Cumbria Broadband Slowspots

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We have mapped the identified slowspots in Cumbria from data which appears to have come originally via BDUK. This map shows all those places where properties cannot receive 2Mbps or higher. We do not believe this map is complete and are asking the help of Cumbrian residents and businesses to make sure the full picture is understood, and publicly available.

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

The full Cumbrian broadband slowspot map is available here.

Zoom in, and if there is no circle near to your house or business premises, or within your postcode area, and a speedtest.net test shows that you receive under 2Mbps, please complete the following form and we will add your postcode to the map.

If you know of others nearby who suffer slow broadband, please help them to add their postcode too and tell others about this map, wherever they are in Cumbria, and the press, the radio stations, blogs, twitter etc.

(Due to some discrepancies with how Google maps renders postcodes, we think some of the postcodes are slightly misplaced on some browsers. We are working on this).



Should this data be available in the public domain for every county? We believe so. Then, use the people who can actually run the speedtests in their houses on their equipment (with whatever limitations that has) to pin themselves to the map to get a far truer picture of broadband in the UK. Ditto for mobile coverage.

UPDATE: BBC are announcing a similar crowdsourced exercise for national mobile coverage tomorrow. Hopefully the data will this time be made publicly available and stay on the website forever.

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State Aid Guidelines

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Read more! Light reading for the weekend, folks! After last night's "Eden Valley Connective" broadband meeting with BDUK, I thought it was time to lay into the State Aid Guidelines.

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


It is going to be very important for those within the BDUK pilot areas to help those in Councils etc to make the right decisions. We can all only do that if we understand how State Aid will and does affect choices made. For instance, it would seem that "open access" is being translated to suit the bidders already, and not either the project or the end users.

In addition, it would seem very important that Councils et al are very clear about 51.

51. In assessing the proportional character of the notified measures in "white" or "grey" areas, through its decision-making practice, the Commission has highlighted a number of necessary conditions to minimise the State aid involved and the potential distortions of competition. The lack of any of the following conditions in (a) to (h) would require an in-depth assessment [51] and most likely it would lead to a negative conclusion on the compatibility of the aid with the common market.

So, a) for instance reads:

(a) Detailed mapping and coverage analysis: Member States should clearly identify which geographic areas will be covered by the support measure in question. By conducting in parallel an analysis of the competitive conditions and structure prevailing in the given area and consulting with all stakeholders affected by the relevant measure, Member States minimise distortions of competition with existing providers and with those who already have investment plans for the near future and enable these investors to plan their activities [52]. A detailed mapping exercise and a thorough consultation exercise ensure accordingly not only a high degree of transparency but serve also as an essential tool for defining the existence of "white", "grey" and "black" zones [53].

Mapping for instance is vital. At Penrith conference, the maps failed to include our own homegrown networks like Cybermoor, Gt Asby etc so maps must include ALL existing service providers, not just the big boys.

Communicating with existing service providers about their plans. Hm, we are already hearing from providers and communities who are getting increasingly concerned that their ongoing work could be totally distorted by BDUK intervention unless local authorities try much harder to discover what is going on in their areas. (This has been ongoing for a while, but many of those now getting in touch are not 'planning' to build something, they have already JFDI.)

This small example of a detailed and complex document gives some idea of what we are all up against.

There will be a short test on Monday on the rest of the Guidelines. ;o)

(Next week, we shall be studying the Framework Agreement).

Have a good weekend all. And just a reminder that rural areas, kids and advanced technology mix really well. I suspect we may see something similar in Stoneleigh as a school holiday course in years to come...
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Race to Infinity?

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Read more! Don't make me bloody laugh. An infinitely long wait for anything approaching what other countries have is what the latest BT marketing campaign will achieve for most.

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



Seen all this before. Look what the trigger levels did for huge swathes of the country? Kept us tied into a private company's infinitely slow roll-out of 'true broadband'. In fact, we still aren't there yet as few have a symmetrical connection, which is what is required to use the Net, services and applications.

