Cable companies continue to mislead the punters

For those of us in the UK, Virgin's Mother of all broadband adverts claiming to be 'fibre optic' have been driving us to distraction for quite some time. (Virgin is a cable company so in their case what they are flogging is FTTC - Fibre To The Co-ax) Now the misleading of the public is continuing in Holland with this advert.....

The problem is that bodies set up to protect the public from misleading adverts eg the Advertising Standards Agency are in on the act, for instance, by making rulings about complaints made when the Virgin ads first started to air in 2008.

The point being that ISPS and telcos have redefined many aspects of the broadband world to suit their own ends viz the redefinition of "broadband" from 2Mbps+ symmetrical capable of simultaneously transmitting and receiving voice, video and data (back in 1984) to "um...well, any data connection that we can get away with convincing Joe Public and government, Ofcom etc might be called 'broadband', however slow, incapable of doing more than one thing at once, asymmetric....." (you know the marketing spiel yourselves!).

The continuing failure by the telcos and ISPS to monitor their own marketing has not been assisted by Ofcom and other regulators, who seem to steer clear of getting involved in ensuring the consumers and customers are told the truth. All that is required is to lay down a few guidelines to telcos about what they rightly can and cannot call their products or claim about their networks.

Just because Fibre is the new black in the world of broadband, does not mean that everyone can suddenly include the word 'fibre' in their advertising to jump on the bandwagon. Unless consumers are accurately informed, and not misled by marketing departments, how on earth can they make the decisions about which products will suit their needs or understand how the changes in technology affect their ability to use 'broadband' to live, work and play online?

It is time for an EU wide enforcement of accurate advertising standards for the telcos before we have further consumer confusion with 'fibre broadband'. The rot has already set in, and it needs stopping NOW.

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Get the Word Out

Part of the battle we face is one of ignorance - a lack of understanding why NGA is needed and a lack of appreciation as to how it could be delivered.

Education is crucial if we are to spread the word. As such I have launched a new website: www.nextgenerationaccess.com . It is designed to inform and educate and perhaps even to stimulate. There is no commercial angle so take a look and tell your friends. I'm also open to all comments and suggestions as to how to improve it. Read more!

Business & Enterprise Committee to inquire into Broadband Speed

www.parliament.uk%2Fparliamentary_committees%2Fberr%2Fbecpn47_0809.cfm

Hmmm... another committee, another report. Just what we need.

I can understand the sentiment and the thought that perhaps the DB report was not aggressive enough in its aspirations but the way to fix it is not to form another committee (which BTW does not look very representative to me) and deliver another report which will also fall short of our aspirations. Time to ignore the politicians?

Here's a thought... DB set a 2Mbit/s USC. That means 2M to every house in the UK. Let's take some of the most rural. How do we do that? Copper doesn't work, wireless has too many issues, satellite is too expensive. Is fibre the only option?

Can we deliver on the USC to all areas without implementing an infrastructure that is capable of drastically exceeding it? Read more!

Broadband Poll Tax

The injustice of the £6 per line annual broadband tax as proposed in Lord Carter’s Digital Britain Report is that it is applied to copper fixed line rental, a.k.a. dial tone, rather than to broadband itself.

As well as being regressive and a most unwelcome extra burden in the currently depressed UK Economy, this taxation is also wrong headed - put simply, why should people who don’t want broadband subsidise those who do?

By analogy, Carter’s Broadband Tax is like taxing Jews, Moslems and Veggies to subsidise the price of pork (…barrels?)

- a proposition that would certainly draw howls of protest, so why should the matter of broadband be treated any differently?

Whilst universal broadband choice is laudable and something that FibreStream exists to enable, setting out to achieve this outcome by applying taxation to those who do not necessarily want broadband is simply inequitable discrimination

- nothing less than the tyranny of the majority against the minority, often the Elderly and the least well-off members of Society, hardly an exemplar of caring Socialism in action.

If Carter’s Broadband Tax is instead targeted fairly at existing broadband subscribers, both fixed line and mobile, then those who do not wish to take broadband service would not be penalised for having a conventional phone line, in order to subsidise those who do.

An inevitable, perhaps unintended, outcome of this regressive tax will be a marked increase in mobile broadband uptake at the expense of fixed line services which will result in the total revenues from fixed line services dwindling rapidly away.

Say No! to the Broadband Poll Tax

Also posted at FibreStream Blog

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Time to start the Push

So, we now know where we stand... Digital Britain has come and other than taking £6 per year from us has made little difference.

When can I have my ultra high-speed broadband line? Well, to summarise what I believe Lord Carter would tell me if I ever do have the opportunity to ask him that question, don't expect it any time soon from the 'usual' providers and if you really want it that badly then do it yourself.

It's time to get things moving, to spread the word, to get others involved and to drag ourselves into the 21st Century.

As a starting point I have created a new group on LinkedIn called 21st Century Communications for Britain. If you have a LinkedIn account please sign up (here's the link: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2042766&trk=hb_side_g ). It's just a starting point but the more people we can get involved the quicker we can start to make changes for all of us. Read more!

Announcement of Independent Networks Co-operative Association (INCA)

At the CBN Next Generation Roadshow in Manchester today we got some further information about INCA, as (briefly) mentioned in the recent Digital Britain report. Here is what they shared with us:

INCA: A National Framework for Local Action

The Digital Britain report backed the proposal by CBN to create a body to represent and coordinate local next generation broadband networks and initiatives. The Independent Networks Co-operative Association – INCA – is being launched at this event.

INCA will:
• Act as a unified voice for local projects to government and industry
• Promote common technical & business standards
• Create a body of expertise supporting next gen projects
• Underpin the development of the ‘patchwork quilt’ of local projects by developing a ‘Joint Operating Network’ (JON) providing technical and operational support
• Create a development service to promote local project opportunities
• Encourage public sector investment in innovative local schemes
• Focus rural investment on Next Generation, not simply catching up with First Generation broadband

More information at www.inca.coop


INCA will receive £150,000 in funding from the government but will establish itself as a co-operative model whereby future funds will come from the members.

They will model their approach on the National Co-operative Telecommunications Association from the US.

Clearly this is a necessary model if the ‘patchwork quilt’ of fibre networks is how Britain is going to build its digital economy, however I have to ask if the business model is viable. The ‘members’ will be a very diverse group of organisations from co-op FTTH projects such as Alston Cybermoor (or Fibremoor as I believe they prefer now) to service providers wishing to offer their services over these networks (some new local and regional SPs and the usual suspects of large players including BT and Virgin Media) to other content providers wishing to deliver their content (for example the BBC). Do we expect all these groups to act together under the umbrella of an organisation into which they have all invested? Is it reasonable to expect that they will all invest? Beyond that as these JON “demand aggregation” centres are established can we expect these organisations to reach consensus on the common architectures and standards?

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50p/month is simply not enough

The Digital Britain report has enforced a 50p per month per landline levy on us all in the UK for the next gen fund to connect the disconnected. Well, maybe. (See below) We did some maths....

Potentially, according to the report, this will raise around £150-175m a year. The Fund will not even begin to gather funds until post-election in 2010, which potentially means it will not actually see the light of day if Labour lose the general election. (So... don't get too caught up on this red herring.)

Let's do some maths. In countries where FTTH and other next gen solutions have already been deployed /are already in place and there is ample experience with the costings, the figures for rural and remote seem to average out at around £750-£1k per household when done commercially. (Hold those last three words in your head, as there are other routes to fibre lay, including dig where you live, #JFDI and CIC owned community solutions, which are FAR cheaper).

Therefore, £150m per year would allow the connection of approx 150k households/businesses per year, without the quango expenses to admin all this. (So, that'll be the other 25m accounted for.)

The report states that this fund would be for the FINAL THIRD ie 33% of the population who the telcos won't touch. We know from our previous Fiver To The Home 5tth work that there are approx 25million homes and businesses requiring connectivity, so the final third would be 8million homes and businesses.

8,000,000 /150,000 = 53 YEARS to deliver the eNdGAme FTTH using the tax applied through this fund on every copper landline. And that is a generous estimate as we all know these Govt IT schemes go over budget and over time....

Even if this Fund were to subsidise, encourage external investment etc, where exactly is it going to be spent and how? Are we allowed a say in making sure this farce doesn't degenerate into a total cock up?

Stephen Carter stated on Radio 4s PM program (45m:40s) this evening that UK is the first country to "find a solution to building fibre networks to the entire country" and the first country in the world to fund it.

Wrong on both counts. And certainly not out of that pot, Mr Carter. Not in your lifetime or mine, anyway.

I would like to refer you, again, Rt Hon Stephen Carter MP, to my 12 point broadband manifesto and also my open letter to you in January 2009.

It gets worse... what has been proposed is to hammer UK enterprises, rural citizens and businesses by making those who have NO CHOICE about having a landline because mobile coverage is so dire, or who have multiple phone lines/ISDN etc, pay to connect.....themselves.

Do you know what? I have a piggy bank. In it, each month I will save my 50p and using my impoverished business profits as my digital company is unable to generate what it is capable of because of the paucity of the UK broadband network, I will pay for my own fibre to the home connection, thanks. Just as many communities are now doing.

We do not need Govt (and resigning ministers) making suggestions, policy, regulation etc to deliver next generation broadband anywhere between 2012 and 2017 (with a following wind). We need true, symmetrical broadband that fits the 1984 definition of the technology NOW.

Can what you propose transmit and receive voice, video and data simultaneously? No? Not even 1984 broadband then, let alone next gen.....? Then I'll keep my 50p, thanks. And bin my copper phone line and use satellite until I join all the IR35 software talents abroad.

