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This is a genuine question. How many households do you suppose have an Internet connection that can support 4K? I don't know the answer for the USA, but I can s

This is a genuine question. How many households do you suppose have an Internet connection that can support 4K? I don't know the answer for the USA, but I can see from a Ofcom report published at the start of the year, about 68% of households in the UK would not be able to stream 4K on Netflix due to insufficient broadband speed. Just 1/3 of households have connections with 30Mb/s or more (http://media.ofcom.org.uk/news/2015/broadband-speeds-november2014/ http://media.ofcom.org.uk/news/2015/broadband-speeds-novembe...). I'm not saying this a valid excuse for omitting 4K support. However, for the most part I don't think the infrastructure is really there for the wider population. I live out in the sticks and barely get 3Mbps. Perhaps we might see 4K come to the Apple TV next year either as a software upgrade on current hardware or with better GPU/CPU to support it.

martinald 11y ago
30% may subscribe but nearly 90% (in England) have it available to them: http://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/?area=eng http://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/?area=eng Probably a chicken and egg problem, why upgrade to fibre many people will think when you have no need for it apart from slightly faster large file downloads
- georgerobinson 11y ago
  Thanks for the link! If 94% of the population can subscribe to BT's FTTC service and get at least 25Mbps then the state of broadband in the UK is much better than I had previously thought. That said, 25Mb/s is at the lower end of the FTTC service. I can imagine a lot of households will max out at around 40Mbps due to distance from the cabinet and cross-talk on busy lines (though vectoring should help somewhat). I would like to see what G.FAST can deliver but unshielded copper phone lines can only take you so far.
  - martinald 11y ago
    Don't forget that ~50% can get up to 300mbit/sec (by the end of the year) with Virgin Media. And probably 2-3% more can get direct FTTP with Hyperoptic, BT or Sky/TalkTalk or other altnets.

martinald 11y ago

30% may subscribe but nearly 90% (in England) have it available to them: http://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/?area=eng http://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/?area=eng Probably a chicken and egg problem, why upgrade to fibre many people will think when you have no need for it apart from slightly faster large file downloads

georgerobinson 11y ago
Thanks for the link! If 94% of the population can subscribe to BT's FTTC service and get at least 25Mbps then the state of broadband in the UK is much better than I had previously thought. That said, 25Mb/s is at the lower end of the FTTC service. I can imagine a lot of households will max out at around 40Mbps due to distance from the cabinet and cross-talk on busy lines (though vectoring should help somewhat). I would like to see what G.FAST can deliver but unshielded copper phone lines can only take you so far.
- martinald 11y ago
  Don't forget that ~50% can get up to 300mbit/sec (by the end of the year) with Virgin Media. And probably 2-3% more can get direct FTTP with Hyperoptic, BT or Sky/TalkTalk or other altnets.