B4RN is go!! :)))

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We all knew today would come, it was just when, but now it really is ALL go! Broadband for the Rural North (B4RN or Barn to its followers) has passed the required number of registrations to proceed with building a world class, gigabit, ubiquitous, community owned and run, community benefit FTTH network. And there's more....

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



There is an invite-only Launch event for the company and share offer on 15th December at 2pm at The Storey, Lancaster. This is an opportunity for potential investors and those that B4RN will be connecting to come together to meet the Management Committee, hear much more about the project, see the maps, and more. (Cyberdoyle has promised cake too!) Full details of the share offer will be given and for many it will be a chance to learn what they can do to help with the next phase. This is a hands-on community project and our network of supporters extends around the globe already. (If you would like to attend the Launch event, please let infoatb4rndotorgdotuk know ASAP as space is limited to 150 people).

Unless you have been living off-planet, you will know by now what B4RN intends to do. How we are going about doing it is undoubtedly unique, but we believe it will prove to be (and have designed the project to be) eminently replicable elsewhere. Our main aim is to connect what is (if there was a proper definition) the Final Ten Percent and disprove all these claims of rural and remote FTTH non-viability. The first 8 parishes are without a doubt in deeply rural areas. I can highlight just how rural by saying that when we were looking at which bank we should approach for the company account and/or for a loan deal for anyone looking to borrow the money at a special rate to buy shares, we realised that there wasn't actually a branch of ANY bank in the project area! (Which highlights the importance of being able to access internet banking...)

The next phase requires an incredible amount of commitment from a growing number of people so this blog may become less rant-ridden over the coming months as I am as determined as any other member of the current Management Team and the Lune Valley residents to make this succeed by throwing everything we have at it from our own skills and expertise. And it is quite a team, which you probably couldn't have headhunted if you had tried, but which I suspect reflects the enormous talent you can find in rural areas if you just look.

I am copying and pasting the text of the press release below for anyone who wishes to run with it for their own blog, local paper, news site, council etc to show just what can be done in rural areas, whatever the hype would have you believe. We continue to be as open as possible with the info we are putting out there (unlike others) so let us know if we have overlooked anything that you need to know.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 1st December 2011


Residents in North Lancashire launch Fibre Optic Broadband Company

An exciting community initiative, initially across eight parishes of rural Lancashire, to deliver a world class hyperfast fibre optic broadband network is being launched at The Storey in Lancaster on 15th December at 2pm.

Broadband has become essential for every sector of the community and increasingly important for our daily lives. Government and the large telecom companies plan to upgrade broadband to ‘superfast’ but not in many rural areas, where limited internet and mobile coverage affects businesses, homes and farms. The difficulty is reaching economic viability when private companies’ costs are so high and subscriber numbers are low.

Broadband for the Rural North (B4RN) plans to lower the costs, both in the building of the broadband network and to the end user, by using local contractors and the community. “Farmers and local people have the skillset we need for this project. They know the land and people, and have been offering to work for shares, which means the digging for the core network can start early in 2012. We expect this to be completed in approximately 3 months, weather permitting, and then we will begin to connect the first users,” stated Professor Forde. Shares will be available from 15th December - further information and application forms will be available on the B4RN.org.uk website on that date.

B4RN’s plans are for a hyperfast broadband network fit for purpose far into this century.
A 1 gigabit (1000Mbps) connection will ensure that any interaction with the Internet will be quick and easy. Television, films, cheap phone and video calls over the Internet, the ability to extend local mobile phone networks to cover black-spots, local security, telehealth and medicine applications - all will become possible. B4RN will be initially be providing the broadband connection and VoIP telephony, with further services to follow as the network rolls out over the coming years.

Barry Forde, B4RN Chief Executive, will explain the project and launch the share offer in the company to raise the necessary capital required over the next few months. Representatives from the first phase communities of Melling, Arkholme, Quernmore, Abbeystead, Wray, Tatham, Roeburndale, Wennington and Caton with Littledale will be at the event as well as local dignitaries and celebrities.

B4RN is a community benefit company, owned by its shareholders. Income made will be re-invested in the service and spent within the communities the company serves. The shares are being made available under the EIS (Enterprise Investment Scheme) that offers 30% tax relief, with a minimum investment of £100 and maximum of £20,000.

B4RN hopes to attract the support of local, national and international investors, whilst remaining a truly community-run business, bringing fast, future-proof, sustainable Internet access to the rural uplands, for this generation and those to come, leaving a lasting legacy for the area.

