Paid work done...time for the hobby

Tweet

Read more! Today's required reading should include Benoit and Diffraction Analysis's World of Fiber document. (NB public sector p11 -13 reqd reading). You should watch Marit and Dave's community study tour video of Sweden. You should read the transcript of the Telegraph live broadband debate. And then, apply what you now know and make judgements....It must be time for newbies to LISTEN to these people/experts and the many others like them.

Over the last few weeks, I have heard some very disconcerting stories about public bodies' approaches to grassroots' experts, including those experts who are held in high regard by telcos, governments, regulators, communities AND grassroot activists etc. New to the game? I wouldn't like to be playing a 15- 25 + year catch up as a newbie right now, BUT YOU ARE...

This blog post can be read at 5tth.blogspot.com


Of course, there is nothing new under the sun. Our public authorities, just like in Romans, Vikings, Egyptians etc eras, assume they are in the best position to get the best information. And, armed with that, they can then rule.

What is often forgotten amongst these salaried folk with pensions (or chariots, warships, grapes dangled subtley by fair maidens etc) is that "innovation begins at the edge" (No expert starts in the middle - Benoit, Martin, Chris, Peter, David, Larry, Dave, Jimi, Geoff, and many, many others have worked very hard to be who they now are in the broadband world). And your job depends on you being able to work with the people who know what you never will.

Nearly everyone I know who has made things happen in broadband was not paid to do so. At least, not at first. I guess you could call us 'hobbyists', or 'yogurt knitters' if you want to stoop that low. But some, in fact a large proportion, are now highly respected experts in the field. And many are highly paid. Dismiss these people at your peril. (They may earn way more than you or me!)

Have *you* spent 10-25 years learning about broadband, FTTH, networks, next gen economics, collaborative and community finance initiatives? Or just 1 or 2?

The reality is that with all these things - be it electricity generation in the 1920s, inventing Word processing in the 70s, or fibre installs in the Noughties - it has not been the corporates or public sector who actually innovated. They ADOPTED.

It has frequently and repeatedly been the grassroots people who made it all happen. And who have earned the right to, justifiably, be called the experts in the field. Not just for community broadband, but as telecoms and mobile analysts, as fibre optic specialists, as business modellers whose models are sought by telcos the world over, for emergency and disaster deployment in crises, etc. And how did the vast majority start? Because it interested them....

It is those people who CARE that you should nurture. Their private interests may make them your local expert, accepted across every community body, just as Kees Rovers is, in Neunen and internationally. His FTTH marketing via the milkman using lollipop sticks is legendary the world over. And if you don't know that story, then your place in the decision making world of 21st century broadband is highly dubious.

And now, whoever you are, these are today's links and they are required reading. As Tom Lehrer said, "There will be test at the end of the period..":

Aka The Benoit Report (with enormous respect to James, Costas and Herman)

Marit and Dave do Sweden - all of you have known me since 2000 will know how pleased I am to see this 'travel agency' idea finally become real. BSG and all the others who ignored me - be ashamed!!!

The Telegraph debate - copied on a separate blog post as the Telegraph do not appear to have archived it.







Read more!

France vs UK (via Surrey and Lancashire)

Tweet

Read more!

France has approximately twice the landmass of UK (551,500 sq km vs 244,101 sq km), but approximately the same population. Ergo, the UK FTTH figure of £28Bn -the veracity of which was challenged on the first day it was published - aka the Big Lie, can now be laid to rest on the basis of a simple calculation. But there's more.....

This blog post can be read at 5tth.blogspot.com


The French have calculated that ubiquitous FTTH for France would be 30Bn euros, (according to the Tactis report which Benoit has kindly translated for us). FTTH costs reduce in more dense populations, according to the telcos themselves, and the evidence from new entrants and community deployments is bringing install figures ever further down too.

However, even ensuring that the figure for UK ubiquitous FTTH is a more rational, logical and realistic number (not one that has been pulled out of the air to justify the telcos' reluctance to let us see any light), it would seem that many countries, not just in EU but also including the USA, are facing a telco/incumbent fight for life. After all, there are plenty of new entrants who are showing that the trad olde worlde telco model is on the brink of collapse.