Watch this space for a mass exodus of the digital skills that 21st century Britain needs to replace the manufacturing industry it has so cunningly destroyed...


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Digital Britain Report - today's the day

The Digital Britain report is to be presented to Cabinet today and published soon (possibly at 3.30pm). Follow it on these sites.....

Twitter (obviously!) #digitalbritain
Guardian site, live from the launch
Live Blogging from @beamadelica
Number 10 site (I can't get this link to work but maybe others on better connectivity can)
Parliament TV (This won't work over my connection either!!)


It is interesting to note there are no mobiles nor laptops allowed into the launch of this report, nor is there any internet connectivity it seems. On top of this, the CRC Report on broadband in rural communities is being launched in central London on 23rd June. Deeply rural is the Palace of Westminster, so a well chosen venue to highlight the real issues.

Very inclusive all this, showing the world how good the UK is at using the technology it is planning to be a champion/expert with. Not.

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Another Need for Speed Report

For those muppets who still think anywhere up to 2Mbps non-symmetrical is absolutely fine now, in 2012 and beyond, take note of the UPLOADS speeds on page 5 of this report......

The Need for Speed Report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, whilst being US-centric, offers some hard facts and evidence for anyone still in doubt about why the USO of 2Mbps is a joke.

Additionally, comments such as Vint Cerf's about the shift in innovation being away from those nations which have traditionally held it (and who have bog all left in any other sectors eg industry and manufacturing and therefore need to be heftily engaged in the knowledge and IT economy) should be viewed as timely calls to action/arms, not pontifications.

Dave Isenberg and others have long talked about the importance of activity and creation at the edge of the network, and the arrogance of telcos and others in restricting this through false scarcity models etc has to come to an end now. The benefits and importance of the edge of the network 'innovations' are well-known, and have historically led to the development of much that we take for granted today, eg from light bulbs to Word processing applications.

It is what will come out of well-connected bedrooms, garden sheds, and rural one-man ventures that will change the world and the way we live, work and play, not some over-funded corporate or government R&D department with a fat pipe to it.

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Digital Britain Unconference Reports

It is unsurprising that Unconferences were held to debate the DB report, and the reports are now out, and embedded below. Please make comments before 16th June 2009.

There are still ongoing discussions on Twitter under #dbuc09 #digitalbritain and #ruralbroadband although today many of those in rural areas are far more concerned about DFB (Dairy Farmers of Britain) going tits up and what this means to the farmers, 10% of the UK milk supply and the rural economy - potential bankruptcies UK wide, land sales etc etc. #DFB.

Digital Britain Unconferences Summary

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Finance Business & Law dbuc09 digitalbritai

Digital Britain Unconferences Report

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Finance Business & Law dbuc09 digitalbritai

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Digital Hubs

Speechless. Over 3 million homes and businesses can't even get 2Mbps, let alone have true broadband on the horizon, and we have digital jewellery on the agenda.

Digital inclusion funding, and which hub is based in a rural area? None of them. Like I said, speechless.
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BBC FTTH coverage

About time Cumbria got some really good publicity! The BBC are focussing on FTTH and next gen for the rest of the week and there is plenty to watch and read.
BBC Tech pages by Jane Wakefield and Rory Cellan-Jones
LA on TV (sorry about sound quality at the end, am trying to get a digital version of the piece)

I would like to add that I forgot to mention far too many different things - Dig Where You Live, JFDI, C'mon baby light my fibre, the fantastic investment opportunity that is FTTH and the returns UK plc will see from deploying, etc etc etc but p'raps it is time to make our own Fibre TV shows anyway?! Anyone want to feature?

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Dig where you live works!

Lyse have proven that getting your customers to dig in the fibre to their own homes really works, with 80% of customers picking up their shovels.

Amazing what a couple of hundred quid saving can do to motivate people.....! Read more!

12 point broadband FTTH manifesto!

We have no choice but to pursue true broadband as a nation. However, to date (25 years and counting), we have failed to really get to grips with what is required. As the country becomes ever more aware of just what a mess it is in, broadband is actually one of the few investments we could make that stands a chance of turning things round. But do we really know what to do as a country? Or are we going to let a few civil servants and businesses dictate what happens next?

It has been a very long decade plus, often shouting into a lonely emptiness about broadband being as vital as air. However, the tide appears to have turned, and there is more noise now about true broadband than ever before, from so many different voices. At last - we have Fibrevolution!

Are we clear what is required though for UK Plc? Are there too many factions trying to pull in too many directions? Is there a lack of cohesive, joined up thinking on the matter? Are we actually allowing all the voices to be heard, particularly those at grassroots who have broken many barriers and destroyed many of the telecom myths over the last decade, whilst finding and implementing solutions?

Here are some thoughts on the matter.....my manifesto! Vote LA ;o)

1) There has to be a patchwork of solutions eg FTTH and FiWi. We cannot get FTTH to every single house and business, but we should try that first, starting in the most difficult areas so we learn the hardest lessons which we can them apply in the easy areas. The trick will be ensuring that these solutions connect all the 'islands/lilypads' together and leave no-one in the dark without next gen connectivity because of a lack of standards or advance planning. The Wi in FiWi may well have to be mobile wireless tech in some places for the primary connection but those places should be absolutely minimal in number. However, mobile and wifi and Wimax etc should be ubiquitous for the wireless cloud over the top of the country, not patchy. What we are implying here is that the smallest percentage of the population possible should only have a single choice (eg mobile) for connectivity, not that we should rely on mobile to infill just because the incumbent doesn't want to play. (This is what the DB report is implying and it is a scenario which should be avoided at all costs).

2) The network asset should belong to the people who use it. Not to the country per se as we have cocked up this nationalisation lark far too many times, nor wholesale to the telcos. There is no reason why we can't decentralise, regionalise and localise for effective community ownership. Mutuals have survived the financial crisis far better than private companies and we should learn from that model. Telcos must be prevented from further holding this nation over a barrel with monopolies, or even duopolies, and mutual ownership does that, whilst protecting a level of the telco revenue stream through maintenance etc contracts. And they can become more imaginative about their offerings to consumers in a truly competitive marketplace!

3) Rural areas are the hard bits, where costs will inevitably be higher. However, I have been saying for a decade that demand in such places is higher. If we adopt a sensible approach to ensuring that the return on investment is maximised, rural areas may prove the key to turning around this nation's engagement with the glocal knowledge economy. Why? There are more SMEs in rural areas than urban. Distance from services automatically isolates rural businesses and dwellers who then will use the Net to resolve some of those issues. The positive environmental impact of FTTH etc (deployment and usage) is now proven to be so high that if we see reduced energy and fuel consumption in rural areas (where extra resources are required just to transport electricity, goods and people about), we may start to hit eco targets by changing behaviour. Rural people are used to being self-sufficient and ingenious and we will undoubtedly see innovation and exciting developments across all sectors. (Check out the barrow mole as an example!)

4) It is not about technology. None of this is about what tech is used, how much it costs etc. It is all about connecting people so they can communicate. We must deploy a strategy for internet and IT education that reaches every home and every user, young, old, rural, urban etc. Prime time TV, schools, night classes, etc are required to ensure that everyone can use the Internet and IT efficiently and effectively. This is not about niche geeky programmes showing the latest electronic gadgets. This is about 5 min TV slots or video clips or 1 page of a newspaper which show how to upload a Youtube video, how to search for a website, how to backup your data, how to keep safe online, how to troubleshoot your PC problems. We need an IT equivalent of NHS Direct, manned by skilled staff around the country who can keep this nation online.

5) We have to bin the false scarcity model. Immediately. Bits are not scarce, they are not expensive any more. Scaring people into non-use, or charging them prohibitive amounts to use bits does not work except for the bank balances of the telcos. There should be an international league table of bit usage by nation. The countries using the most bits have obviously engaged more directly with the digital economy. In fact, it should probably be an Olympic event!

6) We should use the digital dividend immediately for broadband into rural and remote areas. We need to comprehend clearly that there need to be different solutions for rural and urban areas, and we need to look at our existing resources and re-use them where possible - ducts, poles, masts, spectrum etc. The HIE method of sitting all the mobile operators around one table to work out which masts could be used and shared saw mobile coverage brought to the Highlands & Islands with minimum disruption and maximum resource sharing. (Kudos to HIE!)

7) The property rating on fibre should be waived for a minimum 10 year period to allow new build, use of existing resource, new entrants and so on to benefit. The Treasury will lose far less by waiving it and letting the infrastructure build-out take place and be used, than it is gaining by attempting to charge it and stymying the development of next generation networks.

8) All planning departments and Highways should be forced to adopt new regulations about FTTH, wayleaves, permissions etc. No business or residential property should be constructed from now on without FTTH (wiring, media kits etc etc) in place, and should an application be made to cross a road with fibre etc, it should be granted unless there is existing resource which could be used instead.

9) Dig where you live should be actively encouraged. UK Plc is footing the bill for this infrastructure build, and the last thing we need is yet another stupidly expensive government IT project. (Which, judging by recent history of such grandiose plans, will fail anyway and undermine confidence yet further.) Want to get to know your neighbours? What better way than digging through to their garden and discussing all you need to create a community network? If the Scandinavians can do it, we can too!

10) Smart meters must be an integral part of next gen and FTTH and the ubiquitous wireless cloud. If I, as a single mum living in the middle of nowhere, found out 4 years ago that you can get smart meters that can create an intelligent local wireless mesh network for broadband connectivity, then people in the utility industries must be more than aware of it. If we install smart meters that are only good for remote meter reading, we have not just wasted an opportunity, we are wasting MONEY.