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. B4RN has been more than three years in the planning and development stage. The B4RN project will bring a state of the art, fibre optic broadband connection to the rural communities long before most of the urban areas. Rural Lancashire plans to be a world leader in “hyperfast”.

2. Professor Barry Forde (B4RN Chief Executive) is a networking expert with many years experience of designing, building and operating high performance networks. He was responsible for the CLEO network which provides connectivity to over 1000 schools and public sector sites across Lancashire and Cumbria. Bios are available for Professor Forde and the Management team http://tinyurl.com/6tpdkmt

3. The full business plan is available on the website, along with details of the pricing and payment structure for local residents and businesses. http://tinyurl.com/895uvdx This includes bonuses of free install and connection for 12 months with a £1500 investment, three further free months for early bird investors, and payment in shares for involvement in the deployment of the project.

4. A target of 662 registrations of interest were required for a green light and this was passed in just three months. The project moves one step closer to implementation with the launch of the Share Issue. “The phased network will be built by the community over three years for the seven phases. Now we have passed our target of over 700 registrations of interest in investment and taking a service at £30/month for 1Gbps, we can proceed to raise the capital required for Phase 1,” said Barry Forde.

5. B4RN will initially provide internet and telephony with further services in the future. Each home will have a battery backup so telephony over the fibre means landline connections are no longer required.

6. Christine Conder, a farmer’s wife and rural broadband pioneer, who successfully dug and installed the first rural fibre cable to her farm in Wray in 2009, knows it can be done and sums up the enthusiasm and ethos of B4RN, “If we don’t do it ourselves then it will never get done, so B4RN is the answer, let’s all JFDI.”

7. Photos (to be accredited to B4RN) are available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/b4ruralnorth

Contact details:

Professor Barry Forde, Barry@B4RN.org.uk
Christine Conder, Chris@B4RN.org.uk
Lindsey Annison, Lindsey@B4RN.org.uk

Telephone: 01524 221588 or mobile: 07952 503253 / 07967 670759
Twitter: @dig2agig
Website: http://www.B4RN.org.uk
JFDI (Just Farmers Doing IT)







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Launched! B4RN - Broadband 4 Rural North

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The Broadband 4 Rural North project has launched. This post will endeavour to give a little background to the project from my point of view as a Founder Member, and maybe, just maybe, persuade a few people from outside the area to get involved as shareholders.

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



I could write about how long I have known Barry Forde - my first keynote speaker at the first broadband event (AFAIK) in the UK - and why I respect him so much. Or how much I hate the fact that his vision for Project Access was kyboshed till it became an utter joke that remains an embarrassment to this day in Cumbria. Or my regard (read: love) for Chris Conder (aka Cyberdoyle) and all she has achieved and continues to, or my interest in rural broadband, or my long-held conviction that FTTH + FiWi is the answer, whatever the question! What matters is not the past or opinions, but the present and future for rural areas seeking true broadband solutions.

Lancashire is little different from any other county. It has large conurbations, such as Blackpool, Preston and Burnley, as well as vast swathes of rural hinterlands. Attempts to bring true broadband to the county in the past have been piecemeal and on the whole ineffective, despite a few best efforts. Yes, VM and others have reached into the urban areas but there has been little appetite to reach the tendrils of broadband to those who need it most.

Last year, Lancaster City Council decided to apply for £750,000 RDPE funding to run an innovative pilot project to a small patch of rural Lancs and connect 320 businesses to a future-proofed fibre network. The project was cut to the cloth available, as you would expect in a county renowned for its textile history, but only progressed part way across the loom (or Lune). For one reason and another (which cannot be discussed here due to ongoing scrutiny), that project was set aside in favour of the City working on a far more extensive project with the County Council - to bring broadband to the whole of Lancs, spending a minimum of £30M, match funded to £60M by a winning bidder.

The key thinker behind the initial RDPE bid proposal went back to his shed to ponder. (I am beginning to think of him as a cross between Great Uncle Bulgaria and Wellington!). Some time later, our much respected and friendly Fibre Womble appeared in our inboxes and said, "Let's JFDI anyway".

And so, B4RN was (re)born at the beginning of this year. New name, far greater ambitions, a business plan that had taken off from the fledgling idea that had been quite literally knocked out of the nest before it grew wings, and a team who are at the very least determined to give this a serious go. Again!

Do it once and do it right seems to have become the mantra, with a strap line of "B4RN will go the extra mile".

