According to a recent business analysis report dealing with smaller organisations in England and Wales, the quality of a network connection can often impact the overall economic development in specific areas. Organisations located outside of major urban areas may be unable to improve their level of connectivity to the degree that they need it to be. As a result, individuals living in these communities could suffer economically, especially if their employers are in the process of transitioning to a remote workplace.
Some MPs have discussed relief packages for those who find themselves living in areas that are currently underserved by existing ISPs, though many of these plans are unlikely to currently gain traction. The increase in the overall number of remote workers in England and Wales has caused many of these existing networks to become overrun with requests. New evidence suggests that a few technical upgrades may ultimately lead to enhanced data throughput measurements, though it currently seems unclear how much of a difference these enhancements might make.
Improving Local Network Connections
Rural regions have traditionally seen a slower rate of network improvement, especially in areas where DSL lines hung on longer than other broadband technologies. The large amount of data being pushed through traditional networks by newly minted home workers is causing throughput issues in these problems. Technicians have attempted to solve them using the brute force method of simply laying down new cables.
Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll is perhaps best known by holiday travelers for its unusual name, but a new partnership with Openreach could lead to faster connection speeds for area residents. While the results aren’t necessarily expected to be dramatic, residents who’ve had some difficulty maintaining a connection should at least see a greater level of stability.
Users of dedicated unified communications platforms who’ve previously experienced challenges related to repeated disconnections should no longer suffer from these problems in the immediate region. That being said, those who do are urged to connect their service providers in order to provide feedback about these and other proposed network upgrades. They are, however, no longer encouraging the wholesale adoption of cellular technologies to solve problems that might require the use of something more scalable.
The Role of 5G Wireless
Though 5G connectivity was initially heralded as a solution to many networking challenges, engineers by and large do not seem to be adopting it in lieu of glass-based solutions. Conventional fibre optic cables are capable of greater speeds than any wireless connection, assuming that their installation is done in a way that limits the amount of outside interference they experience. While fibre optics don’t suffer from the kind of electromagnetic interference that normal copper-based solutions do, they might still have issues if exposed to water or soil.
Fortunately, most fibre optic cables are relatively well shielded and they therefore outperform 5G networks in spite of a great deal of optimism in the northeastern regions. These areas have seen at least some positive impact from the new wireless developments, but they do not match initial expectations. Naturally, that isn’t to say that 5G towers haven’t dramatically improved cellular connectivity in areas that previously had slow speeds. However, the speeds that they do offer aren’t normally suitable for use with dedicated business communication platforms.
Even the fastest 5G networks only offer around 1Gbps downstream rates and considerably slower uploads, which make them inappropriate for some types of desktop devices. It would be a challenge to run a server or data center at these speeds as well, which has made some specialists leery of adopting 5G technology in the enterprise. Instead, they’ve pointed to the work of Cornish technicians in regards to upgrading conventional networking technology.
The Cornwall Network Case Study
Cornish netizens still have poor connectivity in many areas, but the region’s Internet capacity has grown by leaps and bounds in the last few years. Some of the best speeds in the Padstow and St. Issey area reach over 50 Mbps, which should be sufficient for most uses. While it might be some time before everyone in the region enjoys the benefits of downstream rates that are this high, technical advisors are suggesting that this proves conventional engineering schemes do work to raise Internet speeds over time.
The establishment of new regional fibre operators is also likely to spur on further development in this space. Though it can be hard to predict when any given township might receive access to these kinds of services, it does seem almost certain that they will.