Top 10 broadband stories of 2019

The European broadband industry in 2019 was a place of huge activity and investment, with one overarching theme – full-fibre roll-out.

This was especially the case in the UK, where throughout the year, providers of all sizes embarked on plans to enable the country to catch up with its European peers in terms of access to gigabit networks. The fundamental benefit of such networks seemed as crystal clear as the fibres themselves – support for business transformation.

Yet this was not just a year of accelerated access by technology companies; it was a year when rolling out fibre-based broadband has been a hot political issue in the UK and was central to the plans of all the leading parties, in particular Labour, which had a radical plan to make fibre broadband freely available on a mass scale. This came just weeks after the ruling Conservative government rowed back on prior commitments to taking fibre to the country’s previously ignored heartlands.

So what will happen now as the dust settles on the General Election is not clear, but what is obvious is the appetite from companies everywhere for access to ultra-high-speed broadband networks that can take their businesses to another level. The big hope is that these wishes will be delivered in 2020.

Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 networking stories of 2019.