"British gigabyte" targets an Internet connection speed of up to "one gigabyte"

Britain is reducing its "digital inclusion" plan to cover 26 million buildings by 2025

The British government’s plan calls for laying 500,000 kilometers of fiber-optic cables.

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This week, the British government reduced the goal of its plan, known as the "GB Britain" plan, to cover only 26 million buildings by 2025, instead of 31 million buildings, which makes the plan absorb only 85% of the British people, and prohibits about five million buildings inhabited by 15 % Of the British people from this service, which threatens to commit previous mistakes that work to consolidate the digital divide in rural areas in Britain.

Digital inclusion

According to what analysts of zdnet.com, which specializes in technology, said in a recently published analysis, the British government’s move reflects the difficulties facing the plans in many countries of the world to move to the new “digital inclusion” communications environment associated with the fifth generation. For mobile, and new generations of optical fiber cables, a communication environment in which the "communication contour limit" or the minimum quality and speed of communication lines provided to its citizens, institutions and companies is an Internet connection with a speed of 1000 MB or "one gigabyte".

The plans for digital inclusion are very ambitious, as they foresee what must be reached during the next decade, from an infrastructure for the world of communication that is sufficient for the transition to an information and knowledge society, where all its members and citizens depend on advanced information services, including autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence systems, education and work. And telemedicine, and other hundreds of other services, and these plans are applied in dozens of countries of the world, especially developed.

Official report

The announcement of the change in the British plan came through the "GB Britain" report issued by the British government's Culture, Media and Sports Committee this week, which suggested that the "British gigabyte" goal would not be achieved at the time set by the government last year, when it pledged to provide a broad range Full optical fiber, or through the fifth mobile generation, provides a limit of "gigabytes" across the country by 2025, at a cost of 30 billion pounds (equivalent to 40 billion dollars).

New target

Gigabyte speeds are a big step up from so-called "superfast" speeds, which are equivalent to about 40 times faster than the standard high-speed broadband currently widespread in Britain.

According to the British government, the difficulties of implementation on the ground made it adopt a new goal, which is that the number of buildings that will be covered in the "GB Britain" plan will be in the range of 26 million buildings by 2025, a figure equivalent to only 85% of Britain's 31 buildings. One million buildings, which means that by this time, there will be about five million buildings inhabited by about 15% of the British people not covered by the "GB Britain" plan, and most of these buildings will be in remote and rural areas.

The report said that lowering the target level was inevitable, because the previous target was unrealistic, and although the new target will cover only 85% of the population, it requires raising the rates of building new infrastructure by four times than it is now, because it takes Laying about 500,000 kilometers of new fiber-optic cables, or building and operating broad-coverage fifth-generation mobile networks.

Digital divide concerns

The new decision raised fears of consolidating the "digital divide" that afflicted some remote and rural areas in Britain, as members of Parliament said that the amendment means repeating mistakes made in the past when deploying 4G networks and high-speed internet plans, when government plans left the regions. Rural and sparsely populated behind, causing up to 9% of the British people in remote and rural areas to be deprived of 4G mobile networks, a percentage that jumps to 20% in Scotland.

In terms of buildings, there are still 1.6 million properties across the UK that do not have access to high-speed broadband, with significant geographic differences.

Whereas 97% of buildings in urban areas have access to high-speed broadband.

Limit contour communication

The contour contour limit varies from one country to another, as it rises to more than (one gigabyte) in South Korea, while Britain chose (one gigabyte).

Japan, Korea, and Singapore have taken significant steps in digital inclusion plans and reduced the high communication subsistence, and Britain is one of the most prominent European countries in this regard, as it has set a timetable and specific funding for implementation, leading to making the "gigabyte" the limit of communication subsistence in the country. Hence the importance of following up and addressing the level of progress and faltering in the British plan, as an important global experience in this regard.