Find Cheap Broadband Deals For Your Area
Postcode:
With Lord Carter’s Digital Report promising ‘2 Mbps for all’ being released this month, the eventual cost of the providing broadband across the digital divide has become a hot topic, with Whitehall paying out £750 million of the total costs for the scheme which are estimated at around £2.5 billion – a fairly large spend for any government especially on something that will only affect a relatively small percentage of the population.
A popular broadband news site has committed some research to the subject and one of the cheapest solutions for inner cities could well be Wi-Fi. It sounds obvious of course, but it’s surprising just how little decent Wi-Fi coverage there is in UK cities, even in the capital. Wi-Fi has many advantages over other connections because it doesn’t involve digging up roads which can be incredibly costly and time consuming in busy neighbourhoods. Unlike other forms of wireless internet like Mobile Broadband and Satellite, Wi-Fi is far cheaper to set up and doesn’t incur huge bandwidth costs making it ideal for urban communities.
The result of all this is that broadband can be provided to large groups of people for very cheap. This is particularly useful for inner city areas because many of the residents survive on low incomes and are unable to afford more expensive broadband options. The only real disadvantage of Wi-Fi is the range, which means it’s not cost effective in areas where population density isn’t high ruling it out for rural locations and even small towns.
Community Wi-Fi networks have already been put in place in select areas across the country. The London Borough of Islington created one over five years ago. Funded by the local council, it provides broadband access for over 3,000 residents, many of whom would not otherwise be able to access or afford the luxury of a broadband service.
Manager of the Islington project, Andrew Barker commented: “Providing free external internet access along what’s now known as the Tech Mile has been a huge success for Islington Council. That’s why we’ve continued to build on the project and are now targeting service delivery into the homes of social housing residents using broadband over powerline.”
However, despite the success of the project, other boroughs and cities across the country have been slow to adopt similar plans and take advantage of Wi-Fi. Hopefully Islington and other smaller scale projects set up to bridge the divide will be seen as an example to others and other local councils will embark on their own community projects.
Leave your response!