Apparently the UK is lagging behind our European counterparts in areas other than fine wine and healthy lifestyles.  Plans to give new-build homes super fast cable connections are only in the initial stages, while many existing homes can't expect to enjoy speeds similar to the continent until 2020.

Opinions are divided over the 'best' way to speed up connections and by 'best' I mean 'cheapest'.  H20 is pushing for fibre optic cables, laid through sewer networks, to produce speeds of 100Mbps at a cost of £15bn. BT are reluctant to move entirely away from DSL copper cables, as a mixture of these and fibre optics will only set them back a mere £5bn. 

Questions over who will want to use these higher speeds seem to have forgotten the impact YouTube has had in the past few years, ignored the increase of online TV consumption and played down the increasing numbers of online gamers demanding higher definition gaming services.  Every time a provider has offered larger bandwidth and faster connections we lap it up and I can't see this trend abating...