Looking at who has been cced into many of the mails during the past half year and more, I estimate almost 200 years of business, technical and local expertise were involved from the outset. As each day passes, this grows, and grows, and grows, and we must be getting close to (if not passed) 1000 years of experience already from those inputting into the project on a daily basis. Not only is that no mean feat, but it means that B4RN is benefiting from experience that covers a wide tranche of knowledge and viewpoints.

The work behind the scenes has been phenomenal. Opinions have been sought on every aspect - locally, nationally and from world renowned experts in many fields - this is not just about broadband as the project will be community-owned and run.

Every property has been mapped and distances calculated. Suppliers, partnerships and potential JVs discussed, chased up, and the intricacies of the tech design put through its paces. Landowners approached, discussions held, minutiae bandied about to get agreement. Finances pored over with fine toothcombs, taken to expert advisors, and regurgitated with increasingly positive noises. Meetings have been held across the area already, and more are planned for the first two weeks of September because engagement of the local community is paramount. Fliers are at the printers, although many started to be circulated at the beginning of this week. The website has been built and then re-designed and built again. (And this paragraph cannot even begin to encapsulate what has been going on with B4RN in 2011!)

Whilst none of us think that this is going to be an easy task, one of the uplifting threads to all of this has been the willingness to TRY. Lawyers looking at legal details through magnifying glasses, local people with and without knowledge of the internet helping to put each aspect into context for neighbours, online and offline friends offering incredibly useful advice (you know who you are, we will get to it all asap!) ETC.

The T of the SWOT analysis hardly needs to be done when the Local Authority is planning a county wide procurement, but the reality of that deployment is that the 8 parishes involved in B4RN have little chance of getting more than 2 -10 Mbps from that. One of the bidders cannot even tell anyone what technology they plan to use nor what capacity that will offer to this area this week. B4RN is offering a gig.

We can argue round that figure as much as you wish, but the detail is in the Business Plan on the website. We have been as transparent as anyone could ever wish, and possibly more so than could be deemed sensible, but maybe that just shows up the foolhardy nature of constantly citing "commercial sensitivity" with PUBLICLY FUNDED projects. Why hide the detail away? What if the community could contribute if only they knew? B4RN works on that basis...you, yes, you, may have something that will help this project succeed so we need to make sure you can see where that might be.

B4RN is seeking no public funding to go ahead. One of the gripes I have had for far too long is that no-one has been pursuing the Public-Private-Community Partnerships that I have been pushing since before CBN days. Use public money, get private sector involved, but use the money of the SMEs and residents in the community too.

In this instance, I am an honorary resident, and you will all be glad to know that my promise to put my dosh where my very big mouth is earlier this year has been more than accepted by B4RN! And I am relieved to finally have a project to back. With similar support from others who fancy a punt, B4RN could prove the viability and sustainability of rural FTTH once and for all. The best bit is that I get to choose which property benefits from my investment and gets 1 year's free connection to B4RN so I've been looking at holiday cottages for working weekends away in the Trough of Bowland and the Lune Valley ;)

So, take a look at B4RN. We don't have £1million or £30million to play with before starting, but we have a serious business plan and vision that few others share right now for rural FTTH gigabit broadband. We are JFDI with this community's support - both the geographic community, and the community of interest around the world who reads blogs like this and want to see a project with heart and brains succeed. Register your interest to receive the share offer doc in October, and why not consider putting a few pennies behind B4RN? Between us, we could connect a fair few holiday cottages and that bit of Lancs is scenic, friendly, and within spitting distance of the coast and the Lakes .... I feel a Gigabit colloquium coming on ;)










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#Twicket shows what can be done

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Read more! The now globally infamous #Twicket Match in Wray, Lancashire today highlights just what can be done when rural areas have true broadband. The live streamed cricket match was a first on the Internet.....more details and full archive on twicket.info

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



Over 2700 people tuned in during the match from around the world to watch, and the online 'tickets' reached a staggering 1/2 a million(!) on Eventbrite.

The main problem with 21st century UK broadband from the telcos is that it is asymmetrical. This means that live streaming with multiple TV and video cameras, as well as the internet connectivity that was being used to tweet etc today is simply impossible in the vast majority of villages in the UK. This is why BBC and other outside broadcast teams have to rely on satellite for connectivity.

In fact, the opinions expressed on Twitter during and after the match were that there are only three such villages where such an event could take place - Ashby de la Launde in Lincolnshire, Great Asby and Wray / Wennington.

These three places have one thing in common - they are all home to community broadband networks that have been built because the telcos refuse to bring rural areas into the 21st century. Communities have worked together to bring FiWi (fibre-wireless) to their inhabitants.