11) The 2Mbps USO falls into the underachievement, lack of aspiration post from before. It is simply not enough. It is not enough today and it won't be in 2012 and beyond. because what keeps getting forgotten is that once that USO is set at 'up to 2Mbps' there it will likely stay for another decade or more. If Korea can go for 1Gbps by 2012, we need to increase our own ambitions and get real. 2Mbps is pathetic. It may be all the telcos and mobile operators want to invest in, but we have to raise the bar and think about the actuality. Educate our Internet users (see point 4) and they will be as dissatisfied with 2Mbps as they should be. The problem is, as I saw this morning illustrated far too clearly when the BBC were in Caroline and David's house, anyone who has been stuck on dial up has no idea what is now available to do on the Internet, so a reasonable proportion of the country still has NO IDEA what they can do on 2Mbps, let alone 10 or 100Mbps SYMMETRICAL. Let's not keep these people in the dark forever by only offering 2Mbps.

12) FTTC - if we have to, let's go Fibre To The Cabinet in some places to get the creative juices flowing, but let's do it right. There has to be urgent talks about unbundling those street cabs and the first mile/inches of copper cables. BT should not be given that on a plate. We need a competitive marketplace and to be realistic, that needs to include local communities in that competition. Nearly every community I have been to in the UK (and that is _many_) has a local champion or IT specialist or computer fixer who has ideas about local content, local delivery of network resource etc. Don't just keep it for the telcos.

Discuss!!

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RT: fibreactive

RT @fiberactive: Poor Old BT : BT is a badly run hedge fund that happens to own a phone network http://tinyurl.com/r5ythl (via @FTtechnews)

Nuff said. Read more!

Broadband Aspirations

It strikes me, more and more forcefully, that what we are doing in this country is encouraging people to aspire to crap broadband. We make out that 2Mbps should be more than enough for anyone - if I hear that once more this week, block your ears, my screams of wrath and frustration are likely to be loud! We hear more and more about how speed is not the issue, quality is - well, maybe speed isn't the be all and end all, but having a fast connection doesn't half help!

We take people to the cleaners for using more than their fair share of a network with abundant capacity and spread horror stories about how hard their pocket will be hit if they overstep the 'false scarcity' mark with down- and uploads. We fail to attack the issue of symmetry and yet in a consumer content creation world, we need people to upload as much, if not more than, download. We don't fill our primetime TV with exciting programmes about what you can do with superfast broadband, as they do in Korea where MMPOG online gaming competitions are prime time; we don't educate our users. I watched again this morning as a major SEO/internet marketing headache happened in front of the camera - who types the URL of a site they know the URL for into Google? Just about bloody everyone in Britain! Do they not know what the location /address bar is for?!

We don't encourage kids to aspire to be games programmers and push the envelope, or even make sure all of our teachers are au fait with the online world. We generally teach kids very basic first gen website design, instead of letting them explore cutting edge techniques from smart developers etc. Etc etc etc.

In fact, this lack of aspirations is across the board, through general IT to true broadband. And yet, it is not normally a British trait. We used to aspire to be 'great', to conquer the world, to have an Empire. Now, we seem content to allow private companies and government to drop the bar to as close to ground level as possible and then we attempt to crawl under it. Luckily, the more adventurous and creative are trying to limbo under it, whilst yet others are determined to raise it as high as possible.



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BBC broadband coverage

The next three days sees BBC news and website coverage of the broadband issue, both from the point of view of those who cannot get it to those who already have more than the UK is currently able to imagine.

This morning the BBC were on 'my patch' recording interviews with a family who can still only get dial up. This is a family who can't access Youtube, iPlayer or any of the other applications many now take for granted. Their children haven't even tried these apps, nor do they benefit from the opportunities presented by the technology. It is hard to remember how painfully slow dial up is until you try to get on facebook which took around 5 mins just to get to the log in page and sign in. Uploading photos, checking out your friends' profiles etc is a process that could not be fitted easily into a day let alone a quick flit in and out to see how your friends are doing. And experimenting, investigating and playing with the very many tools etc out there on the Net is impossible.

(Apologies for quality of video, it's on my phone - if you want to see better quality, watch BBC Breakfast News tomorrow!)

Rory did focus on the USO at one point during the interview, and once again, it is hard to see how 2Mbps could be enough for ANYONE except those who have been forced to spend their days waiting for an 8Mbps anti virus download and who are ignorant of the many possible other things that they could be using the technology for because they haven't had the opportunity to try it.

2Mbps is NOT enough as a USO. It is lowering the bar to the lowest common denominator, rather than upping it so that all our citizens are able to innovate, educate themselves, and help to drag Britain to a position at the forefront of the digital economy. And rural broadband is vital when funds are allocated, which they undoubtedly will be to solving this problem now it has finally become so high profile.

What I am still unsure about is whether this coverage will actually begin to pick up on the very many people who are out there resolving these issues whilst the telcos fiddle. Whilst Cybermoor and Alston will be getting free publicity tomorrow for their funded network when the fibres are lit, many projects around the country are now in development which are being and will be resourced locally and by the community, owned by their communities, and now (watch this space) supported by industry.

Whether the Digital Britain report can even begin to take on board the speed at which solutions are being implemented and the impact that has on Net usage, network capacity etc, we can only wait and see. In the meantime, watch the BBC!

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Notspot surveys

After years without any reliable information gathering about where the notspots in the UK are which cannot get 'broadband', (careful with the definition of that term because if you use the 1984 def of 2Mbps+ symmetrical, most of the country is still without broadband), we now seem to have two notspot surveys/reports ongoing.

SamKnows and the BBC have been collating information on notspots and this will be shown on BBC News tomorrow Wednesday 27th May. If you are in any way interested in the broadband 'state of the nation', you need to keep an eye on BBC news and the website over the coming days, particularly the comparison of Uk with other countries, and the message which hopefully will come over loud and clear that this Govt needs to start spending on basic and vital infrastructure. ThinkBroadband have just announced their notspot survey too so if you are in a crap spot or a notspot, add your details.

The mapping clearly shows that this problem is widespread and affects all areas of the country, even those within urban/sem-urban areas who one would assume would have decent coverage. The previous notspot report conducted by ABC and CBN showed exactly the same back in 2004/5, so sadly, little has changed in 5 years. Whilst for some the speeds may have risen, for those in notspots and crapspots, it really hasn't. Far too many people are still reporting substantially below 512kbps, and there are plenty below 2Mbps. For those who have tried, even 2Mbps isn't sufficient for Youtube, iPlayer etc when the quality of the network, in particular the first mile, remains so dire.

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Can BT JFDI?

"50 Jigabytes... Not to the home yet but coming...." And not a correction in sight from Mr Gary Shainberg BT's VP of Technology & Innovation Support aka Mr JFDI (cough, splutter). Bring on the bandwidth in Israel, anyone else fancy moving there with us?


Oh, you want a link to the video with BT's new 'chap' in charge of getting things done?! If BT are working so hard with the Open Source community, perhaps they want to look at Open Sauce Digging from Chris et al. (There is more to come from other rural areas of the country but we can't get them off their connections long enough to edit the vids!!!)

Thanks to everyone for the calls, tweets, DMs, skype msgs, emails, diggs, and much more. I _am_ trying to be diplomatic (honest!) but let's face it,if you want your points putting across, you hang on to your company cars, pensions etc and I'll just keep being me with your input!! At least between all of us, some of the messages are getting through, it seems.
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Power to the people (JFDI)

OK, now we have the next two episodes of the JFDI FTTH dig in Wray. For those within the industry, it seems there is quite some interest in the approach taken, which whilst not necessarily upholding the highest professional standards of industry has allowed many to consider that there are other routes to the superhighway than those which take years and cost billions.

Let's face it, the truth of the matter is that for 25 years, industry and government have been sitting around on their arses talking about FTTH. I and others have been growing increasingly frustrated, despite involvement for me for only half that time, at the apathy shown and barriers invented to prevent it happening. Those affected MOST by this failure are, of course, the ones who will inevitably pay for it in the long and short run - the consumers and the taxpayers.

It had to get to the point where the people said, "Enough is enough. If you are just going to sit there talking, we will get on with it." And lo and behold, it has now started. It's not a great surprise, in other countries similar Dig Where You Live projects exist too. It's just that the majority of those have had the support of utility companies, or local and central government funds.

We can no longer pretend that the incumbents are the only ones who can play in this area, and accept that more and more people are going to start taking matters into their own hands to take our families, businesses and communities into the world of 21st century fibre optic communications that many other countries are already well and truly entrenched in. Pun intended.

It is to be hoped that the Digital Britain report shows an awareness of the DEMAND for this level of connectivity TODAY, and stops assuming that all internet users are muppets, willing to be BROADCAST to and be PASSIVE. We are not. As a post-industrial exporter myself (one of those with so-called digital skills), I and many thousands of others have been watching the Department of Trade and Industry (and now DCMS too) allow a private company or three stymie our business development, hinder our economic growth, restrict our productivity, and force our children to suffer limited levels of interaction with what can only be termed as the 'real world' these days considering how much is on the Internet that they need to engage with. Ironic huh?

On with the show......
Part 1 - in the stables. Splitting the fibre to feed to two homeworkers with Lucid star, Dave!

Part 2 - in the utility room. Showing the end connects being done, also starring Dave.


There are lots of photos taken by Chris on Picasa to peruse too.

