The year in networks: UK's slow push to fast broadband and 4G Utopia

Another year, another load of rhetoric and promises aimed at hyping the UK's push towards a broadband network that will be 'the best in Europe', but there is still much to be done and hurdles to overcome if the nation is to reach this goal.

Perhaps the most important announcement was the government finally stating its aims: 90 per cent of the population to have access to 25Mbit/s or above by 2015 and all citizens to have to at least 2Mbit/s services by the same date.

This finally gave clarity to the boasts of Jeremy Hunt and Ed Vaizey, and means we have a barometer against which to measure the nation's progress to a superfast broadband Utopia, but the nation looks like it's some way off yet.

Bickering continued throughout the year over BT's price structure for access to its duct and pole infrastructure, as rivals like Virgin Media and a number of smaller firms expressed their unhappiness with BT's first proposal and a revised offer later in the year.

This even led network firm Geo to pull out of the Broadband Delivery UK funding request system after what it saw as excessive costs demanded by BT.

However, Fujitsu announced that it was happy to use BT's access product, and said that it is likely to push ahead with further work using BT's infrastructure in 2012 after a successful pilot in Liverpool.

Furthermore, BT continued with a series of new superfast services and improvements to its cabinets across the UK as well as promising even faster speeds in 2012.