CityFibre chief questions Nielsen's law on broadband speeds

Nielsen's law on home internet connection speeds does not hold true for fibre optic broadband customers relying on copper-based infrastructure, according to Neil Fairbrother of CityFibre Holdings.

Writing on the network operator's official blog, Mr Fairbrother - CityFibre's product marketing manager - explained the law states that connection rates will rise by 50 per cent every year and double every 21 months.

However, the existence of copper cables in fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) broadband services means this general rule may not be correct, he said, as these wires have electrical resistance that slows the speeds received by end users.

This resistance is increased when the cables are long and thin, as is the case with broadband infrastructure, Mr Fairbrother pointed out.

"While these [wires] were fine for delivering low bandwidth (or low frequency) analogue voice, they are less well suited to deliver high speed (or high frequency) bandwidth," the expert commented.

Despite his claims, BT recently announced it will double the maximum download capabilities offered by its FTTC product from 40Mbps to 80Mbps next year.