Nice to see the war of the Roses may finally be well and truly over. This is a northern project, with players from Yorkshire and Lancashire working extremely well together! Am just off to see Chris now (from Cumbria - by 'eck us northerners can cross borders, just as fibre can!) so will report back when I have had a play on the first rural fibre connection within the UK I have ever managed to get my hands on! And it ain't for want of trying ;o)

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All three vids of the JFDI FTTH crew

Not sure what the BBC are playing at. We could have had a half hour series on this dig on prime time TV judging by the amount of interest!! All three videos are now on Youtube and the links are all here for you, with the third hot off the press this very morn. With suggested music to accompany this fab feat!


I need to stress that one of the most important reasons for this JFDI FTTH exercise is the fact that there is no ADSL in the vicinity. Whereas we have been pushing for FiWi for years (Fibre--> wireless), these connections are having to be wireless-fibre because of the lack of fibre in close proximity, nor decent copper for that matter.

This situation is rife across rural UK but has managed to vanish under the radar over the years, despite attempts to highlight the huge number of notspots and the impact this has on rural regeneration, quality of life, innovation, business development and so on.

However, there are some advantages to this route of starting with wireless backhaul. Firstly, the wireless connection is symmetrical and so users can upload and download at the same speed. The importance of upload speeds and capacity should never be under-estimated in this age of consumer generated content and prosumers. Secondly, the options for increasing the backhaul are open to competition and technology neutral - no reliance on nor even presence of copper capable of taking over from the wireless here. And unsurprisingly, those operators wishing to get involved in this type of rural connectivity have been coming out of the woodwork even prior to this video series.

Enjoy!

"Ain't no stopping us now" - Part 1 of the Great British fibre diet starts

"C'mon on baby, light my fibre" - Part 2 of the JFDI FTTH dig

"Pickin a bluebell in the merry month of May" - Part 3 of the rural fibre dig video series.


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JFDI Community Broadband Books

More Amazon orders today. Please, please, please, if you want the JFDI Community Broadband books, especially in light of what has been laid and lit in the last couple of days, order them here on Lulu.

Why? I knew you would ask that! Because Amazon want the books for cheaper than I can get them published, and because of their system, it is desperately environmentally unfriendly for me to have them shipped from the south of England (the printer for Lulu) to Cumbria, to stick in Amazon's order slip, and despatch them back down south to Amazon's warehouse. Which I can only do at a loss, both from the printing and shipping.

Tis easy, if you want the books (which seemingly, many of you do looking at my email hashtag for Amazon Advantage recently), please buy them from Lulu and save the planet and my non-existent wallet. Cheers!
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C'mon baby!!!

The first JFDI FTTH rural connections are lit!! Excuse me whilst I just crack open a bottle of champagne. It has been a VERY very long 14 years waiting for today.

The videos will be up on Youtube shortly and I want to be the first to publicly congratulate Chris (who I thought would never, ever understand how important fibre was in her diet!) and all the rest of the team who have made this and much more possible. Watch this space!!

CHEERS ;O)
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Dig where you live

Dewayne has just posted this article about dig where you live in Norway.

Do you think if we say this out loud often enough, Britain might f*&^ off the large telcos and JFDI properly, as others have?!

Quick update on the rural FTTH stuff happening today - tis now on Youtube. All power to their mole ploughs etc. GREAT STUFF!
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Rural broadband Dilemma

The story from the providers on video...

As today has seen, we can now start to disprove the rural broadband payback arguments.
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Rural Village tops the fibre lay

Dig where you live!! Just had a call from a rural village who TODAY, right now, have started to lay the first miles of their community owned fibre optic FTTH network, beating pretty much everyone else in the UK to the post.

On top of a mountain, the digger has just arrived to start the work to connect the first houses. By the end of the afternoon, this community will be able to boast initial first mile connectivity that other communities (eg Ebbsfleet) can only dream about. No copper in this network, just glass and broadband at the speed of light.

This is an unfunded project - no public sector money here - whose entire ethos of JFDI has been borne out of a deep frustration at the failure in this country to solve the massive problems that lack of true broadband has caused in rural areas. There are now very many people for whom the approach to Digital Britain by our government and telcos is now so inappropriate, slow and so yesterday, that they have taken the issue into their own hands. This will not be the last community who are talked about here in the coming weeks and months who are JFD FTTH - I know of more than several others who are very close too.

The work that has gone on to reach this stage has been startling in its ability to find the right people and companies who can help to deliver FTTH, and get them involved. There is an appetite amongst much of our commercial sector to actually get on and do this, which is not always apparent when you hear the bureaucrats and industry 'specialists' etc talking about FTTH. The drive is coming from the consumers and communities, so it is difficult to see how anyone can say the demand is not there, particularly for roll outs such as this into rural communities who have patchy mobile coverage, little or no ADSL, etc.

Photos and video to follow later. For those who think BT et al are the only ones who can afford and should deliver FTTH for UK Plc, think again!!!

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Virgin trials 200Mbps

Virgin bonds DOCSIS 3 lines together to get 200Mbps for 100 users in Ashford, Kent. BUT, no sign of symmetry and therefore how can you establish demand without testing what users may want it for?

Article on PC Pro This approach still fails to understand what many people _want_ to use their connection for - sharing, be it videos, music, video conferencing ie talking to their friends and family, or using innovative apps. Most of us are still unable to share any video longer than a couple of minutes or video conference because the upload speed or capacity are just not available, especially for an enjoyable experience. People aren't doing it because they CAN'T. Not that they don't want to.

We keep seeing research saying that the majority of users are only emailing, surfing etc with a little multimedia thrown in on the side. Until users are able to start playing around on symmetrical connections (bear in mind we don't even have SDSL in this country), the apps that are likely to evolve from that availability, and hence consumer education about, and uptake of, such apps, will remain severely limited.

Look at SMS - that flies, and makes untold millions for the mobile operators because it allows users to COMMUNICATE easily. Two way comms with user generated content. All the mobile operators provide is the transit channel.

The first company to offer 100Mbps symmetrical deserves a prize for consumer awareness. In the meantime, the assumption that all consumers are still happy in the 20th century broadcast world remains flawed. Read more!

Has Digital Britain got talent?

Time for a debate. In light of the DB report, and the discussion, unconferences etc which surround it, Bob Franklin of TelcoConsulting has sent this article through to stimulate the thinking we need for the future. Some very interesting points are raised, and we would welcome your views.


The future of Digital Britain is uncertain. The usual excuses given are lack
of broadband demand, high costs to build fibre to access our homes and
money but the real gap is in understanding why we need big investment
and the benefits for Britain.

The Government’s Digital Britain interim report stresses content but future
services will not be delivered without very much better infrastructure for
fast broadband. The so called last mile of local access networks taking
fibre to a cabinet in the street or up to the home or the use of wireless
technology is absolutely crucial. The existing old copper network of BT
and parts of the cable networks need to be upgraded by deploying new
technology. Further, 50% of homes have no infrastructure choice other
than BT and that cannot be right.

Today the digital information revolution is in its infancy. There will be an explosion of home usage as we seek more information for online shopping, for our education, for our health, entertainment and leisure. Simpler devices throughout the home would dramatically drive up demand and free up the family information
bottleneck -the single PC. Demand is always uncertain for the future –
none of us in the telecoms industry ever predicted the growth in mobile
service and more recently text messaging but the mobile infrastructure
and network capacity was soon built to give users what they wanted and
it makes money for operators.

Build costs are an issue but new infrastructure must be installed to every
town and community. There are alternative access technology solutions,
some can be overhead on poles and digging up the streets is cost effective
given the investment is for the very long term. The Victorian engineers
rightly over engineered the capacity of our London sewers. We have good
civil engineers in Britain today who would build for the future and it would
create lots of new jobs.

On regulation the focus should be encouraging investment while any competition concerns can be resolved given time. Finding the money today is a challenge for everyone. In telecoms it may come from existing operators, new players or the Government. BT and Virgin have proposed some new investment in access and fibre but have financial pressures while a few new small firms and even some local
authorities are interested.

New players would be a real shake up for the sector – maybe a retail giant or a utilities company or some content player should enter. After all we needed a duopoly to get things moving in the 1980s, cable TV led us in the 1990s and additional new players, such as Orange, showed us how in mobile. Big government investment could
stimulate development. In the USA President Obama has announced a significant telecoms public funding programme and Australia have too while Korea and Japan just get on with it anyway.

So what for Digital Britain? Ultimately of course it is the customer who will pay. Some would pay now to get 100Mbit access, most of us can and will pay over time and
those with special needs and poorly served areas should be supported through new universal service funding.

The real gap is not the demand, the build or the money but the lack of understanding and confidence. People do not yet fully understand why they need information via digital services and how they will be used and why pay – this will come in time. Confidence is about doing things well.

With 30 years in this industry, some 15 years ago I wrote that Britain was
the world’s laboratory for the telecoms sector. We must innovate to get
ahead of the game again and invest in infrastructure now and show the
world that Digital Britain has got talent. When an unknown singer can
attract 100 million hits on the web from Britain’s Got Talent think what
social and business benefits let alone innovative talent could be unleashed
with digital access services to 25 million homes in Britain.

We need: existing operators to invest a great deal more - new players to
enter the infrastructure market and the Government to deliver some
target funding, a small sign was given in the recent budget, at areas and
sections of the community for the wider public good. It is time to get off
the line, stop the talking and file all the policy reviews - it's time to start
digging and get Britain’s first mile online.

