FTTH to the newly unemployed

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Read more! Mid 2009 - Unemployment benefits to be paid in FTTH credits to stimulate new business starts ups from the latest round of redundancies and publicly fund the FTTH network. 3 million unemployed expected to be reduced by half due to new technology, says Minister.

Imaginary? I think not.

Due to unforeseen circumstances (and yes, my tongue is firmly in my cheek about WHY we are about to see this happen not the actuality of it), the UK is about to have AT LEAST 3 million unemployed. The majority of whom are qualified, experienced, and champing at the bit to be back in work. Imagine if:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

The govt has decided to award everyone who is currently out of work FTTH credits for immediate true broadband connectivity in order to encourage new businesses and SMEs. The evidence has been growing about the need for this level of investment, and replacement of standard UB40 payments with true broadband credits has been on the cards for a few years.

Once again, the publication of Mr J's new ebook: "Surviving the Global Financial Crisis" saw the whole of Norfolk, Essex and the Docklands taken offline, and major problems on the UK network.

Having established a global following of some 8.3 million email subscribers, this latest ebook put UK broadband capacity over its limit, due to the inclusion of so-called Web 2.0 content - podcasts, video, and live Tweets - standard fare in other countries.

HSBC and other bank users reported the non-availability of the Network at around 6am; however, gamers were reporting it within moments of the global announcement, hitting at about 2.04am. No UK businesses were able to get online by 8am, and residential users have been overwhelming the telephony and VoIP support networks since just before 9am, when the first HD TV bingo games normally begin.

Due to the over-employment of ex-railway employees and others in the public sector during the past decade or so, the unemployment figures could easily rise to around 10million as the pension crisis escalates in the next 12 months. This has triggered major think tank reports from all sectors to put in place measures to deal with the developing crisis.

All unemployment payments will now be issued as FTTH and bandwidth credits, and not in cash. Several major retailers and supermarkets have agreed to accept the credits from any customer purchasing online. However, consumer protection agencies are threatening to boycott all outlets seeking this solution on the grounds that many people do not actually have an FTTH connection to their home, nor is there sufficient bandwidth available to keep the nation fed.

"The lack of food, let alone fuel for cars, and the failure of this Government to implement an integrated transport policy is exacerbating the problem, leaving many stranded in remote villages such as Fallowfield in Manchester. Unable to connect to the Net, or afford transport, were such available, we are now leaving valuable civil servants and others in their homes to rot, without work or food," said Amy Mcpherson of the Citizens Rights Agency (Politics).

We expect an update from our local reporters around the country in the next few minutes.



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Yes, it really is as crap as we have been saying

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Read more! Isn't it strange how we Brits work? The customers can complain all they want about the state of broadband in the UK, but it takes a report by the ONS for people to sit up and listen. All except the regulators, of course.

At what point will the true reality of the broadband situation in the UK finally be realised, and the telcos' lies, damned lies and moronic advertising campaigns be revealed to all and sundry? As well as ofcom, BSG, industry quangos, government think tanks, and all the rest's preposterous kerb crawling on this issue be stopped?

How hard can it be for actual speeds to be assessed on a national, customer level basis? After all, if we can run small apps on people's home computers to look for aliens (SETI@Home etc) then surely we can run a similar app to test people's actual speeds?

This country has lost itself in many ways, as we all know. I only really care about broadband, my business and my kids' education and future, but they are all intimately tied together for me as an Internet Marketer, reliant on my connection to work, progress and develop my company, and therefore run my home. (Which is of course why I started all this campaigning a very long 13 years ago).

The economic case for FTTH has long ago been proven, and the fact that so many people are dissatisfied with their connectivity has been apparent for a long time. Not just the speeds and quality of service, but ISPs customer service too. It is though now so hard to make a complaint about your broadband to _anyone_ that, judging by the number of calls I personally get to try and resolve problems in my village alone, everyone has given up trying the ISPs and Ofcom. When the BBC ran a quick survey on broadband, it turned out to be the most intensive, responded to article they have EVER run on their website.

Whoever gets FTTH in first, with decent customer service, preferably owned and managed by its users, will win this endgame. End of. We are all heartily sick of the telcos, of Ofcom failing to grasp or even clutch at the straws of reality, of Government pratting around bailing out banks and financial institutions with shedloads more of our money than would be required to FTTH even the most remote farmhouse, and all the rest of the wastage and idiocy going on.

In my letter going up the chimney, it clearly says, "Please, Santa, I have been very, very good this year (again). Please, please, please can I have broadband now? 100Mbps symmetrical. I will share it with others if I really have to, and I'm happy to dig for it. I really have waited more than long enough now and been incredibly patient. Please?"

