Is Cumbria JFDI? Part 1

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Read more! Spent most of yesterday at Stoneybeck Inn near Penrith at a community and suppliers day organised by East Cumbria Community Broadband Forum (ECCBF) and BDUK, and MCed by Rory Stewart and Libby Bateman. I'm not sure what the other BDUK recipient areas are doing, and would welcome updates from anyone who is aware of the forward motion elsewhere, but here is a summary of yesterday in the Cumbria Community broadband world.

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



 It may be a recession, but many community people managed to take a day away from work to partake in this event. There were also a substantial number of supplier representatives there, whose offerings range from the whole caboodle through to component parts or services, including BT, Fujitsu, Cable and Wireless, MiniFlex, AFL, Commendium, NextGenUs, Ericsson, and included the majority of those on the procurement short list. Cumbria County Council and CLEO were also represented.

My overall impression is that these structured yet informal events not only bring out the best in people, (as do the colloquia) but also see far more forward motion than a simple talking heads do, such as the vast majority of conferences end up being. Without being party to many of the commercially sensitive discussions which were undoubtedly ongoing during the event, it seemed that the sales pitches went far beyond "this is our standard offering" because the communities have well-developed visions of precisely what their communities want. There is going to have to be a shift towards the centre ground, of compromise, and this event definitely seemed to be pushing things in the right direction by both 'sides'.

Thinking of it is as "them and us" (suppliers and communities) is however inappropriate as it is clearly obvious that what are being developed are partnerships. BDUK and the County Council have made it clear that suppliers are going to have their work cut out ensuring that whatever is delivered involves the communities to whatever level each community wishes to be involved. Whilst what is being built must be commercially sustainable, it also has to suit the communities at least as much as it suits the suppliers. Collaboration and co-operation are the watchwords here.

So, the suppliers, including BT, were "harangued" in the nicest possible way by Rory Stewart MP to contribute, talk to the communities represented, and work together towards the common goal that is next gen broadband across Cumbria using the recently announced £16.4M, the immense goodwill and passion exhibited at Rheged, Great Asby and other recent events, as well as the existing assets in Cumbria, such as CLEO (the education network).

Several communities had been chosen to give updates on their progress and outline their thinking, both to share what was being considered around the county and also to assist the suppliers in considering where and how they could assist in achieving the goals being set by the communities. Fibre GarDen, Great Asby, Eden Valley Digital, Grange and Cartmel LAP, and Northern Fells all gave presentations.


Different scenarios were defined prior to the meeting:

• The quest for community backhaul solutions
• Solutions for demand aggregation
• Build and Benefit schemes
• Community Data Books

For many, the backhaul issue is still one of the most thorny. Cost by length, firstly, means that for many rural communities the cost of even a limited feed can be exorbitant. The difference in cost between a 100Meg feed and a 1Gig feed is actually minimal, but for most communities the cost of such a feed means the business plan is unnecessarily hard to resolve. Backhaul players need to start thinking more clearly about whether they want one big customer - a community, or no customer at all.

Obvious solutions are using existing feeds in the community - NHS, public sector, schools, libraries etc, but once again we are back to a medley of red herrings - security, contract will not permit sharing, and general faffing by telcos who sometimes would seem to prefer that half the country remains disconnected rather than think out of the box and use existing capacity with a novel approach. 

There are other solutions which were mentioned at more length in the networking sessions e.g. railways - Network Rail, Global Crossing, and smart grid solutions using assets of Electricity North West. The difficulties with all of these seem to be completely surmountable IF the above companies and organisations stop prevaricating and help solve the problems. Doing so would create win-win situations all round, and it is time for these bodies to get with IT and get out from behind the buffers. Network Rail should remember who paid for the fibre assets on the railway line in the first place!! Joined up thinking is not that difficult and many of the problems the larger organisations cannot see solutions to simply require a brief chat with one of the many community people who have thought through all the possible solutions to assess the best approach.

Much more to say, so am going to write this as a multi-part post. (And hope that Blogger's photo app starts working again before I finish!

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There's always a way...