Bob Franklin
May 2009
CEO telcoconsulting.co.uk
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Digital Britain Unconferences

After attending the Digital Britain Summit recently via the backchannel aka Twitter, it was no surprise that those of us on Twitter decided that an unconference was in order. There are now multiple events planned which will be taking place all over the nation from May 5th 2009 (prior to the publication of the Carter Report) and you need to be there!!

Firstly, the Summit was pretty appalling really. There was 100 times more controversy, joined up and future-proofed thinking, experience, expertise, and passion on the Twitter channel. The backchannel was the place to be, though sadly, the majority of the "decision makers" have probably never actually tried Twitter and were no doubt unaware of the furore ongoing there during the Summit. Hence the unconferences for the digitally aware.

You can find more info here about the Digital Britain unconferences or of course on the #digitalbritain channel on Twitter.

Secondly, the fact that a not for profit site - Write to reply - could produce a working and popular method to seek public comments on the DB report against a Government produced DBERR comment site (which didn't actually accept any comments for the first few days) is an indication of the state of understanding of IT and usage by government in this country. Write to reply have now set up the Fake Digital Britain report and anyone involved in any way with Digital Britain, NGA (Next Generation Access), broadband etc would do well to keep abreast of the latest postings there and contribute.

For those in this country who sell/export/use their digital skills (never mind what Stephen Fry said about using a mouse, some of us have world beating digital skills we are selling to other nations who have a stronger currency than the pound), it has become increasingly apparent that the government and the telcos in this country are completely out of touch with what is required to be a digitally connected nation.

FTTH it has to be. No interim measures, no false arguments about expense, no technical disputes, no dithering. FTTH. No half-hearted USOs that were ten years out of date before conception. No rural areas last. No last century, trad telco ownership models. No suits. FTTH owned by this community which is the UK - citizens and businesses.

Many are no longer just blogging or talking/shouting at events but are taking the situation into our own hands, and barcamps, mashup events etc will bring together those who can JFDI and make FTTH happen in the UK. Already there are projects flying under the radar which intend to turn this ludicrous broadband situation on its head.

It will no doubt prove not too difficult to show those who have exhibited an almost criminal incompetence to lead this country into the light for the last 25 years (yes, it really was 1984 when FTTH was first proposed on a national scale in this country) how to JFDI Fibre To Every Home.

Please forward this blog post, or pass on the links to the unconferences and other resources mentioned to ANYONE you know who cares about the state of this country, their business, the economy, their community, their children. Solving this problem affects everyone of us, now and in the future.


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Digital Britain conference

Am watching the Digital Britain conference

For those who missed Malcolm Corbett's comment about his use of PirateBay etc, here it is:

I admitted to being a 'thieving' consumer.

Recently I heard hotel california on the radio. I own it on vinyl, consequently haven't listened to it for years, so I downloaded it from a piratebay link.

A while ago I was abroad and in the hotel thought it would be great to watch an episode of green wing (which we own on dvd). C4 wouldn't allow me to stream it abroad ... So I downloaded it from a link on piratebay.

Also a while ago I heard a song by portishead - a band I sort of missed out on, so I downloaded the album, liked it and bought two more cds from amazon.

This means I 'illegally' downloaded two things I already own and one I subsequently bought, all at zero cost to the industry. What's the problem?

The real point is about the nonsense of criminalising consumers rather than working out new business models that exploit the advantages of zero cost digital distribution & peer to peer customer recommendation.

Cheers
Malcolm
------------

UPDATE@ the Digital Britain Unconference is happening from 5th May and there is undoubtedly an event near you. A must attend if you care about broadband ...

Twitter channel
Digital Broadband Unconference Website
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BT's 21CN could be potentially vulnerable to attack

I guess on a good day, I would have entitled this piece, "Why no-one should rely on BT to deliver next gen" but am trying to learn to be more diplomatic for Lent!!

Driving home tonight in the wee hours from Alnwick (that's in the, literally, frozen North of England), I heard a piece on R4 from a Sunday Times journo about a secret meeting held in January about the possible vulnerability of BT's 21CN because Huawei (who won the contract ahead of Marconi) have equipped certain areas of the all new glittering network, and some security chiefs etc are a tad concerned anout UK security.

Whilst relationships with China are currently good, this is considered to be a low risk issue. However, Huawei is run by the ex-head of the Red Army telecoms research arm, and allegedly funded by the Chinese state, both factors which should possibly have sounded several alarm bells when consideration was given to whom the contract for 21CN key components was awarded. Particularly when the other company in the running was British.

The full Sunday Times article about the possible cyberthreat to not just British comms and 21CN, but to vital services and even the British economy, should give pause for thought.

And meanwhile, for those of who don't believe that this country should sit around and wait for BT to deliver next gen, somewhen in the future, and only to those places it deems "financially viable", and therefore continue the monopoly we have suffered for so long, well, I have to admit, I cheered at the news. It really does IMHO give ever more power to JFDI, and community and mutually owned infrastructure supplied, used and owned by 'local' companies and communities. We are perfectly capable of it here in this country, and within the EU (without looking further afield), and the delivery of true broadband should most definitely not just be about 'far cheaper tenders' and hence profit or faster ROI to shareholders. Particularly not when it could cause long term, major problems for UK plc by compromising the nation's security.

Oh yeah, and just to link up two breaking stories: Canadian and British researchers find a massive electronic spy network which has allegedly been used for spying on approx 100 countries over the last 2 years, and where the computers are also allegedly mainly based in China. At a guess, if true, the location was probably chosen 'cos they have pretty damned good broadband over there!! It'd never work if they tried setting it up here in the UK..........






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Rateable Value

Always one that has bothered me this for a truly competitive market in the UK - property rating on fibre.

Looks like The Grauniad has picked up an interesting case study from Sohonet. We all know that in Korea the property rating on fibre was binned at the outset of their programme to get FTTH and FTTC across the country, but I have been endeavouring to find out what has been done in other countries about property rating on fibre, not only now with FTTH more needed, but also in the past eg the 80s.

Anyone got any details of property rating on fibre anywhere else in the world please to share?
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So, as the new kid on the blog I have been toying with what to write in my first post. Do I bemoan the state of fibre to the home in the UK? Do I denounce the government for not giving it enough support? Or do I be a little more proactive and tell you how I hope to become part of the change?

Well, I think the first two subjects are well covered (and I am sure to come back to those at a later stage!), so I'll aim to provide some updates as I wade through the process of starting up and running a Fibre to the Home project for my community.

It's difficult to know where to start. I have spoken with others who are far more versed in this area than I am and taken their valuable advice. They have coached me on the need to involve the community, perhaps even to the point of establishing a Community Interest Company or may be a Mutual. But of course I must first engage the community and how does one go about doing that? Well I'm not one for standing on street corners handing out leaflets so I thought I would try the local councils and MPs. After all, I would want their involvement in more than just access to the community - if they cannot see the benefits FTTH brings to their district and get behind it then what hope do I have? I am waiting for the replies...

So now I am in the process of putting together information that I will present to the various parties to demonstrate to them why they must be concerned about the current situation and why they should support my project. And this is a tricky issue... you see we can get a reasonable broadband service (up to 6MB on BT) so I can use iPlayer, YouTube, Facebook et al what could be the reason to ask for more than 15 times my current bandwidth?

I'll not bore you with the details now but will feed my thoughts in, as well as my progress, over the coming months. I'd be delighted to receive feedback, advice, encouragement and support. I'd also be delighted to hear of others who are looking to run similar projects in their communities.

I will leave you with this one fact I picked up at the FTTH Council Conference in Copenhagen. This is taken from a forecast of the European FTTH Market by Heavy Reading. They estimate that by 2013 the UK will rank 19th in Europe in terms of FTTH penetration. Behind Ireland and barely ahead of Turkey.
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BBC Blog and Connectivity Scorecard

Darren has included a link to this blog on his blog at BBC tech, so having looked into the Connectivity Scorecard he mentions, here is a response!

As far as business infrastructure, the UK does well when compared to 50 other countries, and we would expect that as far as leased lines etc go. However, we do poorly on consumer infrastructure and as far as 3G and fibre goes. In fact, if you go on to read the PDF, it seems to get worse and worse as far as the UK goes, particularly paras 3.7 and 3.8 which are downright depressing!

Tie this in with the FTTH global rankings, and it all looks less rosy for the UK than is often made out.

EDIT: These stats, which I just found from Point Topic, put us at 19th in the global penetration ranking at the end of Q2 last year.
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Twittersphere goes mad about Oz FTTH

Blimey, there's an awful lot of noise all of a sudden on Twitter about Internode's plans to put in 100Mbps FTTh to green field housing developments in Australia. .

Internode are planning to offer 100Mbps symmetrical for around £45/month. Yep, you read that right. Compared to Virgin's 50Mbps/1.5ps service at £51/month. If you are Australian, it seems to be today's thing to inundate Twitter with requests they come to your State!! Read more!

Old boys' network and UK broadband

Very interesting side of the debate succinctly delivered on PC Pro by Barry Collins. Read it for yourself and comment.

Several of us have discussed it here and think that some of the comments recently from various sources indicate one and the same thing - it is time for some honesty in the debate, and for consumers to be properly represented at all levels of the debate. (Which is what we have been trying to do for years, with varying degrees of success).

If it means putting some of the cards on the table about agendas - hidden and otherise - then so be it.

The consumers, the people in the HOMES that need to be connected, are already voicing their opinions in many different forums, on blogs, Twitter, and offline in the media, pubs, in offices, homes, and on street corners. It is time for those voices not just to be heard, but to actually be listened to, and their opinions and ideas to be acted upon for the greater good of UK Plc, not to further careers or satisfy shareholders.

