Ofcom has said that nearly every home in the UK could one day have 50 mbps broadband using copper wire.

The telecoms regulator admits this could only happen in an "ideal" environment where all the proper equipment and cabling is in place.

Ofcom made this assertion weeks after BT said it intended to upgrade vast swathes of the UK's communications infrastructure from copper to fibre optics.

Virgin Media has also confirmed it intends to invest heavily in a next-generation high-speed broadband network, which will also be reliant on fibre.

"Given the important relationship of distance to data rate, we based our model on information on cable lengths from a real network," states Ofcom.

"We concluded that, in our idealised environment, capacities can further improve."

BT claims it could offer up to 40 mbps by 2012, in time for the London Olympics.

Virgin Media says that it will have the technical capability to deliver 200 mbps by that date.



Monday, 18th August 2008

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