Practical Get Online Week

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Read more! It's all very well persuading people to get online, but it's not much good if that is a physical impossibility in their location. As ever, it is not the uber-funded who are out there JFDI!

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



Once upon a time, we built a network in a matter of days - Wennet - with a SWAT team who came together to connect a notspot using funds destined to be spent on pointless and probably unread case studies. The story of that is in the book JFDI Community Broadband Wennington. (Note, please do not order from Amazon. You will never receive a copy).

However, once you get a few people online on a decent connection (that puts the incumbent to shame), others start to hassle to be connected too!

So, progress has continued. Connecting others in the vicinity, both with fibre and wireless.

Once again, there is another video of the practical work being done to bring broadband to deeply rural areas of the UK - more FiWi Pie from Lancashire.



And it's nice to add that Rory's Reivers contributed their travel money from the #rbc10 conference to buy these nanos. Far better use of the money than giving it to over-paid suits on expense accounts. So, one month to the day since the conference and two new links have been put in as an interim measure until fibre can be laid to bridge that gap. However, fibre backhaul may be arriving via a different route, and then these wireless bridges will be re-used to connect up the next two communities who are waiting patiently for any sort of connection.

See? FiWi Pie, we love it!

(Oh, and UK Online Centres.... these videos are exactly what you should be using to promote Get Online week. Tweet them and share them! We have got to work together. That includes those with wellies and no dosh, AND those with posh t-shirts, badges, flags, banners, balloons etc.)


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Showing some moral fibre in the UK

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Read more! Few of us are willing to pretend that sweating the copper asset is good. Because it is only good for BT shareholders. And even that is now debatable. It certainly isn't an option if we want to take on the world. Right now, with the plans available from our incumbent, the UK would struggle to competitively take on anyone for FTTH by 2017.

Is that what we want as a nation?



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



It really is time that people stood up to BT in this country and made inroads into the necessary infrastructure investment and deployment that is required to get us back on the road to innovation and implementation.

We can pretend that FTTC, Cornwall, Infinity, and multiple other farcical announcements are good for the country. Or we can JFD what is required. Luckily, there are many who believe that copper is only good for socks, kettles and bracelets, and who know that BT is not required to deliver any level of 21st century network deployment.

New non-BT exchanges are being built as I write, and it is time for every community to realise that you do not need, nor want, BT Infinity if you wish to get to a Chattanooga or Korean level of connectivity. Not just sooner rather than later, but AT ALL.

It is time to take BT out of the first mile entirely. There is a place in FiWi Pie for them, but as a wholesaler. Openretch has had its day.

We need to climb out of the box, and understand that the biggest 'drag' on this country's move into 21st century comms is the company we gave an ageing infrastructure to, and failed to apply functional separation to.

Luckily, we no longer need that ageing copper-based infrastructure, nor the companies around it, and each and every community can build its own community broadband network in this day and age, without requiring the incumbent's involvement. We don't need new quangos either - time to JFDI.

So, let's start.....

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I have a dream....of rural connectivity

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Read more! 15 years after I was first given a modem in a field at an eco-festival, and then discovered that dial up was a pile of poo, I am still without a connection that allows me to do my job, run my internet-based business, video conference with friends and family (down the road let alone abroad), watch iPlayer, enjoy health, wealth and learning opportunities that others in rural areas around the world take for granted, etc. And yet....

This time one month ago, I was connected into a very, very, very fat pipe. In America, courtesy of my now good friends at Utopia. I went there to see how you could make FTTH happen in rural Britain. I nearly didn't come back purely because of the experience of being on a fat pipe, except that I know it's possible here too.

I read about FTTH all the time and have been reading about FTTH for at least 10 of the last 15 years. I met people there, and elsewhere in USA, who gave me answers I have been seeking for far too long.

Today, I spoke to someone British who I last saw about 10 years ago. We still share the same dream - connecting rural communities in the UK to fibre and disproving the ridiculous hype about why it isn't possible. That dream really, really matters to me. And him. And many, many others who loiter in my inbox, on Twitter, at colloquia, at other events, in forums etc. There will be a group of us meeting in Lisbon next week. If you are going to be there, get in touch....

In the last few days, I have been quizzed (or rather, interrogated!) about what exactly it is that I have developed over the last 3 months (read: 15 years) to achieve that dream. I know that there are aspects of this ... this....hmm, let's call it a project....about which I am vague. It is not deliberate. It's generally because I am a bear of little brain and I seem to know "a man who does". You don't play in this sector for 15 years without meeting a few people who know their stuff.

I do not need to know every answer to every question about this project. Whether it is a technical or fiscal question - why bark when you have a dog? I do not mean that in any way condescendingly or patronisingly. I mean, if you know a man who can, then make use of that expertise instead of endeavouring to become an expert in something you don't need to be. This has to be about team building. Working together. Learning from each other. Co-operating.

I have my own skillset. It has been finely honed over the years so that I can contribute something of value to this type of project. (Or so I hope!) One of my skills is collecting people in my address book who have the answers, gained over YEARS in the business. Years that I don't have, nor do you, to make the dream of rural fibre happen by becoming that expert. My address book is a team of people now who can deliver, I believe, something quite extraordinary. Disruptive? I guess. World changing? Potentially, in the UK at least. Profitable? Definitely.

