YP Letters: More to broadband efficiency than its speed

RISHI Sunak describes a sow’s ear as if it were a silk purse and is quiet disingenuous (The Yorkshire Post, February 17).

Broadband speed is not the key measure for broadband satellite, it is latency (the time it takes the signal to do the round trip from server to client) and with satellite that is typically 10 to 30 times longer than it is for fibre and combined copper/fibre methods of connecting broadband customers.

In the Mendips in Somerset, the Government has been trialling the satellite offering that Mr Sunak extols but nobody wants it, despite being given a “free” satellite system, because the supplier says in the contract small print that “Skype is only available on a best efforts basis”.

This is because interactive applications like this become all but impossible to use due to the signal time delay. People are not stupid and when they see how expensive satellite is for a poor service they will steer well clear and rightly so. MPs should listen to their electors and persuade their Government to raise the priority on getting 20Mbps broadband to everyone who has a telephone line. The International Telecomunications Union recently stated that this is not an issue about cost or technology, but about leadership, which is currently lacking in the UK.