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The Dutch are at it again

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Read more! Seems Reggefiber and KPN are chucking 6-7 billion euros at FTTH in the Netherlands over the next 5-7 years with an ambitious aim of 100% FTTH coverage.

Nice to know other countries have companies/telcos who have seen the light, literally. Seems the Dutch regulator OPTA will make an announcement next Monday about the issue, and a green light has already been given by the competition authority (our Monopolies Commission, at a guess). A neat JV will be put in place, Glashart, of which KPN will have 41% of the holding with the option to increase that to a majority stake.

100% coverage. Hmmm, let's hazard a guess what percentage FTTH there will be in the UK by the time this type of project comes to fruition elsewhere in the EU, shall we? Especially after BT's 'threats' this week about not doing anything much without a far looser regulatory environment. (Which actually implies consumers and competition will be shoved into the background if the threat is taken seriously and BT (and its shareholders) is given the chance to have it all their own way).

I wish it was a co-operative JV, but even so, lucky bloody Dutch!!! Read more!

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!

FTTH Community Guide

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Read more! I should be promoting my own book but this new FTTH Community Guide may be of more interest to readers of this blog!

Although it is deeply Americanised, much of what is covered in this guide bears relevance to those looking to develop community FTTH in Europe. Obviously, the lack of a co-operative or mutual model within the case studies is a shame; however, each municipality seems to be seeing a ROI which undoubtedly has a positive effect on the communities' coffers.

ECFibernet is also worth keeping an eye on to see how the sustainability and profitability to rural areas pans out. Although the legal issues may be different in the US, the economics for rural areas in pretty much any area of the EU are similar.

Definitely a report worth perusing....
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Voice 2.0?

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Read more! I've just found a great new site which launched yesterday, and best of all, it's British! Internet Shout is one of what will likely be more than just the next gen of forums. It allows people to literally voice their opinions.

Now this may well work over most broadband connections, and the simplicity with which a new user can add a recording reminds me of when Youtube launched and the changes that made to sharing video. However, for many, Youtube is still a staggeringly frustrating experience. Imagine how awful it would be if you added video to Internet Shout for all those of us without a decent connection? And why wouldn't you add video? It's the next logical step in allowing people to communicate, have a voice, develop communities, and overcome literacy problems or handicaps which Internet Shout has begun to overcome. It will be interesting to see how soon a video forum follows, and how difficult it is to use in the UK.

In the meantime, I'm off to voice my opinion of Marmite!!
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This finance thang

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Read more! I can only speak for myself, here in the UK, but it would be interesting to know how others feel elsewhere. I make no claims to be an economics expert - I am just an ordinary person trying to survive in a country which seems to be going, rather rapidly, to the wall. My problem at the moment is this financial bail out of private companies, viz the banks, which is being called 'nationalisation'.


This is MY money being spent as a taxpayer, and although figures differ substantially, if you take the lowest one of £37billion, it is still way more than the figures to give every single home and premises in the UK all singing, all dancing FTTH, just to bail out 3 companies - RBS, the HBOS Group, and Lloyds TSB.

Between them, these 3 companies appear to have been responsible for driving thousands and thousands of normal British citizens into debt with bank charges. None of the other banks are immune from responsibility for this either, and there are staggering amounts of money which have been claimed back through the courts and out of court settlements, and many millions more yet to be claimed.

So, to me, as one of those claimants, who was driven to near penury by these companies, and still am, I feel more than just a tad dischuffed (read: bloody fuming!) that our money is being spent on sorting out a mess which a combination of corporate greed, mismanagement, and probably short-sighted stupidity has brought upon themselves.

Especially when that money could be spent on FTTH instead, and used to give approx 20+million premises (ie homes) the chance of becoming business premises. The opportunities FTTH could bring are enormous. As the numbers of jobless rise, it seems to me that each and every citizen in this country could potentially create their own business in the knowledge economy if they just had half a chance to engage in it. So, for the sake of 3, we sacrifice the chance of millions of new businesses. Many maybe would fail, but we could at least give them the chance.....

Not only has this Government failed (and continues to fail, judging by my children's current IT lessons at school) to educate the British populace so they are cybersavvy and able to operate online to the same level as many other countries' nationals are, but there are also an alarming number of 'disconnecteds' still. And it is likely to remain that way whilst there is a policy of allowing the 'competitive marketplace' to drive how and when we are connected to anything approaching a next gen network. (And I stand by my belief that FTTC is definitely not 'next gen').