Note: Soz, had a bimbo moment and put the wrong link to the article first time round and accredited it wrongly. Apologies, Barry! Read more!

Google launches Measurement Lab

ISPs beware! Although currently US-centric, the launch of Google's Measurement Lab and tools means that now endusers can discover just what is happening with their broadband and bandwidth.

Several years ago, we debated coding up a SETI@home type app which ran on end user's computers and delivered hard data about their broadband connections which could be used to measure, isolate and provide evidence of problems on the network, with a particular ISP, etc. Google seem to have started the process to provide precisely this type of service.

The Measurement Lab is very new, but already you can see how having such a global name involved in checking for throttling issues, collating information about when specific user groups are being targeted for limited use of both bandwidth and services, and much more that it seems designed to measure, could begin to pinpoint access network problems as well as core.

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What are the FTTH keywords?

As an SEO expert and internet marketer in my spare time(!), I am very interested in keywords, phrases and search terms. Here's my 3 min Wordle brainstorm for FTTH Council, which I can already see has missed quite a few important terms, but it was just a quickie to get the ball rolling.



What would you add following Copenhagen to the FTTH (SEO) mix? Either post your Wordle or add suggestions of more words for another one. Let's gather together some words that encompass FTTH for all of us....


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Digital Britain Report Forum goes live

The discussion on Digital Britain is now online (sort of). The website has been launched this afternoon to allow all of us to clamber into the debate about the future of Digital Britain and contribute to the report.

It is just a Wordpress blog but there is a video from Stephen Carter, encouraging us to get engaged, and the press release states that there are links to the relevant blogs etc. As with all Govt IT and website projects, this one has some teething problems and has blatantly not been in a test period or sandbox first!! No blogroll, no way to register, and hence, as yet, no discussion. But hopefully, these will all be solved over the coming days and it will be interesting to hear from the many who have views on this matter. Please promote the site widely. The government needs to hear from all of us. Read more!

How to use 50Mbps

BBC Tech's Darren Waters has been testing Virgin's 50Mbps connections for a week or so. Read the tests he ran, what he tried to do on the connection, and how it all worked. However, his very first sentence is wrong. He is only one of the broadband elite in the UK!! Far too many other countries' consumers would think 50Mbps/1.5Mbps is not a particularly great connection in 2009....

Day 1 Note: the asymmetry of the connection
Day 2Note: Benoit asking about degradation, but we do not know how many other users in Darren's area- it would really help if Virgin got involved a little more.
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5Finally we get to see some real world tests, although obviously those commenting have certain issues with them. I don't notice any government sites being visited so maybe Carter needs to read these blog posts and see what suggestions are being made by your average Joe internet users ;o)

Two 8MB jpgs taking 5 mins to send by email is hopeless if you are working as a graphic designer or software designer for instance sending textures to the software house, let alone those of us who want to send family photos to the other side of the world (or even the Yorkshire Dales). The asymmetry problem is still one of the biggest for many of us, I'm sure.


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Copenhagen Photos

Just a few of the pics to give you a flavour of the event.....apologies for the quality. The hospitality was excellent and it seems my hand was a little unsteady!


Who says fibre is boring?!

Foyer and 2,500 coats

Looking down on the exhibition area and food/drinks from the Press room

If I was not graphically challenged, I could join this together with the last so you got a bigger picture!


In the main conference room for the start of the conference


Exhibitors and dining area

More (and better) photos on Kevin's blog

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How bad is it in broadband Britain?

I thought I would video my attempts tonight to watch a Youtube video or something on iplayer and share the pain. I have now spent over an hour trying to upload a 16.7MB, 1min 13secs video to illustrate the problem of buffering, downloading, poor connectivity etc by showing exactly what it is like here in the UK.

I have to admit defeat. Or perhaps success in proving my point?

This is on a connection which speedtests have running at almost 2Mbps, in the middle of the night, when the rest of the village is asleep so contention should be at a minimum. Imagine if I was trying to share a video of a wedding ceremony, or similar, with family overseas. It would be a far bigger file than this, and my chances of sharing it during this lifetime from a UK connection would appear to be slim to zero. To be brutal, I couldn't even share it with my next door neighbour, which also highlights the idiocy of everything going out to central peering points unnecessarily.

Meanwhile, if the UK really thinks it can get away with a 2Mbps USO without any reference to quality, latency, symmetry etc either in 2012 we are, to be downright honest, knackered.

So, just a reminder to all, comments etc are due in within 3 weeks (March 12th) to Carter's Digital Britain team. Email digitalbritain@berr.gsi.gov.uk expressing interest in commenting and they will get back to you. Honest. Just who knows when - we emailed them within an hour or so of the report being released (Jan 29th, 1.29pm to be precise) and have heard nothing, yet. Read more!

First Mile Fibre

Getting the first mile of fibre into the ground here in the UK seems to be a major issue that keeps getting derailed by talks of FTTC, astronomical sums that are unproven guestimates, and irrelevant side issues, such as creating competition.

The more I think about the FTTH conference, the more that "H" strikes me as being the most important part of the equation. Whilst telcos and government agencies get all tied up in knots over the hows and whys and how muches, the real issue is about getting homes (and hence real people) connected.

We keep hearing about connections to public sector, business parks and so on, but all of that is sort of missing the point. If public sector have fab connectivity, then great, but public sector is made up of civil servants who are there to....um, serve the public. Businesses cannot operate without customers. No point having a whizz bang website that you host yourself from within your high speed business park for reduced cost if none of your potential customers can actually access it.

So, although these types of orgs may be able to communicate at speeds some of us can only dream about, the fact is that the poor old public tend to get forgotten. It is to be hoped that public sector will stop thinking of itself as some sort of top level in the hierarchy and remember its prime purpose - to serve the public. And considering that is usually done using our money (the taxpayers), I think it is time for many to re-consider the current approach. Ditto the perceived importance of businesses. We would have an awful lot more businesses in the UK if half of our kids could run the online businesses they seem to want to from their bedrooms. (I speak from experience as a mum!)

There may be issues about sharing the infrastructure that is already existent, whether to schools or unis, public sector agencies and organisations and so on, let alone getting on with the job required and getting the first and middle mile fibre in. But we hear ridiculous arguments about security (a red herring as any network admin will tell you), or costs (is it not time some of this public money and historical investment actually generated ROI?), or contracts (tear them up and start again and think community/consumer when writing them), complexity of the job, and untold other crap designed to kerfuffle us and make us believe it just can't be done. Other countries have solved the problems, as we heard in Denmark.

So, it can be done, and it is time to JFDI. On that note, many thanks to Draka for my first "mile" of fibre!

Now to start digging. Only another mile and a bit (2.4km for the non-UK readers!) to go to get to that mostly unused fibre in the railway line .....
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Highs and Lows in Copenhagen

Overall a brilliant conference. Good speakers, plenty of networking opportunities, wide variety selection of exhibitors to talk to, amazing venue (with ample seating, decent wi-fi on a 20Mbps pipe, and yummy food). But, inevitably there were good bits and bad bits!

2500 delegates is a lotta people. It's all very well knowing that someone is definitely there who you want to see, but tracking them down can prove nigh on impossible. RFID tags on every name badge would solve that (I have a separate post on this idea which Erol and I came up with at the FTTH conference in Amsterdam in 2005). Also, an online searchable database of delegates as many people have stayed within the industry but moved companies.

UK representation - appalling and embarrassing. Where were all the people in the UK who need to know what other nations are doing, who need to speak to the experts, discover lessons learnt and best practice, find suppliers, make the necessary contacts to deploy FTTH in our country efficiently and effectively?? There were less than 50 UK people there and the vast majority were from British companies seeking overseas projects and work because there is so little going on in the UK FTTH market, or a few niche telecoms publications' journos. No BSG Exec, no BT apart from four OpenReach folk, no community representatives - no Lord Carter, no MPs, mayors, councillors, DBERR, RDAs or the like, no property developers, no consumer representation (apart from the usual suspects!), and I only found one of the projects who is in the Ofcom consumer panel report represented - nice to see you Nigel!

Further on this note, of the many people from other countries we talked to during the event, many are looking for opportunities to share knowledge and experience with UK companies, councils, communities and consumers but cannot find the openings. We are now working on rectifying this with the Council.

Some of the speakers were truly inspiring, especially those talking about rural solutions. Much of what was being spoken about disproves the common myths about rural fibre deployment costs and take up. There were new proposals for tying up the fibre deployment with utilities (Bill St Arnaud had a very interesting model for this), much talk of Open Access networks now in deployment and how these can work, very interesting statistics, and details of the lessons learnt by many.

However, this 'up' was closely tied into a majorly depressing fact. The UK is SOOOOOOO FAR behind, and much of what was being spoken about seems to be relatively unknown in the UK and therefore not included in current thinking. Ignorance may be bliss, but in this instance it is definitely doing us no favours.

The students were fab, and every conference should be run by youngsters. Many of the suits who engaged with them learnt far more from the students than probably any other aspect of the conference. After all, at a next generation conference, who better to involve than the next generation themselves?! Wish I had taken my kids really, armed with video cameras and the mini Mac, they could have contributed in that vein too.

The meeting with Joeri and Johann (FTTH Council Board) included bubbles and laughter and was hugely productive. Probably the best bit for me in a way as now 'the bloggers' have a project or three to explore, and, through delivery, hopefully achieve many goals for all in this next stage of FTTH.

All in all, thank you for the invite, Joeri. I for one can't wait for Lisbon and hope that there will finally be a chance for someone from the UK to stand on the platform and boast about something, anything, FTTH-related.




