The Museum, Libraries and Archives Council of the UK has today revealed a deal with local authorities across the UK which will see library Internet access connected to the “Janet” network offering broadband connection speeds of up to 1 GB. This is the network used by the schools and universities in the UK, offering speeds which are approximately 10 times those currently available across the UK library network.
It is interesting to see that many of the larger and more powerful broadband networks in the UK, often accessible to the few, are now being opened up to new institutions. In many ways it does show that the UK broadband network has the potential to improve dramatically over the next few years but there will need to be a sharing of technology and a potential sharing of costs and networks in due course.
UK consumers and UK businesses are still operating on significantly reduced broadband speeds in comparison to these private networks such as “Janet”. However, this could just be a short-term setback for consumers and businesses which will in due course, after the creation of the BT national network, see a significant improvement in UK broadband connectivity speeds.