Survey Finds Strong UK Demand for G.fast Ultrafast Broadband

LONDON, BIOT - Nov. 27, 2017 - PRLog -- A new online survey, conducted by ISPreview.co.uk, has found that the national deployment of Openreach's new 330 Megabits per second capable G.fast "ultrafast broadband" technology, which is expected to reach 10 million premises across the United Kingdom by 2020, could attract strong demand (75% of over 1,834 respondents - polled between 23rd October and 23rd November 2017 - said they would be interested in upgrading).

Interestingly 76% of the respondents also identified themselves as being existing subscribers to a "superfast broadband" (30Mbps+) capable connection. By comparison the new G.fast service is expected to be sold via two products (160Mbps and 330Mbps) and 53.5% of those surveyed said that, given the choice, they would prefer to take the more expensive 330Mbps option (46.5% chose the cheaper 160Mbps service).

Mark Jackson, Founder of ISPreview.co.uk, said: "Most of today's so-called 'superfast' capable broadband connections should be good enough to cope with the majority of current demands, but consumers are always seeking faster speeds and the ISP marketing departments know it."

"G.fast is one of the solutions, alongside 'full fibre' FTTP/H and Cable DOCSIS upgrades, that should help to power the next generation of fixed line 'ultrafast broadband' services by offering download speeds of greater than 100Mbps. The attraction of faster upload speeds, which are becoming increasingly useful for personal video streaming and social networking, could also be a strong draw."

"On the other hand this new technology is far from perfect and still suffers from the age old copper line problem of signal attenuation over distance, where speeds fall the further you are away from your local street cabinet. Initial G.fast coverage will also be limited and we suspect that a lot of the early deployment will focus upon urban areas."

"However, aside from benefits like faster file transfers and the ability to stream multiple videos in 4K quality, those who already have a 'superfast' capable connection might not notice all that much difference. Most common internet tasks (e.g. web browsing, email, multiplayer video games) do not require a particularly fast connection and many remote internet servers limit their top speeds to well below those being promised by G.fast. But if the price is right then adoption will follow."

"Sadly those stuck in remote rural areas and some digitally isolated urban locations, where slower connectivity is still the norm, may find all this talk of 'ultrafast' connectivity to be somewhat galling. Many of those are still waiting for 'superfast' connections to arrive," concluded Jackson for https://www.ispreview.co.uk .