3 UK Makes Big Claims Regarding Mobile Broadband
Phil Sheppard, head of the technical division at 3 UK, has expressed his faith in mobile broadband as a worthy substitute to its faster rival, fixed line broadband. He justified his view with the claim that only a small amount of investment was needed in mobile broadband to make it a truly viable option, which could fill in the gaps left by fixed line.
Sheppard was a panellist at the government’s Broadband for All eForum seminar where he spoke about mobile broadband as being the way forward for fulfilling the government’s universal service commitment. He was taking part in a discussion about Lord Carter’s Digital Britain report and advocated the use of mobile broadband on the basis that it was a cost-effective medium and the government didn’t need to fund it at all. The only thing that was needed from the government was access to spectrum, Sheppard said. He explained that with the right spectrum, mobile broadband needed only a few thousand sites to allow almost 2 million homes, which are not covered by fixed line, to access broadband.
However, a poll by Broadband Genie could pour cold water to all the claims that Mr. Sheppard has been making. The poll revealed that only 11% of the users were happy with the service of mobile broadband (click compare mobile broadband for more info). Sheppard will thus need more than just words to justify his beliefs as the poll clearly suggested that mobile broadband still had some way to go before it can replace or even selectively substitute fixed lines, with or without additional spectrum.