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Lack of FTTH in UK

Twas a fairly long journey back from Copenhagen, and plenty of time to think. Of the many press releases issued during the conference, the global FTTH rankings is the one which has caused most thought about the UK situation.

Just to summarise the implications of that report once again. There are now 20 countries who have connected more than 1% of their populations with FTTH. Those connections are symmetrical, and generally greater than 100Mbps, with some being 1Gbps. 13 of the 27 EU member states are included in this set of 2008 rankings, and more are expected to be in the next rankings this summer. The UK is nowhere to be seen on the rankings and even with planned developments in the UK, most of the planned connections will not be FTTH, therefore the UK is not likely to achieve even 1% FTTH before 2011-2012 without a new entrant taking everyone by surprise. (Virgin Media connections are only fibre in the core and middle mile, not the first, so VM connections will not count in the rankings until the coax is replaced with fibre).

There have been plenty of media and independent reports recently about fibre developments in the UK. For instance, the Ofcom Consumer Panel (as was) produced their report on community-led next generation access initiatives. This lists some 40 projects, but there are no in build FTTH projects listed, and many are business park and public sector connections not FTTH - the clue is in the last word of that acronym!!

On a more positive note, should all of these projects come to fruition, there will be a good basis for FTTH connections in the future if the business and public sector connections are then shared with homes.

BT's involvement at Ebbsfleet is often cited as being an important step forward for FTTH. In fact,I read with interest in a broadband magazine at the conference that BT have apparently installed 10,000 FTTH connections there. Some journalists need to read their background material more carefully - this is not the first time that this claim has been made in the press! 57 actual connections so far was the number being cited at the conference by some claiming to be in the know, and the Ebbsfleet Valley development was expected to take 20 years to construct even before the economic problems hit.

The point is that many of the projects being described as next generation access in Britain are FTTC or FTTN, not FTTH, which is what NGA is, and what other countries have already deployed and are continuing to deploy. Whilst we pursue what are, as defined by FTTH councils worldwide, "copper-based access technologies", we stand to fall behind. Not just a little behind in 2012 or 2015, but a long way behind already in 2009.

We allow the telcos to take a term, such as 'broadband' and constantly redefine it downwards until it fits what suits them and their shareholders. We are allowing the same process to occur with 'fibre' and 'NGA', and not just by the telcos. This does no favours to anyone.

*It results in mis-leading of the general public (who include MPs, RDAs etc who also see the adverts on TV and forget that expensive ad agencies are behind them, not facts). Reports calling Wimax or FTTC NGA also contribute to the deception.
*It results in people assuming that the job is done or is 'in hand'.
* It prevents people realising that elsewhere the definitions of these technologies are on a scale (of connectivity speeds) of 2-20 times greater already than what we are being offered, now and in the next few years.
*It fails to bring the necessary technologies to Britain to encourage recovery, regeneration and innovation when we most need them.
*It panders to shareholders of telcos who are reaping dividends at the expense of the development of the whole nation and UK plc.
*It allows a continuance of unnecessary negative environmental impact through the use of outmoded and environmentally expensive technologies such as ADSL, VDSL etc.
* And worse still, it prevents us competing with our closest neighbours on a level playing field, let alone taking on the Asian markets etc.

Anyone else got any thoughts on what the rankings mean to policy, this country, and how we should be proceeding?


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The students at the FTTH conference

Three students from the University of Ghent in Belgium have set up a think tank area at the conference and have been surrounded for much of the conference.

They were invited by Joeri to demonstrate what the younger generation do with a decent broadband connection, and have been provided with equipment - cameras, PS3, Linux box, Windows box etc, and have been experimenting with all sorts of applications and even started a blog specially for the conference.

The students seem quite surprised that these people who know all the highly technical info about putting in the high speed connections seem unaware about how to upload a video to youtube! Whilst the 'suits' seem hellish surprised about what the younger generation are doing with their connections. All great stuff and every techie conference should invite some youngsters to show off what can be done with the toys and tools.


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1billion euros for rural and notspots in EU

As part of the EU economic recovery plan, it appears that 1billion euros is about to made available to help the 7% of EU people who still cannot get broadband (rising to 30% in rural areas) to get connected through European RDF, says Bernd Langerheim from the EU commissioner's office today.

This money is to be made available as soon as possible. And it is to be hoped that the money is spent on fibreing up rural areas, including in the UK, which should accelerate the need to look long and hard at that USO.

Much of the figures we have seen at the conference show that 2Mbps will simply not be enough by 2012, and that current usage as well as emerging applications such as superHDTV, 3DTV, panoramic video etc indicate that we should be looking at 10Mbps symmetrical as the first bar of connectivity by that time.
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No sign of Britain, nor likely to be

The FTTH Council has just released its rankings for FTTH Penetration. These rankings are issued twice a year, and track the level of market penetration in economies where more than one percent of households are connected directly into high speed fibre networks.

Whereas in Britain, the likes of Virgin can get away with calling their connectivity "fibre", the Council make no bones about calling FTTC and FTTN (Fibre to the node) connections 'copper-based broadband access technologies'. Ergo there is absolutely no sign of Britain in these rankings, which now include 20 economies (up from 14 in July 2008 and 11 in July 2007). There is no indication either when Britain is likely to enter these rankings and deliver connectivity that now 20 other economies consider normal.

The entry of several EU economies into the rankings this year should cause pause for thought in the UK, as some of these countries have historically been perceived as 'developing economies', but the rest of the EU is now stealing the march on us - Estonia, Slovenia, Denmark, Andorra, Netherlands, Finland, Lithuania, Italy and Latvia all have more FTTH than the UK can at present dream of.

Off to listen to Viviane......

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FTTH & Sustainability - in bed with the telcos

Dr Marcus Wheldon, Alcatel Lucent

Begs to differ at some of the things Bill has said eg triple play models are working and of course he is not keen to suddenly bring the utility companies as well into the telco game so doesn't like that aspect of Bill's presentation.

his talk will be on
*anticipate and plan to deploy Fibre to the most economical point
*deploy efficiently in an eco-sustainable fasion
*manage the technology cycle

bandwidth growth is inevitable and has been fairly constant since the early days. Clearly shows that for both early and late adopteres 100Mbps imperative middle of next decade - well that puts the new USO in its place!! Similar graph to one I keep meaning to post. in 5-6 years, we will see a 6-8x increase. As I have now seen this graph or very similar ones many times, this really must be brought to the attention of Carter et al. (And MrT who won't admit that anyone will ever need this much!) Yes, we need quality but it must also be sufficient for reasonable use.

Video has been one of the big drivers. Thinks triple play and internet tv and IPTV will become part of that paradigm and he believes triple play will work.

Video has been the driver for the need for speed and bandwidth.

TV - standard TV sees decline over time in need for bandwidth because encoding and codecs get better. HDTV and 3DTV (available in the Alcatel Lucent booth) are driving new techs (panaromic tv ultra hd or super hdtv - whooosh, these look fun!!!) and that takes us into the needing of more and more and more bandwidth. Codecs will not save us from the need for bandwidth as these new techs appear.

Interesting graphcs shwoing how TV of differing types uses bandwidth etc.

Peak and average graphics. Increase in both due to personalisatiopn and interaction, as well as broadcast paradigms.

Looks at different deployments of broadband techs. Points out FTTN in highly competitive markets. easy and cheap to install and win market share.

13.6% of global population on fttx networks. Congratulate ourselves? I think not, pal!!

Looks at civils costs etc - too fast moving and too many graphs to blog easily, but interwsting to note that there is only 15% difference between mdus and individual dwellings deploy costs so the arguments about Korea etc are naff. That is not why they have been able to afford it and we haven't got off our butts at all.

LA thinks: Network operators are making all deploy decisions on economic basis eg to which point can I lay fibre most economically? Rather than there being proper decisions made on national and regional levels about where the most economic point for the users and country/region should be. We are letting the telcos run the game.


ICT was 2% of green house emissions, equivalent to aviation fuel consumption not aviation industry

in 2020, potentially 4% of ICT ghg will be fixed broadband whilst mobile is 13% which is very worrying if the USO insists on us using the most hefty green house gas contributor eg mobile broadband to cover the digital divide.

smart buildings etc. smart metering can bring 27% savings on smart grid and 21% on smart buildings which is about half of 7,8gtonnes of CO2, as well as all the video conferening etc. Go back to Bill's talk about rewarding consumers. You can save 5times the carbon footprint from building the network. (Now that an interesting figure - what if ROI is all about carbon not ££s or $$$?????).

Looks at energy usage of cpe....

active equipment. VDSL eg that used in fttN is way more energy intensive than it should be, ADSL even worse. cpe production and cpe power are the two big places for energy consumption in FTTH but EU have introduced many guideliens et on how to reduce these and this is having positive effect. IEEE also working on standards that have modems etc powering down during inactivity.

gpon far lower than adsl and vdsl less than 1w per user cpe.

From my pov, these speakers have both made the case for FTTH but in very different ways. If we must reduce CO2 to the levels Bill stated to save the planet then continuing to use ADSL is utterly inexcusable.












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FTTH & Sustainability - foreplay!

Following a very good lunch of fish, homemade chips and interesting salads, with plonk (how civilised!) am now in the breakout session 2. Sustainability and FTTH

Bill St Arnaud of Canarie does it right by turning up- on a video conf link and therefore saving on emissions. Fast-paced presentation, very interesting concepts.

Mentions g-commerce or green commerce. Obama's chief advisor has said, "Not climate change but more like global climatic disruption".

