Oftel defines the meaning of broadband

ednwireland

IT would be nice to see something like this from comreg

http://nl2.vnunet.com/News/1140587

Oftel defines the meaning of broadband

Watchdog sets minimum downstream capacity of 256Kbps

Oftel has defined the criteria for what constitutes broadband access.
The watchdog's Broadband Market Review states that a broadband service will now be defined as 'always-on' and having "a downstream capacity in excess of 256Kbps".

A government white paper on broadband previously defined broadband as a 1Mbps service.

Oftel took the decision to define the boundaries because of the number of different services on the market ranging from 128Kbps and up.

The report states: "In June 2002 the available internet access services were at 128Kbps [and below] and 512Kbps [and above].

"The director [of Oftel] chose not to specify more precisely the boundary for the start of broadband services within this range and, for the purposes of that direction, it did not need to do so.

"Since then the services provided or planned to be provided have changed slightly.

"In particular, the director is aware of services or planned services at 150Kbps and 256Kbps. These new services have required Oftel to be more specific about the boundary for broadband services between 128Kbps and 512Kbps.

"Given the availability of a 256Kbps broadband internet access product from Tiscali, the director currently considers that it is appropriate to define broadband internet access at speeds in excess of 256Kbps since the products currently available above this speed will allow different content such as streaming video to be delivered."

But although Oftel has set the 256Kbps boundary, it won't exclude 128Kbps and above services from being referred to as broadband, and will count them as broadband for statistical purposes.

The regulator claims that this allows the UK's broadband take-up to be compared with other European countries on a "like for like" basis.

It means that NTL's 128Kbps service, which will soon rise to 150Kbps, can still be advertised as broadband.

"NTL will be allowed to call this service broadband but it won't be allowed to call it high-speed broadband," said an Oftel spokeswoman.

But before anyone gets complacent and thinks that the definition has been settled, Oftel also warned that the goal posts may be shifted again "as new internet access services of different speeds are created and as new broadband content develops".

Paddy20

ednwireland,

Nice one, lets just hope that the Irish ISPs and government watchdogs take note of this , as they say "What happens in the UK today will happen here tomorrow ?, we hope!.

Paddy20;)

Dustaz

Thats a truly bizarre decision.

Correct me if im wrong, but are they not saying something close to : "Apples are now defined as being round and green. Although oblong yellow fruit can be described as Apples quite legally even though most people call them Banannas" ?

sceptre

^what Dustaz said tbh

a downstream capacity in excess of 256Kbps

The pedant in me reads that as "257kps or over" (effectively 512), leaving a 256kps service in the lowband range.

And what happened to the new magic term "midband"?

Seems to be pretty pointless in my view. Effectively they're making an announcement that they're going to stop calling 128kps "broadband" but that it's perfectly all right if everyone else keeps calling it that. In that case, who cares what they call it in private?

edit: having said that, as ednwireland said, it'd be nice to see Comreg moving away from calling 128kps "broadband".

iwb

What a load of tripe. As stated previously, why bother to define it if they aren't going to define it?
Anyway, if it isn't a symmetrical connection of at least 512kbps or preferably 1Mbps, it isn't broadband, pure and simple.
Under no circumstances in any way should 128kbps ever be referred to as broadband. It is barely midband!
Broadband has now come to mean any always on connection, regardless of how well it performs. Perhaps the term should be redefined rather than try to come up with a new term as it is so well used now but a different term should be used really.
iwb.

DSLinAbsentia

The problem with defining Broadband is the Broad bit. Maybe this thread could propose some definitions that could be used as a discussion point with our pals in ComReg?

> 56Kbps <= 64 Kbps: NarrowBand I (PSTN modem/single channel ISDN)
> 65Kbps <= 128Kbps: NarrowBand II (single channel ISDN to double channel isdn)
> 128Kbps <= 512Kbps: Mid Band I (DSL/RADSL)
> 512Kbps <= 1024Kbps: Mid Band II (DSL/RADSL)
> 1025Kbps : Broadband

Just one slant I s'pose.