BT promises 300Mbps broadband for 10 million homes by 2020

BT’s chief executive Gavin Patterson has emerged today with a laundry list of promises designed to improve broadband speeds, coverage and public confidence in the UK. First up is a commitment to a new, minimum broadband speed of 5-10Mbps, which the company claims will be enough for people to “enjoy popular internet services like high definition video.” The idea to push for a minimum standard was actually introduced by the UK government earlier this year. BT’s involvement is a crucial statement of support, although at the moment there’s no timeframe as to when it’ll be introduced or even feasible. There’s also the matter of the speeds themselves — 5Mbps, most would argue, isn’t enough to support a family or a group of flatmates that regularly use the internet simultaneously.

To introduce such a proposal, Britain needs stable, extensive broadband coverage. The government’s current target is to offer 2Mbps to everyone in the UK and at least 24Mbps to 95 percent of the population by 2017. Patterson claims that BT will go “further and faster” in relation to these targets, however, through a funding mechanism called “success dividend” clauses. In short, some broadband infrastructure is currently funded by a mixture of BT, central government and local government money. If more customers than expected end up using this capacity, BT has to reinvest or return some of the funding — £130 million has already been released this way. Patterson says it’s now “potentially available” to increase the UK’s coverage target to 96 percent, although we’ll have to wait and see if that materialises. BT already has a plan to make it happen though — Patterson hinted at a new satellite broadband service that will launch this year and connect remote parts of the UK.

All of this should create a broad base of usable, if not blazingly fast internet. At the other end of the spectrum, BT is trialling Fibre To The Distribution Point (FTTdp), commonly referred to as “G.fast,” which could jack up the slower speeds experienced by some existing customers. The company is aiming for “a few hundred megabits per second” initially, with plans to raise the speeds to 500Mbps over time. In January, it said this ultrafast broadband would be available to “most of the UK” within a decade. Now, Patterson is improving that target — he says the technology, along with some superior Fibre To The Premises (FTTP) provision, will connect 10 million homes and small businesses by 2020, before supplying “the majority” of UK premises by the end of the decade.

These announcements come at a pivotal time for BT. The UK communications regulator Ofcom is in the middle of its “Strategic Review of Digital Communications,” the last of which forced BT to create Openreach, its broadband infrastructure division. The current review is looking at the two again, and whether they should be separated entirely — something BT, unsurprisingly, is keen to avoid. Sky, Vodafone, TalkTalk and others banded together only yesterday to argue that the review should be bumped up to the Competition and Markets Authority. It’s no secret that they want the pair split up, so BT is doing everything in its power to show that the current arrangement is still the best option for the UK. A heap of new promises to improve broadband provision is likely just the start of its fightback.

[Image Credit: PjrTravel / Alamy]

Source: BT

Xiaomi will sell a flagship Android phone for $204

Xiaomi has somehow put one of the best processors on the market into a smartphone that costs just $204. The Mi 4c is a Xiaomi’s China-only version of the company’s Mi 4i, but it’s updated some of the internals to keep things fresh. The two big changes over the Mi 4i are a new powerhouse in the form of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 — the same six-core chip powering LG’s G4 and the new Moto X — and an improved 13-megapixel camera sensor with phase-detection autofocus.

There are a few smaller differences between the handsets, such as a USB Type-C port in place of the Mi 4i’s micro-USB, MIUI-flavored Android 5.0, a slight increase in weight, and a minor decrease in battery size (it’s still a very healthy 3,040mAh, though). Other than that, it’s got the same 5-inch 1080p IPS panel, the same dual-SIM capabilities, and the same storage options. The 16GB version with 2GB of RAM will set you back 1299 yuan ($204), while the 32GB version with 3GB of RAM costs 1499 yuan ($235). That’s basically the same price as the Mi 4i, but with a much-improved spec sheet.

So this is essentially a flagship phone for $204. But if you’re reading this from somewhere other than China, you’ll have difficulty tracking one down when it launches tomorrow. We’d love to offer you an alternative that’s available in the US, but it’s genuinely impossible. The closest you’ll find is probably the Asus Zenfone 2, which has a decent spec set for $200, or perhaps the latest Moto G, which at $180-$220 keeps pace with the pricing, but at the expense of specs. Then there’s the OnePlus 2, which has the specs but also comes with a $320 asking price. You get the picture: nothing can really compete with the Mi 4i at this price. And if Xiaomi ever decides to sell its phones in the US a number of companies could be in a lot of trouble.

That wasn’t all the company announced today, though. It also became an MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) with “Mi Mobile,” which offers simple service plans running on the back of one of China’s smaller mobile networks, Unicom. It’ll launch with a pay-as-you-go plan that charges 0.1 Yuan (about $0.016) per minute, SMS, or 1MB, and then expand to offer a 3GB data plan for 59 Yuan (about $9) per month this October.

Source: Xiaomi

Volkswagen thinks emissions scandal could cost it $7.3 billion

After admitting it had altered software to misreport the emissions of its diesel cars, Volkswagen is allocating some serious money to help it save face. The company said today it’s set aside a whopping $6.5 billion euros ($7.3 billion) to “cover the necessary service measures and other efforts to win back the trust of our customers.” The US Environmental Protection Agency had previously found that the carmaker was utilizing a “defeat device” (software tricks) that would detect when a car was being tested and enable its full emissions control systems. However, once returned to normal mode, a confirmed 11 million Volkswagen and Audi models sold from 2009 emit high levels of nitrogen oxide, which aids air pollution and can cause respiratory issues.

Volkswagen says it is “working at full speed to clarify irregularities” with the software used for its diesel engines, which relate to cars with its Type EA 189 mechanism. While it maintains that the software doesn’t affect the majority of these engines, “the amounts estimated may be subject to revaluation.”

Authorities in the US, Germany, France, South Korea and Italy are conducting their own investigations into Volkswagen’s apparent rigging of diesel engines. The car company has already recalled 500,000 vehicles, and also faces additional fines (and class-action suits) that could add up up to billions of dollars. That suggests Volkswagen’s balance sheet allocation will be just a portion of the total amount it will spend righting its wrongs.

[Image credit: Glenn Scott, Flickr]

Via: Bloomberg

Source: Volkswagen