Broadband Speed

WV and the US are going to become "has beens" on the information highway if we don't get going and invest. Here is article from the BBC

The European Commission is set to propose investing almost €9.2bn (£8bn) in a massive rollout of super-fast broadband infrastructure and services across the European Union.

The plan is partly aimed at stimulating further investment in rural broadband.

It is hoped the initiative will also help to create a single market for digital public services.

The Commission has already set targets for improving the speed of home internet connections across the region.

It aims to get all European households on at least 30 megabits per second (Mbps) by 2020, with half the population enjoying more than 100Mbps, so as to make the continent more competitive and productive.
Economic need

The BBC understands that the EU's executive body will propose the funding, which would be invested between 2014 and 2020, on Wednesday.

The plan would have to be approved by the European Parliament and the EU's Council of Ministers if it were to become reality.

"Europe needs these fast broadband networks to allow its economy to become more competitive in the future, and so create more jobs and prosperity," EU sources said.

"This money would stimulate much greater investment of private and other public money. Each euro [invested by the Commission] would give rise to a further six to 15 euros more."

At least €7bn of the investment would go to building high-speed broadband networks, with the funding mostly in the form of debt instruments and equity.

The hope is that giving infrastructure projects credibility in this way would encourage the private sector, as well as local and national governments, to invest at least a further €50bn in the rollout.

To JIM: I agree with the first sentence of your posting. After that you launched into an anti-government screed that is not consistent with the sensibilities of this website. By the way, capitalism nearly collapsed during the Great Depression of the 1930s so, while, in general, capitalism has served us well, it has had its periods of dynfunction. There was the Panic of 1792, the Panic of 1837, the Panic of 1873, the Panic of 1893, and the Panic of 1907, and the decade long farm depression during the 1920s that only got worse in the 30s. Massive spending by the federal government from 1933 through 1945 is what rebuilt the infrastructure of the U.S. and laid the foundation for the prosperity of the post-War era. The economy is not functioning according to typical models that worked, sort of, since World War II, but it actually is behaving a lot like it did for 150 years before that. Please take your rant against Democrats and the Obama Administration somewhere else.

Miller
So everything is operating as it should, no one is suffering and we should not be concerned? It is obvious that you are on a check or payroll and you are not struggling to run a small business. That government massive spending has to be directed to the right place not to some well-healed supporters. Solar panels come to mind. While massive spending can stimulate an economy, it also has a tipping point. We need government, just not one that is controlled by big money. I never mentioned Obama, Democrats, in fact I am registered a Democrat (Blue Dog I guess) but if the shoe fits, sounds like you are super sensitive about failed polices of people you supported. Since you brought it up, Mr. Obama and that brain trust of supporting characters should have no problem winning the next election since they have done such a bang up job.
Now since you are so well educated, could you give me a Reader's digest version of the Health Care Bill, that's the one that so many attorney general's have filed legal action against.
Now, until Martin Saffer tells me to discontinue use of this forum, I will continue use it since he is the owner and I believe that he supports freedom of speech as long as it is respectful. While Martin and I disagree on most things, he does respect opposing opinions.
You have about as much authority to tell me to say off this forum as I do to tell you to say off. I respect your opinion to disagree, but only time will prove who's opinion was right, because in reality neither your opinion nor mine amounts to "a hill of beans".
Mr Freeholder, I don't hate any one, I disagree with many. Do you and Mr. Miller hate me because we have a difference of opinion? I don't consider myself liberal or conservative, democrat or republician just a man that works everyday dispite my age trying to support his family. That is the very problem, too many labels put on people and then assign beliefs to them.
Back to broad band, it would facilitate the interaction of various ideas if we all tried to look for common ground.
One thing that was left out of the History lesson was the parallels that we have with the Roman Empire.

Millions of tax dollars were invested into Frontier infrastructure which they simply get to keep as an increase in there overall asset appreciation value yet they still say they will not extend out from this backbone unless or until new customers justify the cost. What about the cost to taxpayers to give Frontier those millions.

I understand that the only thing delaying installation of fiber optic lines in upper Pocahontas is the shortage of fiber as a result of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. I thought Corning made this material - and that there had been Corning plants in West Virginia. How could we help encourage the WV glass companies to retool? Is this being done, or are we just waiting for the Japanese? Does anyone know about WV glass production - now or planned?

What a wonderfully informative answer!! Thank you. Yes, I'm talking about SKSR - and I don't know anything about their contracts. Interesting point.

BT fibre broadband cable UK rollout accelerated

Telecoms provider BT is accelerating its fibre broadband rollout. It now plans to offer "super-fast" internet speeds to two-thirds of UK premises by the end of 2014.

The target is a year ahead of its original plan.

The firm says its main product will offer maximum download speeds about 10 times faster than at present, at 70-100Mbps on average.

That will help it compete against Virgin Media's 100Mbps offer.

BT says it is employing an additional 520 engineers and bringing forward £300m of investment to achieve the goal.

The company says six million premises already have access to its fibre broadband technology, about 25% of the total.

It aims to increase that to about 10 million properties, or about 40% of those in the UK, by the end of next year.

"Our rollout of fibre broadband is one of the fastest in the world and so it is great to be ahead of what was an already challenging schedule," said BT's chief executive Ian Livingston.
Global position

A recent report suggested the UK ranked 25th in the world in terms of average broadband connection speeds.

Akamai's State of the Internet Report said the average UK connection speed was 5Mbps compared to the Netherlands' 8.5Mbps and South Korea's 13.8Mbps.

"For a long time people thought the UK was on a low-fibre diet and it was taking us a long time compared to everyone else," said Matthew Howett, senior analyst at the telecoms consultants Ovum.

"These investments are expensive and risky - especially when you don't know if people even want the faster product. But BT has seen demand for its top speeds and that's encouraging them to roll out the fibre more quickly."

Speeds of up to 100Mbps will allow households to stream multiple high definition television programmes, music and games at the same time.

Experts say most homes will not need such fast speeds for the foreseeable future, however it will help future-proof the network against further developments.