Broadband Definitions in Disarray

What is broadband? Governments around the world are developing multi-billion dollar plans to deliver broadband infrastructure that will lead to social and economic development, and yet nobody can agree on what broadband actually is.

Paul Budde, a telecommunications analyst from Australia, rather shocked me by suggesting in his blog that we shouldn’t even try to define broadband. And yet he provides instant clarity that goes straight to the heart of the debate.

I think broadband is a concept and I believe each country will have to develop its own National Broadband Plan, based on its own political, social, economic, historical, technological and geographic situation. What might apply to Australia will most certainly not apply to Rwanda, and what applies to the USA will not apply to China.

Budde appears to have fallen into the usual trap of thinking that we should attach a number to a definition of broadband. But if broadband is the concept of internet connectivity rather than a specific telecoms service, then surely it doesn’t need that number? I firmly believe that we should avoid adding speeds to any definition of broadband, because – as Budde points out – bandwidth requirements are a moveable feast.

Yet I do believe is is important to define broadband and I don’t think this is a difficult job. These days the term broadband has become synonymous with always-on access to the internet. In my view that’s perfectly adequate as a definition. Life doesn’t have to be complicated.

What policy makers really want to know is what sort of broadband service they should stipulate in their broadband plans. What kind of applications will we be using and how much bandwidth is needed to run them? What should the performance indicators be, and how can they be enforced?

Maybe you think I’m splitting hairs, but setting political targets for broadband is very different beast from writing a definition. A definition is forever; a policy only lasts until the next general election.

While we’re on the subject, we also need a definition for next-generation access (NGA), which is another term that causes a great deal of confusion. Here’s the definition of NGA from the Digital Britain report:

NGA is the term used to describe the physical infrastructure and set of technologies which can be used to deliver super-fast broadband. These include fibre to the home or premises (FTTH), fibre to the cabinet (FTTC), cable, fixed or mobile wireless, and satellite.

Full marks to the report writers for recognising that NGA is about infrastructure. But by relating it to superfast broadband, which has no clear definition, the result is less than satisfactory.

Don’t even get me started on “superfast”. No doubt this clumsy adjective was dreamed up by a marketing department somewhere in order to sell the latest product. In a few short years we’ve progressed from high-speed to very-high-speed to superfast, and left absolutely no headroom for whatever comes next. Super-dooper like-sh*t-off-a-shovel fast broadband, anyone?

Seriously though, as part of a project I’m working on I need to explain broadband terminology in a way that’s acessible to the average person outside the telco industry. You can read my first attempt here (if you’ve read this far I’m sure you can manage one more click), and I would appreciate any feedback. Thanks in advance!