This post is about COLLABORATION and CO-OPERATION. I know that in my circle of fibre friends there are a multitude of people who if I could just get them in one room for a weekend would make some very serious things happen for FTTH. Who could make #digitalbritain happen before the telcos will, before regulation can be put in place to overcome untold difficulties created mainly by commercial pressures, before most of this country even understands what the world beyond bog standard broadband looks like.

FTTH could be here very soon. It is not about talking shops or yet more reviews, consultations, lobbying etc. It is about JFDI. I know I keep saying this, and have even written books on the subject (thanks to whoever it was who bought a substantial number of my books today!!), but it really is about getting together and making it happen.

My reward will not be fiscal on past evidence (!), although any money for what this 'battle' has cost to date would probably keep the accountant and bank manager happier. My reward will be to know that we, the team behind this project, have actually JFDI and broken the ground (literally) to show others it CAN BE DONE.

So, to finalise, I know it can be done. You know it can. None of us can do it alone, or it would have happened a decade ago.

Who is in your address book who you should be ringing to talk about actually doing it? If you are missing people with specific skills, come to the colloquia (next week, May/June and Oct). Tell us you need a colloquium on a specific topic, and we will endeavour to get those people in a room for a few hours to discuss coalface issues with you. Join the COTS group and make a difference there and meet the people you need to make this happen. Go to the CLA meeting on 2nd March and collaborate with others on the Final Third issues.

If we all focus on solving this problem once and for all, it can be done. There are communities across the UK with hard-working champions doing much of the leg work without support from those who can resolve their problems, easily. If you are a funder, make funding available for those who are JFDI across this country in rural communities galore. Make a strenuous effort to find out who is on your manor who you have missed and who could deliver your tickboxes far easier than Business Link ever will.

On a commercial basis, this is your market share, your end users, the consumers you want.

Connect with those people.

Come and meet them at the colloquia.

Talk to them.

Work with them.

Collaborate and co-operate.

Make it happen.

I honestly believe that there is a slice of the FiWi Pie for everyone if you do.







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Why FiWi matters in the UK

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Read more! There are no two ways about it, and little argument from industry, government or consumers and community. In order to deliver Digital Britain, we need FiWi. That is, fibre as close to every home and business as possible, and wireless in the few places where that is not physically possible.

On such an issue as the fourth utility, finances do not come into it. However, there are always going to be places where fibre is just too difficult to provision and where wireless actually makes far more sense as being the right technology for that job.

There needs to be a Universal Service Obligation that applies to broadband exactly as it does water and electricity. Not "Best effort" depending on what your books look like and your shareholders think, but an OBLIGATION to get that utility to EVERYONE.

And not some half-hearted attempt that suits the world of commerce eg 2Mbps asymmetrical. That is NOT broadband and there is plenty to show now that asymmetry is not what people seek.

Broadband goes way beyond who is making money out of it. It is a UTILITY. There are some who still don't get it. Fine, they will, worry not. You can't escape the pervasive incursion of the internet into our daily lives, and as the public sector eg health and education realise the massive advantages, improved services and cost-savings that can be made by using broadband technology, it will become ever more pervasive and inescapable in every aspect of our world.

FiWi is key to bringing Britain into the digital age, engaging this country into the digital economy, creating 'digital citizens'. It is not some airy fairy pie in the sky notion, although I have been saying FiWi Pie for years to illustrate that there is a piece of this pie for everyone.

However, if we set the bar so low that a huge swathe of the country is reliant on wireless rather than fibre, we are doing ourselves no favours, now or in the future. The reality is that the future is FIBRE, and ignoring that fact, or shoving it under the carpet, won't make it go away.

The FiWi mix needs to be heavily skewed towards fibre, with wireless giving us the opportunity to connect the remaining few, as well as providing a wireless cloud so that everyone everywhere can connect using their wireless device. I'll say it again - wireless should not be the core technology used as the primary connection mechanism, except in a very few and exceptional places in this country.

This country needs to work together to deliver what is required, not just by our generation but by the NEXT GENERATION. It means thinking and working together to find the right solutions. Not allowing commerce to take the lead or set a glass ceiling for its own ends. Not allowing government to stymie innovation whilst it pads out the very depleted coffers. Not allowing communities to suffer at the expense of either of the aforementioned. Not ignoring the very real grassroots and industry expertise available in this country, purely to win votes or cash in.

What we need in this country is CO-OPERATION between all the stakeholders to get on with fibre and JFDI. Anyone who thinks 2Mbps is sufficient now, in 2012 or beyond, will either need to sit on the sidelines and watch, or change their thinking, fast.

Britain needs people who get IT. Who understand the scale of the task we need to undertake to firstly catch up with other countries and then, hopefully, to compete or surpass them. And who realise the time for meetings, quangos and conferences, talking about and extolling the virtues of 'true broadband' but resulting in little action, is over.

Work together and we could have a world class infrastructure our children will be proud of. Ignore the issues and continue with each party selfishly pursuing its own ends and agendas, and we will end up with a nationwide disaster that impacts every single sector of our country.


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