The short-term gain of bailing out the banks is likely to be completely overwhelmed by the approaching pension crisis (which seems totally unavoidable in my lifetime - unless I die very young). Yet, the housing and mortgage problems appear to have been solved in a single action of ceasing to allow people to borrow any more than 90% of the value of a property during this latest economic 'downturn', and the misery that some are now suffering as they struggle to pay their mortgages could have been avoided entirely had that been adopted far earlier. Or the banks, in their greed, had not been allowed to lend people MORE than the value of their homes.

Similarly, the inevitable cock up that bailing the banks out is likely to turn into without firing all those responsible for it, making them pay up out of their over-inflated pensions and bonuses for the mess, and insisting that there is a major paradigm shift in how the banking and finance world operates, is likely, in the end, to lead to yet more suffering for the ordinary person. We, as the electorate and tax payers are hardly likely to see some fantastic payback from allowing the government to spend our money in this way.

And certainly not the payback we could have seen if this money had been spent on boosting the economy with future-proof communications, rather than bolstering an ailing economy (ie the financial services which appears, to an outsider, to be built on sand, 1s and 0s and greed). Were half the people who I know on benefits able to escape the ridiculous and disheartening downward spiral that our benefits system creates, and set up home-based businesses using the wide variety of knowledge and experience each of them possesses, the UK economy could actually see a turnaround.

In the meantime, most of us will, it seems, just have to sit back and watch the Post Offices close (they were losing small change compared to the banks), drown our sorrows at home as the pubs shut (3 this week in our remote rural area alone), that is if we can find a village shop still open to buy the booze from, and pray like hell we can get ourselves and our kids out of this country before the shit really hits the fan.


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Congrats to SWBB

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Read more! Hooray! South Witham Broadband have won a medal in the e-inclusion awards for geographic inclusion for their fab community network in Lincolnshire.

Having represented them in Brussels, and followed their progress since the very early days (and written a book about them!), I would like to be the first to congratulate them on achieving such recognition at EU level.

This network has done more than just learn the lessons that should be taken on board by ANYONE planning a next gen network. It has also applied them so that it actually connects with its customers and the community it serves. SWBB is a first class example of best practice, of engaging your community, of sustainability, how to connect the 'ethnic minority' of the disconnecteds, and of how those who live and work within a community can create a co-operative solution to next generation communications.

It is unfortunate that the organisation who should be advising on these issues is now just a group of consultants, out of touch with real community networks, but for those who need to understand the solution, why not get in touch with SWBB and employ them to answer your questions and show you how it can be done?


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Monticello wins its case

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Read more! Nice to see that municipal fibre is actually legal after all. Seems that the story we started following last month about a telco attempting to sue a town for puttingfibre into Monticello has reached a conclusion. Which is nice....... Read more!

Now that's what I call broadband

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Read more! Earlier this week, I was called to a house in the village having problems with their PC and internet. (Everyone is having problems here at the moment, due to a very shaky rural electricity supply playing havoc with IT kit - for which we pay exactly the same as anyone in an urban area, but I digress). I ran some speedtests.......




You can't argue at that, can you?! I nearly went and dug up their drive looking for the fibre in our village that has so far eluded me...

So, even though I know it is a 1/2Mbps service because of the poverty of the copper, distance from the exchange etc, I now have to explain to an average householder that this isn't the service she is actually receiving, nor ever likely to out here in the sticks.

But it would make my life complete if it were! Even I could be happy with that....

Have a good weekend.
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BSG Report on fibre costs in the UK

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Read more! The BSG report on the costs of fibre deployment has been published.

More light reading for the weekend!
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Successful 100 Gbps trial

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Read more! Nokia Siemens Networks and Verizon have successfully managed to transmit 100Gbps on a single wavelength over 1000 km. This takes us all ever closer to commercial 100Gbps traffic, no more excuses! Read more!

Japan again

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Read more! It really is more than time to read it and weep. It is time for many of the informed consultants, ex-telco workers, whistle blowers, and informed grassroots folk to really bust some of the telco myths about costs of FTTH. If the Japanese telcos can provide 100Mbps symmetrical FTTH for £30/month, then why can't we?

We know opex costs for FTTH are way lower than for ADSL, for starters. We know that the ROI on FTTH infrastructure investment is down to less than a decade (where telco returns used to be 15-20 years), we know that the cost of data is now approaching zero, we know that once FTTH is enabled, customers flock to it out of choice over ADSL, we know that energy bills etc are substantially reduced.

So, what is going on?? Why are the telcos being allowed to hold a nation such as the UK over a barrel with their dithering and, one could almost consider saying, "Lies, damned lies and statistics".