What Twicket should graphically illustrate to everyone, whether they understand what true broadband is or not, is that when grassroots and communities get involved in delivering services that are required in rural areas, fantastic results can be achieved. (Including fully-clothed, 15 ft high, scarecrow streakers!). Additionally, a globule of imagination is all that is required to see how Twicket equivalents will benefit every community.

For instance, livestreams and archives of Parish Council meetings, church services, village events, remote education opportunities for undersubscribed classes (or for when the village hall is just too cold for yoga!), gigs, telehealth solutions, sharing village traditions across the world....in fact, you name it, once you can create and share content over a symmetrical connection, the world really is your lobster.

To all those involved, a huge round of applause for creating a trend, firing up imaginations, and showing up the telcos.

Thank you to.....

@JohnPopham for his incredible work in making this happen and never being stumped by problems, and @DAnSlee for inspiring him
@Cyberdoyle (plus Debs etc) and Lancaster Uni for constantly evolving the Wray and Wennington networks to show other communities what can be done when academia and community join forces
Aquila TV for livestreaming
CLA, (CLA Photos) NGU and Talk about Local for sponsorship
RadioYouthology for live radio commentary
Mike Rawlins for his aerial photos
@Twicketbrenda for introducing a whole new field of cricket commentary, ably assisted by @Simon_Magus
Breakdance Billy (aka Adam) for the tea time entertainment
Stephen Fry for his RT
The Guardian, Metro and Radio Lancashire for publicity.
Pimms
All the players, umpires and their yellow cards, tweeters, and everyone else involved.

THANK YOU!!

P.S. A #Twicket secret - there is ethernet strung with the bunting across Wray main street!

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France vs UK (via Surrey and Lancashire)

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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.




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Working Together...in action (not)

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Read more! Oh delightful. Cumbria County Council can't work with Lancashire to maximise the CLEO asset and seem determined to give the over-specced educational network to BT when we paid for it. We have politicians who are playing some sort of divide and conquer game in the North West instead of working together....excuse me whilst I apply my head to this breeze block.

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



We're back in that stupid world where people forget broadband can cross county boundaries and are determined to go for some sort of personal glory instead of joining up the dots (and fibres and demand and funding) to get the best end result.

Let's pick a place at random, say, Sedbergh. Is it in North Yorkshire or Cumbria? Well, just to confuse matters, it used to be in the West Riding of Yorkshire, but now it's in Cumbria whilst also being in the Yorkshire Dales National Park and the South Lakeland District Council. Where are the nearest shopping places to Sedbergh? Yep, in Lancashire and the Lake District, but many of the residents have relatives in Wensleydale in the Yorkshire Dales. (Look at a map if you are confused!) And just in case you don't grasp how multi-regional the people of Sedbergh feel, it's twinned with Zrece in Slovenia.

Sedbergh's exchange provides the phone lines for people up and over in Yorkshire (Garsdale) and could (if you look at a map) solve a problem for a bit of Cumbria directly over the hill from Garsdale.

But, oh look. We've got county councils being parochial in both their thinking and use of the funding, instead of communicating with each other about getting the best deal for the whole region, and politicians from different parties trying to group demand into constituencies instead of saying, "Hey, let's work together and make something really quite extraordinary happen."

I personally have a deal of respect from the majority of northern politicians, as I've been lucky enough to get to know William Hague, Tim Farron and Rory Stewart, but guys, guys, guys......rural areas suffer from lack of population. Don't divvy us up even further. And as for the County Councils in Lancashire and Cumbria, I think they need their heads banging together. The two counties are already joined up by a fairly substantial lump of infrastructure in CLEO. What on earth are you doing failing to maximise that asset so the whole of the North West could be sorted out? (Excluding all that urban bunch in the south of the region who don't fall into the Final Third and can resolve their own, different arguments with the telcos).

In Cumbria and Lancashire we are about to see two re-runs of the total failure that was Project Access, using even more money, without, seemingly an ounce of common sense being exhibited by those who were elected to do a job on our behalf.

I am increasingly disappointed with the news coming out of this region, frustrated at the abysmal failure to learn even one lesson from the recent past, let alone the many that could be learned, and embarrassed to watch the regional broadband news develop in a way that, at present anyway, can only be a substantial waste of public money, time and effort.

I suspect that once again we will look back on this time, as we did with Project Access and the ADSL rollouts, and be bloody ashamed we allowed such an obvious, basic, bunch of avoidable errors happen. Let alone the impact that making the decisions which look likely to be made, or already have been, will have on our long-term economy.

