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Britain "should wait for next-gen broadband"

The week began with a government advisory board offering a masterclass in fence sitting, hedge betting and general dithering by suggesting that although the benefits to the UK economy of next-gen broadband could be huge, telecos would be wise not to bother investing just yet. Sleep on it, give it a couple of years, hope it all works out for the best - that kind of thing. Feeding our readers these sorts of stories is a bit like shooing a kitten into a nest of vipers.

"Broadband in UK = knitting with spaghetti," began Mr Flynn, setting us off in fine fashion, and teeing Bobbdobbs up nicely.

"So the introduction of next-gen broadband will bring massive benefits to the UK economy but we're not going to have it because the cost is too much now, but they shouldn't wait too long otherwise we'll miss out? The UK a first-world country with a second-rate broadband service run by third-rate politicians making fourth-rate decisions."

SwissMac, saw his cynicism and raised him some scorn: "How has Britain become a country that has ceased to believe in investing for the future? Is it any wonder that Britain is falling behind steadily in international comparisons of education, training, crime, competitiveness, health, infrastructure, public transport and more? Oh I forgot, so long as we can still go off to foreign wars what happens at home doesn't matter, so long as the multinationals are making a fortune."

And over to gavomatic57 for some whimsy: "I wonder if there was a similar report a few years ago saying we should wait before investing in the rail network, the NHS or the road network."

The £250 Ethernet cable

Speaking of ridiculous investment, who fancies paying £250 for a cable? Apparently it's for the audio enthusiast with the bulging wallet and empty head.

"I'd like to see the costing for a 100m run of this,"

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notes timark_uk. "This must be some top-grade copper cabling used for them to even think about justifying this cost."

Top grade? At this price we'd expect it to be made of dragon's teeth and be delivered to your door with a butler who'll wash it in baby tears everyday.

"A lot of people are, technologically speaking, complete and utter morons and just assume the more you pay the better it is," says gullyg. "I frequently see people who are very clever but seem to have no sense with computers at all. You would have thought that people like this would be able to absorb the information and make an 'informed' decision but a lot of them seem not to at all, you tell them what to buy and they hand over their credit card. Not that I'm jealous that they can afford to just drop into a shop and buy a £2000 laptop on a whim."

We can't afford to buy dinner on a whim, imagine how jealous we are. Nonetheless paulzolo clearly thought there might be one of two "audio enthusiasts" just mad enough to go for this. IN fact, he knows one.

"I know someone who listens to wires. No - seriously - he goes into hi-fi shops with his kit, sets up and tries different kinds of cabling. A year or so later, he'll repeat - hence the cabling I have. He gave me the stuff he was replacing. Can't complain. Saved me a trip to B&Q."

But not the asylum, clearly.

ASA takes dim view of Vodafone's "unlimited" data ads

And to our old friend the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), which was busy this week slapping Vodafone's meaty wrist for implying it offered unlimited data with its "Any website, any time. £7.50 a month" offer. It all went a bit Scrabble after that, with Vodafone assuming the role of competitive dad and bringing out the Collins English Dictionary to defend its context-bending definition of "any".

"Interesting," begins Mr_Flynn, who we suspect of sarcasm. "Isn't this the same ASA who lets ISPs advertise 'unlimited' use when in fact there's a 'fair usage' clause in the small print? There's nothing like consistency and that's nothing like it."

"Dear Vodafone, have a freebie advert slogan on me. The smallest amount of websites, any time. £7.50 a month," says robgt1 helpfully.

"Just to be clear, Vodafone, we can make that: "The smallest amount of websites, for some of the time. £7.50 a month," adds greemble, clearly getting the hang of this new game.

See you next week.