[OT-ish] How big is the UK 'net?

[Roland Perry]

In message <01c901c21ef8$2a779d40$274d1e3e@pwt2>, Peter Tomlinson 
<pwt@iosis.co.uk> writes

>But, more recently, I have seen something in the papers suggesting they
>might get more involved.

The broadband rollout is more of an e-envoy thing than Oftel, but they 
do a lot of work anyway. See, for example:

<url:http://www.oftel.gov.uk/publications/internet/internet_brief/broad04
02.htm>

In terms of statutory Universal Service for Broadband (and ignoring the 
satellite options for a moment), that is a decision for Brussels - who 
are the people who define what services might be in that category. It's 
not likely to happen until there's a very much greater takeup of 
broadband amongst those who are within its current non-universal 
rollout.

It's difficult to guess, but you'd probably need around 75% of customers 
within an 80% footprint, to trigger compulsory rollout of the footprint 
to 100%. Currently (in the UK) it's about 3% and 60% respectively.
-- 
Roland Perry