one final little statistic – traffic from CDNs over the internet is accounting for half of the traffic.
Kelly:
CDNs?
Pete:
I thought I'd confuse you, with that one: Content Delivery Networks, so YouTube and iPlayer are now responsible for half of the UK's traffic.
Kelly:
That doesn't surprise me in the slightest.
Pete:
And that's just you watching Strictly Come Dancing, isn't it?
Kelly:
Pretty much! Actually, I'm more of a documentary person – you take that back.
Pete:
You've been watching Rachel Riley though, haven't you?
Kelly:
You have been watching Rachel Riley, very closely!
Pete:
There you go, so that's the Ofcom report, all 104 pages of it, condensed here for you on FrequencyCast, to save you having to read it. The little PS at the bottom here on my bit of paper says, IPV6, this new internet protocol, we are not ready for that yet, so we're not doing it – is that all right?
Kelly:
Yeah, that's fine.
Transcript continues: VUTV Interview
Listen to FrequencyCast Show 93 - Broadband Britain Report |
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