Turning off the FM signal

[An_Inspector_Calls]

But will the overall effect be any different from today? Isn't digital data transmission a bit like Parkinson's law ? Only the other day, I was reading about how much the increase demand there has been on mobile data as apparently people like watching videos on their teensy phone screen and that this is accelerating the need to shove Freeview further down the spectrum to free up more bandwidth.

I also think that that increase is going to be in towns and cities. Certainly not in rural areas.

If we're aiming for 20 Mbps over the final mile then it's difficult to see how you'd saturate that. And I don't agree that rural areas will be excluded; they might be later than the cities but it will happen. Most of us now have ADSL2+, and it seems an age since we were playing with 56 kbps modems.

[Resurrection Man]

If we're aiming for 20 Mbps over the final mile then it's difficult to see how you'd saturate that. And I don't agree that rural areas will be excluded; they might be later than the cities but it will happen. Most of us now have ADSL2+, and it seems an age since we were playing with 56 kbps modems.

Out of curiosity is the final mile copper or fibre. If the latter then I don't agree at all re rural areas. It was better technology, surely, that allowed 'most' of us to get ADSL2+ but it was over copper and so there was no effort required to upgrade the final mile. Sticking in fibre would be a massive and, I suggest, economically unsustainable enterprise. I did give a wry smile when you said 'most of us' as there are people round me who are not on ADSL2+ and are told that it ain't coming anytime soon!

[An_Inspector_Calls]

Whatever the expense (and I don't think it's as high as you make out, fibre cable is now cheaper than copper for a start, and they appear to be able to squeeze yet more out of the exchange modems), the present rollout plans for ADSL2+ at 20 Mbps extends to 22.5 m (out of UK 24 m?) households, albeit there's no date on that.

http://www.trefor.net/2011/07/27/latest-bt-adsl2-rollout-plans/

The up to 90% rollout plan is set to include more than 400 additional ‘rural’ exchanges, serving more than 900,000 ‘rural’ premises.

[Resurrection Man]

So is the final mile fibre?

EDIT: Just checked BT's site for their roll-out plans for our area.

What roll-out plans ?

[Nick_G]

Can you please say how it does this? I have heard the politicians keep banging on about this but can't see how it is going to benefit the UK economy.

I would imagine that it would boost sales of mobile devices, tablets, smartphones etc. Data is certainly big business and any system that allows widespread, fast connections to the internet on such devices will generate income for any businesses associated with such technologies. Multicasting will also make it much easier & cheaper to distribute audio & video content online. Oh, and what do you think are more popular, smart-phones & tablets, or DAB radios?

It could be that this doesn't go as planned but I for one find this sort of technology far more exciting and relevant than pouring millions of pounds into the DAB money pit.

Regards,
Nick

[Resurrection Man]

I would imagine that it would boost sales of mobile devices, tablets, smartphones etc. Data is certainly big business and any system that allows widespread, fast connections to the internet on such devices will generate income for any businesses associated with such technologies. Multicasting will also make it much easier & cheaper to distribute audio & video content online. ....

I'm not convinced that that is going to rescue the economy, to be honest.