Shame on you, I say.





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Radio Lentil interviews - as promised (Intro)

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Read more! Many apologies for the length of time it has taken to start getting these fab interviews from the Rory's Reivers broadband conference in Penrith, Cumbria, out on Radio Lentil. If I said we had technical issues, it wouldn't cover the half of it!

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

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A huge thanks has to go to Mark Holdstock for taking over the green room, giving up attending the majority of the conference, interviewing everyone ushered in, having to wolf down his lunch, then editing the interviews and ensuring they were all delivered before the conference ended. The delay in getting them online - well, blame it on the copper, rural business requirements, etc! Me, if you wish ;o)

Our first interview will be Barry Forde.

Back in about 2002/3, Barry was the keynote speaker at my first broadband conference in Leyburn, Wensleydale - possibly the first rural broadband conference held, though my modesty prohibits me from making sure people remember this too often!

I asked Barry to speak as keynote because it was so apparent from our talks that here was a man with a vision that was ACHIEVABLE, real and sustainable. 8 years later, Barry's visions continue to be deliverable and forward thinking, despite the fact that all of those involved back then would far prefer that we had moved on much more than we have.

Project Access was, as I understand it, originally Barry's plan to deliver future-proofed broadband to all of this area. In essence, it was remarkably similar to the Digital Village Pump idea - fat pipes to as many communities as possible. Ergo, DVP could have come into being almost 10 years ago, helping Cumbria and Lancs lead the way across the EU to FTTH and FiWi. However....

Project Access's failure has led to the need to revisit Barry's original idea to ensure that businesses in Cumbria are finally connected to an infrastructure which actually delivers what is required. Whilst excuses may be given for the take up in Cumbria having pushed the infrastructure to its limits, everyone involved knew that PA in its final iteration was never going to do the job initially proposed.

What is now presented as the "award winning" (cough, splutter) Project Access was a dumbed down version of Barry's original, far-sighted solution; at a cost of between £19.2M and £26M, depending on who you speak to. (More about Project Access another day).

Meanwhile, whilst Project Access fought its way through the machinations of RDAs, EU, State Aid etc, Barry and CLEO (Cumbria and Lancashire Education Online) pressed on to build a school's network out of Lancaster Uni that is probably second to none in the UK. Bizarrely, it gets little publicity for what it is, nor what it has achieved.

As a mum with kids who have gone to four schools in Cumbria, the fact that even our primary schools had 2Mbps before many urban schools had fought their way through Learning Stream contracts is a matter of pride. I still have an early CLEO network map on my noticeboard, showing the diligence that was applied to connect even the most remote and far-flung schools to the Internet.

Barry ought to be in retirement, but there are many of us who are not willing to let him go just yet. His knowledge of local infrastructure, and how to best use it, makes him invaluable; his vision is more than just long-sighted. If anyone knows how to make Cumbria and similar rural areas succeed in the knowledge economy, it is Barry.

Nothing phazes him - railways, motorways, difficult to reach communities, mobile operators, BT, regulations, unnecessarily locked down education networks, public speaking, or dealing with obstreperous, impatient females within his 'constituency'!










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Radio Lentil - Broadband Interviews & Video

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Read more! Radio Lentil offers broadband podcasts, and during the next week we shall be playing a series of interviews conducted at Rory Stewart's broadband conference in Penrith yesterday. Many thanks to Mark Holdstock, who many of you will know from the BBC programmes You & Yours and Farming Today.

This blog post can be read at 5tth.blogspot.com
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In the meantime, you cannot miss this must-see broadband video

which for many was the highlight of the conference - Chris Conder's story of laying the first rural fibre to the home.
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Rural NGA pilots get major support

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A hearty cheer is to be heard in the North West of the UK today as the recipients of the RDPE funding through the NWDA are announced.

Even though I am from Yorkshire, I can only feel massive pleasure to hear that the £750k RDPE funding has been awarded to two projects in Lancashire which have been of huge personal interest to me. It really could not have been a better decision on the part of the NWDA and they deserve a pat on the back for getting it right.

What we will see now is the delivery of NGA pilots which show exactly how this country can deliver forward-thinking Next Generation Access into deeply rural areas using existing infrastructure, joined up thinking, fibre, already successful projects, and the huge experience that has been hard won over the years to be able to do this.

Congratulations to Lancaster City Council, Abbeystead, Wennington, Barry Forde, Chris Conder and the many others who have given so much to achieve this. HOORAY! I can't wait to write Part 2 of the book ;o)
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