I refuse point blank to link to the website promoting this farce. Anyone who registers on it instead of investigating the options for DIY FTTH is permitting a private company to lead this country into yet more years of broadband darkness. This type of data harvesting in private will lead many investors to hesitate to put money into a badly needed utility instead of JFDI.

Personally, I think that what is required is a concerted campaign to either
a) pull this website immediately OR take it from BT's greedy little paws and put it in the hands of an independent group who have the well-being of the nation not shareholders at heart

or b) insist that all data is made open access for all (exactly as any FTTH network should be) immediately the competition ends. After all, if these people want better broadband, they won't mind being contacted by EVERY COMPANY willing to get on and do it in their area, will they? It's called CHOICE. It's called a COMPETITIVE MARKET. And it's what every consumer in this country should have a right to.

In addition, what should be put on that site are links to every bit of news and information about FTTH that BT can lay its hands on to ensure that any website visitor is given full and unbiased knowledge about just what is feasible in this day and age without BT needing subsidies from the public purse. BT are gathering data from every single exchange in order to justify doing 5, which won't even be in the Final Third, which would have made the most sense to show the level of demand in rural areas and the true commercial viability of such exchanges.

AND there ought to a clearly laid out promise that BT will do ubiquitous FTTH, and not FTTC or BET, to any exchange area that it decides is viable from a 75% trigger.

Watch 2012 be the year that BT makes approaches to every regional source of funding declaring certain exchanges are not viable....



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Broadband mapping - is this what UK needs?

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Read more! US broadband mapping may have just become easier with the launch of Broadband Scout.

There is huge potential here for someone in the UK with similar data records to create a true broadband map of Britain by county, postcode etc. Luckily, I don't, or I would probably have a go at this, as this is the information the UK is most lacking. It is currently tied up, double wrapped, guarded jealously by corporates who keep pulling "commercial sensitivity" nonsense on people like me who request it. Whilst some people are doing a great job of trying to get your average Joe to report in their broadband connectivity, it is not sufficiently conclusive to make mapping broadband demand possible.

Hopefully, this will now change when someone who isn't involved in the telco world gets on with this job, and makes it available. As a commercial product, that's fine, as long as communities get reasonably priced access to the results for our areas so we can build sensible, sustainable networks without quite so much guesswork or time wasted with the telco smoke and mirrors palaver we constantly face.

And then, Mr Telco, instead of having zero customers buying your stupidly over-priced and non-competitive bandwidth products in places desperate for a community network and true broadband, you can sell lots of these products at reduced but still highly profitable prices to places where you won't have to deal with us ornery, expensive end users and consumers because the community network will be doing that.

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Broadband Map of NZ

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Read more! Can't beat this. New Zealand now has an ubercool map of broadband coverage and suppliers.

And we in UK and EU have........? I can't even find out whose is the fibre going up the A road within 500yds from me, let alone anything useful like where the notspots are likely to be for next gen.... Read more!

Economic evidence from US

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Read more! Recent studies estimate that accelerating broadband deployment in the US would have a total annual economic impact of $134 billion. Additional economic impacts show the potential for a further $130 billion across healthcare, education, job creation and retention, environmental impact etc.

This has led to a lobby of a broad-based alliance (healthcare, farming, education, telcos etc) to urge Congress to adopt a national policy for broadband mapping, public=private -partnerships for deployment and more. The full article is available here.

The UK needs to move forwards along these lines too. Mapping existing infrastructure that can be used more effectively (ducts, poles and masts for instance), deployment, notspots, and determinning where there are going to be gaps and underserved areas, where public-private-co-operative partnerships could be the best solution.

In order to do this correctly though, there needs to be clear definitions of the services available, as per the post yesterday about defining NGA/broadband to ensure that further digital divides are not created through misunderstandings and lack of clarity. Read more!