The UK invests £1 billion to build a full-fiber network, and 5G and ultra-fast broadband will soon benefit 2 million households

[[177138]]

In the near future, 2 million households and businesses in the UK will usher in the era of ultra-fast Internet speeds. This fall, British Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond pointed out in the government's budget report that 740 million pounds will be allocated for 5G construction and to improve the UK's network infrastructure. Of this, 400 million pounds is planned to install 1GB high-speed fiber optic networks for British households and businesses, using government investment to improve the country's fiber optic construction level.

This map of the UK shows the current network download speeds across the country, with red representing faster speeds and yellow representing slower speeds. It can be seen that the infrastructure in major cities such as London and Liverpool is far better than in other regions, which is what the British government will do next: invest a large amount of public funds in network construction.

The name of this project is FTTP (Fibre-to-the-Premises), which means that fiber optic networks will be brought into thousands of households, allowing users to download massive videos in seconds and watch high-definition programs at home. Currently, only 2% of British households can enjoy the benefits of public infrastructure, and the UK has been strengthening the construction of 5G and broadband networks.

Just one fiber could carry 300 voice messages or 90,000 TV channels. To do that, Andrew Ferguson, editor of thinkbroadband.com, says the fiber would have to be 2.3 million kilometers long.

In addition, small Internet companies will also be supported in the future through electronic infrastructure funds provided by the government to build faster broadband to compete with large Internet operators in the UK, such as BT, Sky and Virgin.

In March last year, the University of Surrey in the UK had developed a network that could transmit 1TB of data per second, which is equivalent to downloading 30 movies per second and 6.5 times faster than the current popular 4G network. Six months later, the University of Surrey established the world's top 5G Innovation Center (5GIC).

Having said so much, what benefits can 5G bring to the British people in the future? Leifeng.com (public account: Leifeng.com) sorted out the following points:

• A mobile phone or tablet can download a high-definition movie in 5 seconds, which is 100 times faster than 4G network (6 minutes) and 25,000 times faster than 3G network (26 hours).
• If a patient has an emergency and needs medical treatment, the mobile device can immediately notify the ambulance, police, or even drones of the patient's medical history and related information. The information is already in place before the patient even arrives at the hospital.
• The control of the autonomous driving system will be inconvenient due to network delays, but if there is a high-speed network, the safety performance of autonomous driving will be greatly improved.
• If the factory is equipped with networking equipment supported by a fiber optic network, the system will be able to notify the control center in time before a failure occurs, avoiding unnecessary dangers and losses.
• Ultra-high-speed wireless broadband can be used in many public places such as enterprises, parks, shopping malls, subway stations, campuses, etc.
• New employees can use virtual reality equipment for live learning. Especially for some jobs that require high precision, (near) real-time transmission functions can be used to achieve synchronization of signals and information.

The future is so close to us, isn’t it exciting to think about it?