Re: SHARON WHITE, OFCOM - WE NEED A FIRM DATE TO START THE LONG PROCESS OF SWITCHING OF COPPER.
The case for radical improvements to what might loosely be described as "rural broadband" is substantial - almost unassailable. However conflating that case with arguing for the replacement of mixed fibre / copper transmission on a nationwide basis makes "rural fibre" that much harder to achieve.
Unless you happen to believe that the copper element can be removed without cost then without a Magic Money Tree any money spent upgrading FTTC to FTTP will detract from that available for rural provision. Perversely if BT or anyone else got rid of FTTC (replacing it with FTTP) it could quite legitimately claim that it had materially increased the average speed available to UK customers, although at the same time it would have done nothing to help those in rural areas who have a poor or no service now. To put it another way, in what way would converting urban areas from FTTC to FTTP help rural customers? It wouldn't help them at all. The rural customers need addressing properly (I have never argued otherwise) and introducing a (in my view spurious) need to ditch copper in urban locations just fogs the overall picture.
On top of that do you really imagine that "urban" users are going to thank you for an enforced upgrade that will almost certainly be accompanied by a significant price increase to cover the significant cost of converting to FTTP? Personally I rather doubt it.
I'm not trying to pretend that Ofcom is a "perfect" regulator (FWIW I have no connection with the organisation) but I strongly doubt if trying to bully it is going to achieve what you want. You might object to my word "bully" but given the terms in which you have described it I cannot think of any other word to use. Although it probably wouldn't admit it I would expect Ofcom to keep an eye on the transactions on this forum so there is a more than fair chance that it has seen your opinion of it and as a consequence decided to disregard anything you say; submissions to be filed along with those written in green ink.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