Scientists saying we need to reduce CO2 by 90% by 2040 to slow down the climatic disruption. 26tonnes CO2 in US per person pa, need to get down to 2 tonnes per person pa

Stresses urgency of this if we are to even to begin to slow down the disruption. prob too late to stop it.

Tho IT contributes to emissions 2-3%, the smart report says about using IT to reduce emissions through smart meters, smart tech etc.

FTTH can reduce by global emissions equiv to those of US and china

Global carbon market expected to grow to 58% to $82 bn during 2009. $57 trillion

Major bb developments and FTTH can use the monies from the carbon market to fund.

Carbon economy has potential to fund several bank bailouts or 2-3 Iraq like wars.

Policy approaches carbon taxes, offsets, cap and trade, carbon neutrality by law.

Important changes but Bill reckons there is a different approach - carbon rewards rather than carbon taxes. Rewards consumers through new services if they reduce carbon footprint eg ebooks, emovies, distance learning and health services. Use NGN and FTTH to deliver services for free if they reduce their carbon footprint.

Consumers are responsible for 60% of all co2 emissions, directly 35% eg heating etc, 25% indirectly through products purchased

Claims current broadband biz plans have flaws. Biz case predicated on triple play. Voice, video etc revenues declining. Govt subsidy or biz models such as municipal or community deployments with public sustainability is a different matter from purely commercial case.

Ottawa model - rewards with free ftth by combining it with the resale of electricity and gas. Denmark well positioned to replicate this.

Customer pays 2c/ KWhr premium for utilities but gets ftth for free. Encourages customers to reduce electricty/gas bill but they get to keep the ftth. Total bill is reduced on a fourplay model inc utility

benefit for network operator, there is a revenue stream that is based on energy consumption rather than on triple play. certainty of income for operators.

ottawa condo backbone fibre & green broadband pilot. in Canada lack of independent service providers but they are working on that

More info
http://green-broadband.blogspot.com
http://free-fiber-to-the-home.blogspot.com




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oh goody, fibrespeed tool

As I have been saying for years, you can't tell people what broadband does in words, you have to show them. utopia have had a very similar tool on their site for years, but now the FTTH Council make it easy for everyone too.

Check out the new Fibrespeed tool on the Council website. Use it to explain to people how fibre differs from the crappy copper connection they currently suffer from. Read more!

At Copenhagen FTTH conference

In a slightly snowy Copenhagen at the Bella Centre. Thanks to Joeri for inviting me, and to Emtelle for juicing up my EEE PC so I can blog! And tis quite fun on the 20Mbps connection too compared to normal. On to the meat.....

2500 delegates here, plus 70+ exhibitors. Looking through the delegate list, it is of little surprise that the nation who most needs to be here is seriously under-represented. Very few Brits, and that is a major shame. However, most of the normal suspects are here so nice to see a few familiar faces. :O) Just a pity we are still unable to get the message across to those in the UK who really need to get the big picture - councils, MPs, much of the property developing industry, community and consumer representatives, and so on and on. Stop being so bloody insular!!!

Meanwhile, you would think it would be hard to meet people but actually, surprisingly, have already bumped into a few people who I wanted to meet!

Joeri's intro was everything you would expect, explaining the End Game of FTTH and why FTTH is so important, environmentally, socially and economically. He cited several reports, all of which offer irrefutable proof that true broadband / FTTH brings untold benefits to citizens and businesses. The FTTH Council's own report on social-economic impact shows how FTTH can support economic growth and recovery in EU.

He's preaching to the converted here........! All same old realities of FTTH - health, wealth and learning eg telemedicine, telelearning, teleworking etc. However, he also points out the benefits of affordable decent connectivity in helping an ageing society such as home care for the elderly. Enables new ways of communicating eg video conferencing, which of course some of us can only dream about.

(Tho the guy sitting opposite me thinks this connection here is slow as he is accustomed to 100Mbps - PAH!!!)

Joeri moves on to the environmental benefits and the savings that will be made when people can realistically telework and are therefore not stuck in traffic jams. (See my post about the cost of snow last week for more on that!). FTTH is sustainable investment for the environment.

Joeri announces the exciting new online tool FTTH council has developed - The Configurator - for measuring the environmental sustainability of FTTH for communities, large and small. UPDATE: Watch this space, we get exclusive preview at 1.30pm today!

Talks about Viviane Reding's Nov 2008 doc giving clear guidelines on competitive broadband for all. And the Dutch regulatory approach (OPTA) promoting innovation and compeition on the fibre optic networks as part of their strategy for 2009; ditto the French regulator which has agreed on an obligation for operators to equip apartment buildings with fibre infrastructure.

Moves on to talk about the need to create more jobs within the EU. FTTH will certainly do that!

Basically, what joeri is saying is that FTTh will be a gigantic economic driver for the future of the EU (companies and citizens) and the industry has many of the solutions to many of the socio-economic problems being faced in the EU today.

Finishes with "yes we can" so nice to hear the CANdo thinking in the opening session!!

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How hard can it be? Broadband is....

There were so many arguments in the BSG all those years ago about the definition of broadband. Is it 1Mbps, 2Mbps+, can asymmetrical count? etc etc. I sat through many of the discussions.....

It's really bloody truly simple. It is not about numbers. I speak as a consumer who is utterly fed up with no-one getting it right for me, my kids, my family, my neighbours, my community, or my country.

If you want a USO that works, try going back to what every telco and Ofcom should be held up against a wall and shot for failing to deliver to pretty much the whole of the UK civilian and small business population to date:

Broadband should be able to simultaneously transmit and receive voice, video and data.

If it can't do those basics, it ain't. Simple as.
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How much does 4G cost?

Bearing in mind that the Carter Report is hinting at mobile operators being responsible for remote, rural and USO coverage, the likelihood is that will be over a mixture of 2 and 3G. How far behind us will that leave us? And what about 4G?

After all, NTT Docomo are switching off their 2G network at about the time our new USO is supposed to be in full swing. And the reason for the switch off? It will be more than just obsolete for them, it has already been more than surpassed, both wired and wirelessly.

For many of us, that little "3" on our smartphones is still an elusive little devil, and I've seen mine more times abroad than here in the UK. (And yes, I do get out the house!) Even if the mobile operators look to invest in making the most of those all expensive 3G licences from 2000, or are given tax breaks and incentives to do so, where is 3G coverage actually going to be by 2012? Should we really be 'giving' the auction monies from 2000 to subsidise an already out of date technology?

And so what about 4G and investment in that? The vice president of AT&T's network architecture, Hank Kafka, gave a to-the-point analysis of the issue only last week. Primarily, that 4G is about the 'mobile broadband world', whereas 3G can't deliver what many users need their mobile experience to give them TODAY. Can I just repeat that? 3G doesn't give a broadband experience TODAY and isn't much more likely to tomorrow, or next year, or in 2012. TelephonyOnline have a great article here.

So, to the point. If 4G is required to offer mobile broadband, what exactly are we going to do about a USO, a regulatory body, government advisors, telcos etc who seem satisfied to let UK consumers and businesses in 2012 struggle with something that in 2009 is known to be insufficient for present, let alone future, needs?

The reasoning behind the USO is sound. Yes, we need to all have access to affordable, ubiquitous, FUNCTIONAL broadband. It is the mechanism(s) to support it that seem deeply flawed. Yeah, 3G would be nice (compared to what is available today) but not whilst our mobile operators are permitted to screw us with 'unlimited' tariffs that aren't, disproportionate data costs, and at speeds which are NOT broadband any more than ADSL is. Encourage them to invest for 2012 and beyond certainly, but not in something that won't deliver. And the wireless cloud should be an overlay on a superfast FTTH network, not a substitute for it.

4G may prove expensive, but nowhere near as expensive as wasting precious public money on a solution that people from the top levels of industry down to grassroots know is 'unfit for purpose' already.


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£1billion for 4 inches of snow?!

Apparently, the recent marginal snowfall which managed to bring this country to a near standstill yesterday and today, has cost British businesses in the region of £1billion+, and 1 in 5 people didn't get to work.

Anyone who lives in a country that normally can operate under several feet of snow with no disruption, or who is staggered when the UK grinds to a halt under a couple of inches of powder, may find these figures somewhat astounding. I know I do.

Particularly, because it strikes me on hearing it that a) £1bn is a fair way to giving everyone in rural Britain FTTH so they could contribute to their job wherever they were (the townies can walk to work presumably, most people in rural areas live miles from their jobs) and b) sets me to wondering how many of that 20% who didn't make it to work could have worked from home if the necessary infrastructures were in place and thereby reduced that incredible loss to British business.

Anyone care to hazard a guess on that second?

If we take it that even if the UK only had 10 days of 'disruptive weather' a year, (this is Britain, remember?! It rains constantly and when that happens we get life and property threatening floods on a boringly regular basis; when it snows, the country is brought to its knees; and when it is sunny, half the workforce pulls a sicky to sunbathe), the cost to business is enough to put FTTH in.

Has anyone got any figures on how much the weather costs this country's businesses? Surely there is enough financial justification for teleworking and remote system etc management just from the weather to put FTTH in?

Sadly, I am doubly dischuffed because the snow didn't make the slightest bit of difference to me. It snowed. The road was shut, but I work from home and all my clients know that. I still got out to the local shop though - a mere 10 mile jaunt to our nearest bread and milk seller. The Internet connectivity was as crap as every other day - still can't Skype the next village let alone my Canadian and American clients, and realistically it was actually probably worse than normal cos all those skiving gits were online flogging stuff on Ebay. Ho hum.

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