Internet connectivity has come a long way in the past few years, moving from dial-up to ADSL and then onto fibre optic broadband. The ever increasing consumption of the internet is driving the development of faster and more efficient ways to provide connectivity, unfortunately there’s an upgrade and download bias.
The speed of the fibre optic rollout has come under heavy criticism from the media and businesses that are pushing their ADSL line to its limits. Only certain exchanges and street cabinets will be fibre enabled and although some of them will have an estimated date for the upgrade, this can often be postponed at the last minute.
Download bias
The years of network infrastructure catering to internet consumers has definitely created a ceiling for companies that want to make cost savings with hosted solutions, but don’t have the upload speed to use them effectively.
As businesses capitalise on the benefits of cloud solutions such as data backup, servers and unified communication suites, the typical 1Mbps upload speed from ADSL becomes an issue. Upgrading business internet connections to fibre optic can double the download speed but the biggest impact is the increase in upload speeds.
Where fibre optic isn’t available, businesses have opted for Ethernet in the first mile or even leased lines to boost upload speeds, with the added benefit of an uncontended line.
1.4 terabit connection
Recently Alcatel-Lucent and BT achieved download speeds of 1.4 terabits per second but this only reinforces the bias of improving download speed above all else. Oliver Johnson, chief executive of broadband analyst firm Point Topic said “the trade-off is, the more you squeeze into a fibre line, the more potential there is for interference and for error.”
Imagine the benefits for businesses if resources were focused on improving upload speeds, stability and reliability.
In the hopefully not-so-distant-future, business across the UK could be achieving symmetrical upload and download speeds of up to 100 Mbps, creating even faster and more efficient business practices.
Related Links:
ADSL
Fibre optic broadband
Ethernet in the first mile