p2pnet - rss feed: EC ‘final step’ for broadband in Scotland
p2pnet news | P2P:- The European Commission has authorised £3.4 million (about 6,705,260, €4.320,000) of public funding for broadband in remote and rural areas of Scotland.
It’s the, “final step to bring affordable broadband services to all Scottish citizens,” it says in a statement,
“The Commission concluded that the aid is well-targeted to achieve this objective and contains adequate safeguards to ensure that Scottish citizens will enjoy the benefits of a competitive broadband market.
In 2004, the Commission approved a UK state aid measure that increased broadband coverage to 99% of Scottish households and he objective onow is to extend the coverage to the remaining 1% of households in Scotland that still don’t have affordable broadband services.
It says the project is, “fully in line with the Commission’s policy to promote widespread and affordable broadband services to all European citizens and complies with the EU state aid rules that allow aid to facilitate the development of certain economic activities or areas where such aid does not unduly affect trading conditions between Member States.
It, “concluded that the public funding is necessary to provide affordable broadband services to the population of Scotland in the targeted areas,” says the statemenbyt, adding:
“At the same time, the measure contains several safeguards to ensure that the aid amount is kept to a minimum and that telecommunication operators will have non-discriminatory access to the wholesale services.”
Will ISPs in Scotland try to throttle users as they’re doing in Canada?
Stay tuned.
.
.Stumble It!
European Commission - ommission approves £3.4 million public funding for broadband in Scotland , April 30, 2008
Canada - p2pnet traffic shaping digest, April 19, 2008
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May 2nd, 2008 at 8:19 pm
So that’s all it costs to set up an affordable broadband network? Hell, anyone could do it with sufficient funding and motivation
May 2nd, 2008 at 8:31 pm
Well, they provide the bandwidth which may seem good value, but they don’t want you to take full advantage of it. It’s like the potato chip industry which only half fills their bags or tubes of toothpaste which are mostly filled with air.
I believe that if an ISP doesn’t throttle users it would be in their interest to say so up front and then they wouldn’t need to make exaggerated offers they don’t want to stick to. It would be an added incentive to join them.
Of course those that do throttle would never want to be open and honest about the fact they are doing something dishonest and unethical, and maybe illegal.
May 2nd, 2008 at 8:40 pm
“Will ISPs in Scotland try to throttle users as they’re doing in Canada?”
They are already doing it.
The only pioneers to proper REAL Unlimited broadbands where the small cable companies like NTL/Telewest and so on but after Virgin Media bought them all up they are all traffic shaped.
Currently there is no Real Unlimited broadband in the UK anymore. VM took care of what was left of proper internet.
Besides UK has pretty much ONLY broadband try getting a synchronous connection as in T1 of 1MB without paying 3000 pounds installation costs as in you buy yourself the damn fiber optical cables.
Theres 3 Major distributions in the UK witch are Cable/Wireless/BT
ALL the rest are using these networks a.k.a. resellers.
May 2nd, 2008 at 9:26 pm
We were lucky enough to buy a new house where the new cable that was being laid out on the street was fiber optic. It was great at first.
Sadly, the local Cable company has piss poor multiplexing, and sold more bandwidth to our neighborhood than they could provide. SOP for Cable internet, and after 3 years (of consistently degrading bandwidth), we had to ditch them for a 10Mbs DSL contract.
I don’t know if our phone lines at the street are fiber optic, but they have more bandwidth and are more reliable than the cable company.