Time for talking over?

Perhaps 2002 should be the year when all the big committee’s and the government stop talking about broadband and actually do something to ensure that it does take off and fulfill some of the
pipedreams that have been promised.

BBC News Online has another item from Jane Wakefield
about how UK broadband plans are slow to bear fruit. This raises the question whether wires-only DSL will be the start of more widespread demand – from the level of interest in the forums and
increased numbers of new users it appears to be having an effect. The level of interest is perhaps surprising as none of the ‘big’ players e.g. Openworld, Freeserve or AOL have done much with
wires-only yet.

Some of the criticism about the wires-only products was the cost of the hardware, but as we’ve been seeing in the last couple of weeks the modems are coming down in price and more manufacturers are
on the way with options for users.