The USA is seeing more and more anti-muni FTTH bills being pushed forwards by telco syndicates, whilst those countries within the EU who are suffering from telco apathy (see the league tables from FTTH Council to pick those out) are facing what are beginning to look remarkably like 'dirty tricks' campaigns.

Yes, we know the telcos need to make a living, but no company should be able to hold a country, its citizens and all other businesses to ransom. Be they banks, oil companies, or telcos holding the hostages. There needs to be a level of regulation and protection in place to prevent such occurrences. In the UK, we appear to be seeing a massive failure of the elected ones in OurSociety in exercising rational thought and joined up thinking to prevent corporate greed leading us very severely astray.

In Lancashire, it seems likely that the County Council will follow Cornwall blindly into the 'non-light' of FTTC with a few handouts of FTTH/FTTP where it suits the bid winner's books. (And yes, we are dying to be proven wrong, but it didn't happen with ADSL and is even less likely to this time around). A live webstream from a recent Lancashire County Council meeting (1hr35) should give sufficient cause for concern that any bids for the procurement process will be treated with impartial scrutiny and that the correct decision for the present and future generations of inhabitants and business people of that county will be made. In Surrey, since my visit last week, the goings on during the death throes of the public body that used to be the lead broadband agency almost beggar belief.

Both these counties have awarded RDPE funding to far-sighted and innovative community projects, only to withdraw it, even after an official grant offer has been made in SEEDA's case. The reason? Well, it is hard to judge on much more than hearsay and supposition as it would seem that our public civil servants, whose wages we as taxpayers pay, are being bound to silence under NDA.

The future of broadband in this country is NOT a matter of commercial sensitivity, but of NATIONAL INTEREST. NDAs have no place in this quandary of appalling broadband that the telcos have lumbered us with.

We appear to have the axe of State Aid, which other EU nations seem considerably less afeared of than us, being brandished in the direction of career civil servants, councils and public bodies. Not by the EU - ho no, but by those who would be most threatened were said public bodies to apply State Aid as other countries have in the case of broadband. Following that are what look remarkably like empty promises, filling the gap behind the swoosh of that weapon.

Is this how we plan to become the greatest broadband nation? Are we going to cower in fear as yet another bunch of corporates take this country to the cleaners, aided and abetted by often well-meaning people who are undoubtedly concerned about their own futures, but seemingly less so about those they are employed to serve?

There are many people in this country who have been here before, not just in the broadband world, but in a multitude of other sectors. It is time for a radical, perhaps even maverick, approach to this society's problems. Getting IT right with the broadband deployment this country needs would not only rejuvenate the economy, but might perhaps help out the many other sectors where similar tales of woe and corporate manipulation of our public purse are all too apparent.

Let us hope that no other counties or regions follow the lead of the 'pioneers'. If very recent history has anything to teach us, it is likely that time will show that they have been misled. Luckily, or sadly, depending on your viewpoint, those responsible are likely to have left the building.




Read more!

Cochrane & Felten say it how it is

Tweet

Read more! Today's homework: Read this from Peter Cochrane about the telcos helping themselves instead of moaning, and this from Benoit about, um, telcos helping themselves. There will be a short test at the end of the week. Read more!

Rural broadband is economically sound

Tweet

Read more! Fact.....

Benoit has just blogged about this USDA document on the economics of rural broadband and its impact on rural areas.

The evidence that broadband into rural areas has a substantial economic impact has been coming thick and fast for years, but it seems it is only now that it is hitting the news agenda. What is also slowly emerging is the impact that FTTH has on rural communities, but more of that later.

As highly respected economist Michael Curri puts it:

Infrastructure investment provides a healthy return in its own right - even for relatively small and rural communities. Broadband infrastructure construction has job impacts immediately in the local economy like typical shovel-ready investments. More significantly, it increases drastically the retention and expansion of businesses and organizations.

The positive effects from broadband infrastructure become even more important in times of economic uncertainty, especially for smaller, rural communities who often have less economic diversity and resilience to withstand the effects of an economic slowdown. The availability of broadband gives enterprises, in smaller or rural communities, the options to expand their market reach and thereby becoming more efficient during difficult economic times. Individuals can use broadband find new opportunities, including supplemental education and skills training, out-of-region employment through tele-working (working from home), and business start-ups.

Need more evidence or should we just pick up our shovels?!
Read more!