What is Next Generation Access?
Next Generation Access (NGA) is defined by Ofcom as
“Broadband services that are capable of delivering sustained bandwidths significantly in excess of those currently available using existing local access infrastructures or technologies.”
NGA is likely to be based on a mix of technologies, including fibre optic connections, wireless and satellite in place of the current system, which is based on copper wire. These technologies will be able to deliver significantly higher bandwidth than the broadband currently available via copper wire.
There are already NGA developments taking place elsewhere, including Japan, the US, Korea, Canada, France, Spain, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Germany and Ireland. All of these NGA deployments are based on fibre optic technology.
Some of these deployments use a fibre optic connection right to the premises, which gives the highest bandwidth. This is sometimes known as FTTP (Fibre To The Premises.)
An alternative solution carries the fibre optic connection as far as the cabinet. In the UK, these are the green roadside cabinets, typically 1000 metres or so from the premises. This is sometimes known as FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet.)
FTTP is the best available option, but deploying it is far more expensive than FTTC, and so this needs to be taken into account in working out local strategies and assessing the various benefits of each option.
It is important to remember that Next Generation Access is not only about increasing speeds of broadband connection. NGA broadband will also need to be:
Affordable
In fact, it is already possible for anyone in the UK to order a fibre optic broadband connection into their premises – but only at a very significant cost of tens of thousands of pounds, putting it beyond the reach of most businesses in Cornwall. NGA services will need to be comparable in price to the present day broadband services so that they can be available to all
Reliable
Currently, broadband speeds vary throughout the day, depending on the number of users. What’s more, some people can be on fairly long and low quality lines and this can mean that their service occasionally drops out. This is a particular problem if, for example, your business has a Virtual Private Network (VPN) as this needs a consistent connection that doesn’t become jittery.
High speed in both directions
Currently, even if you can get a good ADSL broadband speed of 4Mb/s, your upload speed will be 300-400kb/s. This is a huge problem for businesses that need to send out large files or are using a Virtual Private Network to allow remote workers to connect into the office based systems.
Quality of Service
Some of today’s and many of tomorrow’s applications would benefit from a guaranteed ‘quality of service.’ For example, internet telephony (VoIP), video streaming, video conferencing and Virtual Private Networks would all benefit from being able to run over guaranteed connection speeds. This is something that is possible with NGA.
Future-proof
Capable of expanding to provide even higher bandwidths in the future. The existing copper wire infrastructure is in places 100 years old and will very shortly be at the limits of its expansion capacity.
