Superfast broadband is now over a year old in Spaldwick. It was last August when BT was visited by Government Minister, Ed Vaizey, and BT’s Managing Director of Next Generation Access, Bill Murphy. While many villagers were extremely happy that superfast broadband had arrived in Spaldwick, some expressed the concern that this could be a one-off and that Spaldwick could miss out on future broadband developments and technology.
The good news is that there’s no sign of this happening. In March 2015, a major enhancement called G.INP was rolled out to our local fibre street cabinet, to enhance broadband speeds and make lines less sensitive to interference. Several villagers have reported increases in download speeds of several Mbps (although not all modems are compatible with the service).
Yesterday, BT made history by launching the UK’s first live Ultra HD channel, showing the FA Community Shield match between Arsenal and Chelsea at Wembley Stadium in this new super-resolution format (with four times as many pixels as High Definition).
What makes BT’s launch so significant is the fact that the channel is actually carried by fibre broadband, rather than conventional satellite or terrestrial broadcasting, at a speed of about 30 Mbps. The match could be viewed in Spaldwick, as the channel is carried through BT’s network to Spaldwick’s fibre street cabinet (situated near the service station).
As the broadcast was recorded, if you are interested in viewing it in Ultra HD format, please do email Mark Heath, Spaldwick’s Broadband Champion, at info@spaldwick.com to arrange a demonstration.
Fibre broadband is rapidly becoming an important means of providing TV to complement, or even replace, conventional satellite or terrestrial broadcasting. Broadband-delivered TV and video content is available from numerous organisations including Sky, the BBC, Netflix, Amazon and BT.
Ultra HD represents the future of TV, delivering spectacular pictures on the latest Ultra HD TVs. According to BT, Ultra HD TVs account for the majority of TVs currently being sold. Ultra HD content is available via fibre broadband to Spaldwick residents from Netflix, Amazon, YouTube and BT. For more information, Mark has produced the folllowing information page: