Hotspots in the UK are of such importance to its residents that it’s said that prospective homeowners may soon start asking real estate agents how fast the Internet connection is at a particular address. And no wonder. Internet connections of 8–24Mbps enable businesses to work more quickly and get more done, with less aggravation. How far a home or business is from a particular telephone exchange can determine whether it’s in a hotspot or a not-spot. Although the government has promised that by 2012, all homes in the UK will be able to have broadband access at a speed of at least 2Mbps, there are still places, and not only in the most rural, remote areas of the UK, where this remains a dream. We won’t even mention that in some countries, speeds of 100 Mbps are the norm.
So far, the large cities, such as Central London, Belfast, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds, have the highest percentage of homes and businesses that enjoy high speed Broadband availability.
Other areas, without the capability to even reach 2Mbps, are known as not-spots. If the Internet connection is too slow, surfing the Internet becomes an arduous chore. Many people in these not-spots are unable to work from home, use Facebook or Twitter, view particular Web sites, or even shop online. A grassroots campaign has been started by ThinkBroadband for people who believe that their area is in a not-spot to enter their postal code in order to ascertain which areas are in need of an upgrade. The government will be provided with this information to come up with viable solutions to turn the not-spots into, well, if not hotspots, then at least warm spots.