And it isn't just the telcos. There was a consensual holding of breath when DBERR spoke at the BSG conference about there being no evidence of need yet for British business and consumers. Did we really hear right? Are the DTI really saying that to such an informed audience? The breath-holding continued with Antony Walker's sop to the telcos about not doing it yet, but doing it right.

It is time for many flowers to bloom. There won't be one correct solution. There won't be one national network. There may well be new technologies in a few years which surpass what the early adopters put in. But as with all techie developments, when they first come out, there will inevitably be some issues, standards to develop, and higher costs to deploy. So, the early adopters have a chance to start educating the market, creating that 'desire' for something better, encouraging competition in the market place, innovating.

And those early adopters will undoubtedly show many of the large companies how it is to be done. With the current global financial dilemma, it will be those fleet of foot, able to blag and JV, think out of the box, and operate on a tight budget who will begin to install networks where the telcos are unable to tread because they are slow moving behemoths.

And because, one suspects, the telcos have spent so long spinning everyone a line about FTTH, in order to sweat the copper asset and protect their shareholders' interests, that they are starting to believe their own myths.


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Jealous? We should be

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Read more! Oh heck, this could ruin your weekend! NTT offers a daily cap of 30GB upload. Yes, you read that right, upload.

OK, so the news is several months old - which actually makes it worse for us UK users, but hell, that's a terabyte a month of data upload.

But then I guess if you have dished 100Mbps fibre pipes to your users, and bandwidth costs are approaching zero globally, it isn't very much at all.

It really is so tempting to relocate. I mean, let's be real: I could fly to Japan, upload 100 gig of files from a cybercafe, and be back before they uploaded here. How far behind are we falling??


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FiWi advances in EU

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Read more! The EU have got behind a proposal to use the digital dividend for wireless and mobile broadband.

I spoke in support of this particular use of the spectrum in January last year at the Oxford Media Convention. The panel was made up of those proposing the use by HDTV (BBC and DigiTv), mobile TV (O2) and wireless broadband, in particular for rural areas (me).

It is heartening to see, after how the panel went - it was a tough debate for my cause! that the EU have now supported this proposal. I am not claiming full credit for it, by any means, but it is rather an obvious choice for best use, rather than using the spectrum for TV services which are already amply provided for in other frequencies.

I must dig out the technical information I had acquired beforehand from those who know about TV broadcast spectrum and its limitations, and perhaps repeat the arguments here now they are so timely. That information meant I could argue the case about the feasibility of it on the panel, although there were some in question time who queried some of my assumptions and took me beyond my technical know how. That debate would be interesting to start again now...and verify the whys and wherefores of feasibility.

Not sure about the Wimax bit though.....there are proven techs that may prove more capable.
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Hermes, CUT, and a history lesson

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Read more! Just read the latest post from the Hermes Project about Caio, rural FTTH, and prices. Reminded me of something.........

The Access to Broadband Campaign (ABC), of which I was one of the 4 co-founders back in the very early Noughties, came into being after a series of BSG meetings. In those days, there were 3 of us who regularly attended at our own expense on behalf of consumers and communities.

- Erol Ziya (formerly of CUT)
- John Wilson (Arwain and involved with many in the wireless world)
- Myself. (Rural broadband campaigner and broadband event organiser)

This was way back when the BSG started in autumn 2000/ spring 2001 (as I recall), before all and sundry jumped on the broadband bandwagon to make themselves a living.

By then, all 3 of us had been campaigning individually for different consumer/community sectors for several years. Debriefings in cafes around Russell Square after these BSG meetings, where the consumer/community voices had been fighting to be heard or understood, led to setting up ABC so that everyone could hear from ALL the stakeholders and engage in the debates.

I sort of digress. ABC was fairly active and well documented. Anyone who came to any of our events remembers, I'm sure, us and the events clearly!! (They were the best around at the time, and still would be now if we held one - ask anyone! Ooh, now there's an idea....)

Hermes' mention of unmetered dial up reminded me that many, many of the people talking about NGA, FTTH etc have absolutely no recollection of how FRIACO came about, nor its relevance today.

The current telco publicly voiced turmoil about 'oooh, the expense, how will we get our money back, there is no demand' etc etc is the same which triggered the campaigning, arguments and grassroots activity that was necessary prior to CUT hitting the 10 o'clock news, getting AOL and other major ISPs on side and on board, and, amazingly, getting FRIACO adopted across the whole of EU.