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Read more! This wee tale highlights the fact that the current approach by this government to rely on the #fail telcos to put in any level of next generation infrastructure is more than misplaced. It's likely to waste hundreds of millions of pounds and put Britain into the slow lane for years, because the telcos simply cannot get out of the box. Community networks can.

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



Lovely anecdote from Tim Nulty that hit my inbox last week:

One of our potential subscribers who needs the drop to be underground but doesn't want to pay the big extra cost called to say that he had buried a garden hose in the right place and could we put the drop through it?

I said I'd ask my engineers.

They said: "We can if we can get a pull-wire through it".

I told this to the subscriber--who called back an hour later to say: "I've got the pull-wire in place."

My engineers' reply: "Cool. We'll do it then. First time for everything."

It is dead simple. JFDI.
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Milan FTTH Conference Competition - Question 2

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Read more! Next question for the Super Prize Giveaway from Milan!! Be heard in the Press Room by sending your answer to ldotannisonatgmaildotcom or writing in the comments below.....

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



We are running a competition in the run-up to, and during, the Milan FTTH Council conference. Thanks to AFL, Emtelle, CTTS and NextGenUs for the prizes and support.

Are you going to Milan? If so, don't forget our Tweetup. This year the venue will be announced once we know the layout ;o) so follow Lindsey on Twitter for details.

Each question has a unique prize so don't miss out on your chance to own something no-one else in the world does by answering our simple questions! All winners will be announced during the conference - if you are there, we want to meet you. If you sadly can't make it, the prize will be posted.

Which do you believe has the most potential - a Community or industry solution to FTTH?

Can you give an example (place, URL etc) to illsutrate why you believe your answer is correct?

All answers have the opportunity of being picked up by the FTTH media and conference participants, so tell people about your project.

Comment below or email your answer.
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The EMDA Toolkit - you need IT

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Read more! I've been pushing this for years as an approach to CAN (Community Access Network) in a Box - the roadmap required for communities to build their own networks. Whoever produces CAN in a Box, I think it needs to meet the format of giving communities the questions they need to ask, NOT the answers they are seeking. Answers will undoubtedly be out of date before the Toolkit is produced, and the answers will differ for each community. But the questions won't!

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



I've just spotted the name of someone for whom I have a deal of respect - Alan Srbljanin, who I came across when quizzing Mason Bros about the Toolkit and how we could extend it to include communities during the CBN supporting communities era. That was way back when I was organising the End Game conference in 2004/5.

If I could reach under my desk right now and not distract myself reading through every meeting note since 1995, I'd find my phone conversation with Alan and re-run it for you. Suffice to say, I put the phone down with a huge grin on my face. Here was an RDA person who really, truly got IT.

In London last week at the Tweetup and in other meetings, I was asked by more than one person to link to the EMDA Toolkit on the blog so here it is.

EMDA Toolkit for IT, property developers, councils, communities etc.

Bear in mind when it was written and look beyond the possible changes and focus on the STRUCTURE of such a resource. And then buy Alan a drink.
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Radio Lentil - Miles Mandelson

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Great Asby Broadband, a small village broadband network in Eden, Cumbria, is a prime example of community JFDI. Miles Mandelson is the Chairman.

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


Miles is responsible for producing the Parish Guide to NGA which is essential reading for any Parish Council.

Great Asby has received RDPE funding to both extend its network and increase the backhaul capacity, so exciting times lie ahead! Mark Holdstock interviewed Miles for Radio Lentil-Miles Mandelson Part 1



Miles Mandelson - Part 2



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Rural broadband fiasco

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Read more! The front page article on my local paper, The Cumberland & Westmorland Herald, this week says far too much about the reality of rural broadband in the UK. Broadband? That'll be £45,000 then.

What this rural business is seeking is not what most businesses in the world today would even call broadband. The issues the article (and multiple blog posts here) raise about BT's first mile network beg a heap of questions about where BT is investing its money, e.g. with the recent notices about FTTC to specific areas of the country. Most of the places BT intends to go already have choices about their connectivity. The places that need decent connectivity are stuck on old-fashioned and limited plant that urgently needs upgrading or opening up so others with an interest can access street cabs and first mile copper and replace all of this Victorian plant with modern equivalents eg fibre.

