About the session
Over the past 10 years, the main benchmark for broadband networks has been ever faster data download speeds. In the future, this is not sustainable, particularly for wireless networks. One consequence is a rapid increase in the percentage of the population that have less than these ever-higher speed targets. The percentage of the population lagging behind on their mobiles could reach as high as 60%, depending upon how high these promised access speeds reach. The IET has proposed a new approach which it calls "demand-attentive networks" (DAN). It offers better-performing networks at a lower level of investment. The new focus is on what users want to do over the networks. The economic gains come from smarter networks and driving out the inefficiencies that have accumulated from an industry that has fragmented over the past 25 years between fixed and mobile, handsets and networks, networks and content distribution, between different networks and even between networks and regulation. In some cases, the DAN gains are absolutely cost-free, if only the different parts do things in a more co-operative way.