FRIACO led, firstly, to huge, widespread, mass adoption of the internet, innovation, and a closing of the digital divide. But, most importantly, from a telco point of view, is that it increased the number of people subscribing to their services by factors that had been previously unimaginable. Yes, they made MONEY, BIG MONEY....

Who could ever have imagined back then in '99 that in less than a decade 16million people in the UK alone would be able to access the Internet over a connection at least 10 times as fast as dial up (on the whole, if you are lucky) at the same price as a dial up connection then?

For the consumer, however, it meant no more limits to how often you could log on, especially if you were poor. It started the access for all, internet savvy world we know now in Europe.

If you don't know what FRIACO is, or why it is at least as relevant now to the debate, I strongly urge you to read the CUT archive site

For those who hate following links, try this as a reminder.

Do you remember the days when you paid for dial up by minute? (And the only person who gave you grief for being on too much was the bank manager for getting HUGE phone bills). Well, FRIACO brought flat rate internet access ie you paid one price per month and you could do what you wanted online. To everyone who wanted it.

Ring a bell with all these discussions ongoing about pricing models etc in the Ofcom review, usage limits, telcos' press releases etc?

Please do not let us have to re-invent the wheel....the CUT arguments still stand today. The investment, exactly as it was made prior to WW1 in the telephone system, is required, and all the telcos are well aware that if they can maintain their monopoly hold on it, they will not just get ROI in the next few years, but OVER and OVER again.

It wouldn't take much to get the type of people who successfully brought FRIACO to the whole of EU motivated again to take this on for NGA, surely? And now there really is a whole next generation of them fed up with being unable to do what they choose, when they choose, how they choose, and as fast as they choose....check out many of the broadband forums.........



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Just a reminder - the endgame is FTTH. Tell everyone!

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Read more! Promote the cause - true NGA = FTTH. Get a tshirt, mug, conference bag, mousemat etc.

Or just help me earn a few pennies to feed my twins. I am unwaged, a single mum, and committed to FTTH as much now as a decade ago, as much for my SME as my family. In case you didn't realise!

I am a true grassroots activist and consumer. I live in a deeply rural area - there are only around 400 other people in my parish, less in my village. Feel free to offer me a job/work too. I work all hours, am best value and well-networked! Unlike my broadband. Read more!

Ed Richards answers questions

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Read more! The Telegraph offers readers the chance to ask questions of Ofcom's Chief Exec.......read the answers.

The questions posted about fibre optics, use of sewers, and FiWi are the ones that interest me, although I can understand the radio hams' frustration at the interference being caused by BT's homeplugs.

The answer to Kim Purkiss' question though exasperates me. Unless we reach some sort of comprehension of uso, the natural monopoly that is FTTH/NGA and mutuality, this country is going to lag behind yet further. 'Clear consumer demand' cannot be established unless a truly independent body with no hidden agendas seeks to do so. Allowiing telcos to dictate who gets what where is in no way in the consumers' interests, nor long-term in the interests of UK Plc. Allowing the telcos to cherry pick is only going to cause further digital divides in the future, stymie innovation and fill the fat cats pockets . Nuff said.

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Future Broadband Consultations underway

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Read more! Two to get involved with right now. First up is Ofcom's Super-fast broadband consultation (open until 02.12.08), and secondly is the EU Review on fibre NGA networks(open until 14/11/08)

Ofcom's attempts to engage consumers by allowing commentary on each paragraph of the summary is interestingly different, although spot the issue the public is concerned with right now in the paragraphs about the use of technologies such as Phorm. Hopefully, other paragraphs will also receive public attention for issues of equal import such as dealing with the new digital divide, regulation to prevent monopolies, open access and so on.

The EU review also covers some of the issues surrounding the creation of new monopolies, as well as the issues around sharing access to ducts, poles, and fibres, including in the fibre local loop. The guidance from the EU is already late for some countries, such as Sweden, and one hopes that the framework will not conflict with the work that Ofcom is also doing on the subject.




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making FiWi happen: Google espouse white spaces

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Read more! When arguing for the use of the digital dividend for affordable wireless broadband on the panel last year at the Oxford new media event (as against for HDTV or mobile use) some of the attendees questioned whether such a thing would be possible. Nice to see Google advocating it too but in a more ubiquitous way - of course!This is precisely the level of tech and thinking that could help make FiWi happen deep into rural areas in the UK. And use some of the unused spectrum.

I seem to remember that not too many years ago, James Stephens of Consume.net came back from an event in Copenhagen talking about how use of the white noise spectrum could extend wifi networks' capacity substantially. This seems to me to be similar thinking and a potential solution to consider for FiWi. Read more!