What should anyone in a rural community when faced with this dilemma? What should companies such as The Phone Co-op be advising their customers when this problem arises? How should the media be reporting on these issues?

Firstly, any customer who believes their only choice is to deal with BT Open Reach to solve the problem created by BT (the digital chasm) needs to understand that there are other options. In particular, building your own community-owned network so this incumbent monopoly issue is resolved once and for all for our generation and the next generations.

You do not need to physically construct the network yourself, but it will substantially reduce your costs if you do at least part of it yourself, as has been proven in Sweden, Netherlands and elsewhere. There are companies who can design, build, operate and maintain your network on behalf of your community so the learning curve required by a community does not need to be as steep. It will however mean the network asset belongs to YOU and is open so that any provider can bring you a choice of services over that network. This is key to sustainability and future-proofing.

Every community facing these problems should seek expert advice and luckily this is now available through this blog, and the Fibrevolution forum. We are also creating a set of resources and guides based on real-world practical experience to assist communities. As ever, all of these resources are being created without any assistance from the UK government who have shown an abject failure to understand the importance of community-owned rural FTTH projects and sadly, seem likely to continue to do so in 2010.

If your community has any questions about rural broadband, please do not hesitate to get in touch. We have been helping communities for a decade with broadband issues, and I was the first person in the country to hold a rural broadband event. I and many others in our "fibre gang" are happy to help real people get connected to true broadband.

What should companies such as the Phone Co-op do? Become far more aware of the activity that is now in full swing within rural communities. Start to seek alternatives to the olde schoole thinking of dealing with BT. Broadband does not equal BT. Offer customers links to resources and help on rural broadband.

The Regional Development Agencies need to take a lead in gathering together all those interested in helping communities out, and presenting this information to help rebuild rural areas. There will never be a single organisation capable of offering all the advice required to rural communities (and I say that advisedly) so find all those suppliers, consultants, technicians, and community groups able to help and put them in touch with those in need in your region.

What should the media do? Stop taking the information from a limited number of resources and press releases. Start finding out about how others have solved broadband issues such as these and report accurately on the problems and solutions. Take responsibility for co-ordinating regional efforts by publishing broadband supplements that show the full picture. Highlight the affordable and future-proofed solutions to this problem so people understand the solutions are in their own hands. Do not mention BET as a solution - it never will be. It cannot ever be construed as accurate reporting if BET is mentioned in the same sentence, paragraph or article about Next generation access or FTTH without the word 'NOT' in close proximity!!

And MPs - be warned. This is going to become an election issue so get yourself up to date fast on the latest technologies and FTTH. FTTC is NOT the solution, however many press releases Virgin and BT put out about it. Attend the FTTH Council conference in Lisbon next month, read the news from other countries about FTTH, and protect your constituencies from substandard offerings, now and in the future.







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Lessons from Louisiana

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Read more! After three weeks of subzero temperatures, Louisiana makes a very welcome change. I'd forgotten what sun felt like! Am sitting here attached to a 25Mbps symmetrical pipe, boostable to anywhere up to a gig - direct into the vein! I am currently in a data exchange which has a carbon toeprint rather than a footprint, is providing cloud computing services over the community fibre network to local businesses, and is housed within a business centre which survived, only just, Katrina ....

The best bit? It was conceived and is run by an amazing, dynamic lady, the building is owned by another female visionary, it includes a Women's Business Centre, the whole focus is on economic development, and the replicability of this set-up would be simple. Even in the UK. The only reason we can't do it is that the places where this set up is most needed are those places where there is currently insufficient infrastructure to do so.

What should we be doing? Well, firstly, the sooner we resolve the cost issues of backhaul in all areas of UK, rural and urban, the better. The UK Government should spend the first tranche of money from the rural Broadband pot putting in new open fibre, owned by the community networks it has constantly supported in words (DBR, Caio etc) if not in action. It should be a co-operative, not for profit venture, so that from now far into the future, every single person, business and community in the UK has a CHOICE about who to buy backhaul from, and the telcos and incumbents are finally faced with true competition. Yes, the government will say they cannot go directly in competition with the telcos, but there are ways round all of these arguments about anti-competition, as other nations have discovered (EU included). Think Amsterdam, Vasteras, Korea etc etc. Think about who wins and why that in itself makes it essential....

