Peter Cochrane

Wilshire Blvd, LA

Engineer, Technologist, Futurist

This is all a bit of a shame. I first got fibre to cost in against copper for telephony alone in 1986.

By 1990 the BT team had built factories in Ipswich and Birmingham to produce all the systems for the UK roll-out.

The UK was in the lead and ready to GO fibre to every office and home for a mere £15Bn - just 3 years profit for BT at the time.

BUT THEN the government of the day stepped in and stopped the program as it was anti-competitive!

And the rest as they say is history! Some 21 years later the debate starts again - and the good news is; the cost will now most likely be only £9Bn.

The real cost however will be the loss of competitiveness due to the lack of any real broadband in the UK.

Peter