London Briefing/Chris Johns:Accordinng to JiWire.com, the UK is second only to the US with its 12,578 Wi-Fi hotspots.
The US currently has 32,328, Germany 8,740, France 4,088 and Ireland 242. Per capita, that makes the UK the most densely covered region in the world: having one of the highest population densities must make it more economical to set up commercial wi-fi locations.
Or perhaps it's because wi-fi providers have worked out that broadband penetration is poor, so customers are looking at alternatives.
Arguments about broadband penetration get louder every day. Like many Americans, the British worry that access to high-speed internet connections are still too expensive and, for some regions, not really available at any price. Lots of fingers are pointed at BT who, like other national telco giants, are accused of foot-dragging over local loop unbundling. When BT lets a rival into one of its exchanges it sees itself giving away its customers. Frustrated competitors see BT as an old-fashioned monopolistic dinosaur. Similar debates rage in other countries with the result that the regulator decides broadband penetration and costs.
The UK is currently in the middle of the OECD league table of broadband penetration rates. Countries like Greece, Mexico, Turkey and Ireland tend to prop up the table, with Korea at the top. What surprises a lot of people is the appearance of many western European countries at the top: Holland and Denmark are not too far behind Korea, for example. And Switzerland, Finland, Belgium, Norway and Sweden are all ahead of the UK and US.
The US has reacted to its relatively poor broadband showing in an interesting way. Worried and frustrated by slow and expensive rollout, various regions and local governments are building their own wireless networks. Many are going to low cost providers, one or two, potentially including San Francisco, are going to be free. Incumbent telcos have cried foul and legislation is being prepared to make all this illegal.
In the Netherlands, Amsterdam has recently announced a "fibre to the home" project, essentially a public-private partnership to lay fibreoptic cable to homes. Once installed, anything that can be digitised can be piped down the fibre. All, of course, at relatively low cost.
One or two local councils and agencies in the UK have reacted in similar fashion to their American cousins but there is less impetus behind the municipal broadband movement, something that has reached almost evangelical levels in the US. It is curious that "sclerotic Europe" has faster broadband (eye-watering speeds as a matter of fact), better penetration and more competition.
Not much connects Macedonia with Philadelphia but both are building publicly provided networks. (And the US, via an aid programme, is paying for a significant chunk of Macedonia's rollout).
Macedonia's "mesh" network is not the hotspot model beloved of our hotels and coffee shops - it is much better. Macedonia is perhaps the world's first wireless country. Even schools in relatively remote rural areas are being enabled for broadband access. And there are going to be a lot more Macedonias to come. Belarus, for example, has just announced an experiment with a version of something called Wi-Max. Technology is improving all the time, the jargon may be bewildering to the uninitiated, but there are is one guiding principle that transcends the technology.
The role of the regulator is everything. If the incumbent telco can run rings around the regulator then forget about cheap broadband. Because the technology is changing so fast it is very easy for established operators to argue that it can't be done. But it can. And it is being done, where the regulator is either sophisticated or not needed.
Cheap or free and ubiquitous broadband access will convey distinct competitive advantages on any country, region or city that provides such services. And some of those advantages are likely to be of the "first mover" variety: once acquired, they can be clung on to.
And, of course, vice-versa. Countries that currently think of themselves as technologically sophisticated are in for a very nasty surprise over the next couple of years. Once you fall behind in this race it is going to be very difficult to catch up. The UK is running a lot of technological risks.