The telcos need to face up to the fact that competition is going to happen. I have in front of me the figures for building a middle mile network in the UK as a co-operative venture, and these figures have been created by a group of fibre legends, and are based on sound and known principles and costs. It isn't actually as expensive as I had thought it would be, and there are undoubtedly investors out there who want to take BT et al on at their own game and take Britain into the 21st century and beyond.

This would level the playing field and bring the data transit costs down to their real value, (cost plus) level, rather than over-inflated corporate greed-need levels. It would boost usage and access to the core network in a way that no other action can. It would immediately encourage innovation and therefore help to stimulate the economy, create new jobs, and support diversification, especially in rural areas. That co-operative needs to be started and run by members of the communities who are already up and running, and then as more communities create their own networks, they too can join the co-op. There should be no telco interest, or equipment supplier interest within that co-op, just consumers and communities, who by the very own end-user self-interest will ensure that the co-op is run for the benefit of all.

I suggest it may well, and should definitely, happen in the UK soon too. If anyone has some spare cash in the bank and wants to be involved, or you are a community network in desperate need of affordable backhaul, please do get in touch.

More from the USA soon - I now have 40+ pages of notes and my head is reeling with facts, figures, ideas and information from the amazing people who I have met and who have been generous and forthcoming in the extreme with their contributions to the discussions and answers to my seemingly never-ending stream of fibre questions. Many of these people are very well-known within our sphere and I am honoured to be invited and welcomed into their world. Thank you all. You know who you are!!



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Fibrevolutionary Unconferences

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There will be a tweetup/unconference on Monday in Leeds. Aim for The Armouries and you should be in the right place!! Look for the demonstration and the placards outside....

That is a joke!! Why do people have this strange and very mistaken vision of myself and others in the community network space?! We are the core constituency named in the Caio and Digital Britain reports, the First Third (you can call it The Final Third, but we managed to change 'last mile' to first mile ....!)

We have no idea how to knit yogurt, you know. We can lay fibre in rural areas, and have. The first UK rural community fibre connections were not laid by anyone at the conference this week.... they were laid by us. And there is an awful lot more due to go in to rural fields and verges imminently because now we know we CAN JFDI.

We care about our communities and constituencies, whom we talk and listen to regularly, openly, and in depth. We are putting in open networks. Community owned networks. Sustainable networks. Probably, if the current maths is right, very profitable networks.

And we know, better than anyone, how to get to where we are going. Which is why we are doing precisely that, mainly using the technology now at our disposal eg Google Wave, Skype, Livestream, Twitter, FB, blogs, webcams etc. Fibre. WiMax. FiWi. Sadly, many of the applications don't work as intended over our connections, but we do our best and it will get better as we own more and more of the first mile.

I wish others would use the technology we espouse to its full capabilities occasionally, but you just don't. There is no intention in any way to dis what is happening in the conference by having an unconference or tweetup. It's just another way of adding to what is already happening and achieving the results required. For UK Plc.

If you want to get involved in breaking new ground in the First Third, come and look for the group in wellies and cardis, who will all have "exile" on their delegate badges. Or just get on Wave, Twitter, Livestream and join in, without leaving your sofa.








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What is a community network?

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Read more! Bearing in mind the post about the status of INCA, this article (also written in 2005) seems valid as well. INCA is being set up for community networks. (Yes, the C stands for co-operative but the intention is clear in the information on inca.coop...) This article does nothing to even begin to cover the incredible amount of discussions we had in arguing the point about "What is a community network" but there are copious notes available. This debate has been re-ignited recently by INCA, yet without any reference to the work done previously by people who were and still are, in many cases, at the coalface. (For future reference, wheels should be circular....)


Define a community network

You'd think it'd be easy, but there is a strange tendency to drift towards a 'them' and 'us' scenario. Them are those who do it for money. Us are the ones struggling to keep our heads above water as we do far too much for 'the community' and not enough to protect ourselves and thrive.

Reminds me of that Quaker poem I can never quite remember about if there's peace in the heart, there's peace in the home, and the ripples spread outwards so you reach peace in the world. If you make sure you are OK, then you can afford to help others around you is one way of looking at it, I think. I'm not very good at this I know because the money side of life isn't of enough concern. I'd rather have mega experiences than be rich and bored rigid trying to work out what to do with the wonga.

No project should be running entirely on volunteer energy. As I keep saying to myself "Volunteers-it'll end in tears" We keep seeing it. There are not for profits who think they should do everything for free and can't reach a surplus or sustainability. And for many this is where the yogurt knitting image comes from, that social enterprises sometimes don't show balance sheets that make sense to business people or our current culture where money is apparently everything for many if not most people.

So, back to this defining community networks. I can't name names as it wouldn't be fair but there are a couple of well-known CAN operators who skewed the results on the Springing up all over survey [ABC/CBN Report presented at a DTI event in London in March 2005 - part of the ABC work delivered as Membership Services Director in CBN's infancy] because they've got several hundred people connected into quite a few of their networks. They've extended way beyond their own patch, because they are in business doing this. Are they community network operators? The communities quite often don't own the networks, but in many cases they didn't want to. They just wanted someone to come in and give them a decent broadband connection. And it has been done.

There are others where the company running the network is owned by its members, who have elected people to take charge of the daily running of the network etc. All profits are spent on extending the network, offering new services etc. Is that a community network? What about all the people in the community who are not members and who may think that profits should be ploughed into other community projects which need help like the playschool or youth club? Is involvement by a subsection of the community enough to say that a community network is owned and run by the community even when it is only a small percentage of that community?

What if there is only one person, a lone ranger, who hasn't managed to persuade anyone else to get involved yet? Or maybe doesn't want the grief of trying to explain to them how it al works? If contributions are made to worthy local causes but the profits are spent as the sole proprietor sees fit, ie to prop up their ailing business because they are too busy climbing on roofs fixing antennas to deal with their clients, is that a community network?

Or is a community network one which has had large amounts of public funding and connected the local council offices and put a kiosk in the swimming pool? Can BT say they run community networks because they occasionally give hard up communities a computer and an ADSL connection?

Can we even define 'community'? Because I think until everyone is clear what a community is, who or whether anyone owns it, runs it, where its boundaries are, who makes sure that everyone has blue fingers, who assesses the impact of each and every one of our actions to [the] benefit or detriment of that community, we are a bit knackered trying to define what a CAN is. Personally.

(CAN= Community Access Network)


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Competitive marketplace for backhaul

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Read more! It is becoming ever more apparent that the demand for decent backhaul for community networks is growing. Yet, even knowing this, where are the suppliers of such who should be falling over themselves to grab market share?

In order to make it easy for said suppliers, I have started a thread in the Fibrevolution.com forum entitled, "We need backhaul". Whilst it may take some time to feed the community networks the info they require to get started, there is every reason for communities and suppliers to start filling this thread with WANTED: and OFFERED: (just like Freecycle!).

It is down to suppliers to get it right when selling to fledgling and established community networks. There is no point over-selling as spare capacity that eats into the budget is the last thing a community network needs in its early days, but whatever is sold must be easily upgradeable as the network scales up and users of that network get more hungry for applications and services.

Getting the price right is also important. We know that for many years there has been a non-competitive market for backhaul, and it has often been ludicrously expensive for rural customers to get fairly priced connectivity to the Net because of the ancient process of charging by distance. Whether the bits travel 1 mile or 100 is pretty much irrelevant and the practice needs changing. It is no longer the case that only a few operators can sell backhaul so competition is increasingly fierce and community networks are going to be looking for the best prices.

We have very efficient jungle drums in the community network space, that have been beating for nigh on 10 years now, so the supplier(s) who get it right will benefit from fora such as Fibrevolution where the suppliers will undoubtedly be rated and reviewed, just as ISPs are now by consumers.

So, what are you waiting for? We all know that more and more community networks are going to spring up now and all are looking for that fat pipe......start advertising your wares, and helping these community networks flourish and become sustainable and profitable. As more and more of their community users get online, so the more capacity they will want from you.

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