Broadband Weather Report

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Read more! Heard on Border (used to be Tyne Tees) weather news tonight and as relevant to broadband as to the weather...
"We have been watching the long range forecast evolve and expect it to improve over the next few years." Bob Johnson
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Broadband IS a utility. End.

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Read more! You cannot look at broadband in any other way in 2009 except as a utility. It is of equal importance in modern life as electricity, gas, water. So, it should continue to surprise us that....

none of the same rules seem to apply to it as apply to the other utility suppliers and consumers.

If 40% of UK businesses had no access to electricity, this country would a) be phuqued in competing in the global economy and b) there would be a massive attempt to solve the problem.

If an utility company eg an electricity company failed to upgrade their infrastructure, or chose not to for economic reasons/shareholders, so that the residents of one village could plug in DVD player, washing machine, TV, kettle, toaster, etc etc (all the trappings of daily life) whilst those in the next village/town could only use their kettle or toaster or TV at any one time, and yet were charged exactly the same as those in the neighbouring village/town, there would be a huge public uproar at the situation.

If a utility company, let's say water, said you could have unlimited water for the money, as long as you never filled more than one bath a week, reduced your supply to a dribble at times when other people were having baths, and charged ludicrous amounts of money for managing a tending-to-free resource, there would be a furore and outcry at the use of the term 'unlimited', restricting water when it is an abundant resource (especially since St Swithins!), false advertising, mismanagement of a free resource, overcharging etc.

This is what we seem to be allowing the telcos to do in this country.

If the regulator of any of the utility companies appeared to be protecting the suppliers and industry and not standing by its remit under a Parlimantary Act to protect the consumers and citizens of this nation, it would be front page news and every consumer in this country would be complaining widely until action was taken.

Either Ofcom are deliberately pandering to the suppliers in much of their actions, (that is a deeply worrying thought) or they are bloody incompetent in carrying out their statutory duty.

So much misleading information is fed out to the media, government and public by those with a (seeming) vested interest in misleading those very same groups that getting to the truth is eminently difficult. But not impossible and many, many right-minded people are seeing through the lies, lies and damned statistics to lead us on the right path.

Long may we enjoy freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and joined up thinking.
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Samknows/Ofcom speed survey results fail to show true picture of rural plight

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Back in January 2009, Ofcom and Samknows released the first part of the report into broadband speeds. The map on page 9 worried a few folk about geographical distribution, in particular to highlight the growing problems in rural areas....so....

We phoned Samknows to ask why there were seemingly very few routers being placed to test speeds in known rural crap and notspots eg Cumbria, Lancashire, North Yorkshire and Northumberland. Our concern was that the data set would be skewed by the lack of inclusion of such results, particularly given the prevalence of extremely long lines in such areas, which rarely exist in urban situations. By not including such places, there would be a continuation of the failure to gather:

a) accurate hard data about the reality of the situation in rural broadband Britain
b) a higher than expected average speed for the UK as a whole, skewed by urban connections.

Those involved in the trial were chosen from online panels etc to give a broad, representative picture of the UK. We found it hard to see how bordering on zero respondents from rural northern England could be 'representative', and were promptly sent 5 units to attach to rural northern broadband lines. We asked for more to bring rural Britain data into the picture - 200 would have been great, giving rural and remote at least a 10% involvement in the survey. Samknows asked Ofcom and Ofcom said, "No."

We asked if the rural data could be separated out from the urban data to give average rural speeds compared to urban speeds, so that a clearer picture would emerge of rural connectivity problems. Apparently this was not possible either, although there is a short section on p.45 showing how rural vs urban compare from the existing respondents.

Whilst it may well be that additional weighting has been given to rural, as well as regional etc factors, without a suitable number of people in known rural crap/notspots and on long lines taking part, the figures can only be misleading.

The only comprehensive and hard data about what rural lines are capable of with regard to broadband speed, how many rural people can/cannot get broadband, line lengths etc is available from BT. Who declare this data is a matter of commercial senstivity. We contend that the data is a matter of public and national importance for the social and economic well-being of this country, and should be released to Ofcom and the public so that the true position is known and wise spending decisions can be made.

Therefore, we ask Ofcom to:

A) Produce comprehensive urban vs rural data from its existing data set AT THE EARLIEST OPPORTUNITY.

B) Show average connections by line length from this data set

C) Accept this "stakeholder consultation" on point 1.17 (P. 11 of the latest report into broadband speeds) - to add more northern rural testers, known long lines and crapspots into the next survey.

D) Conduct a similar survey of remote and rural households and businesses ONLY as a matter of urgency.

We believe these are reasonable requests in order to establish precisely how widespread the problem is in rural areas and to direct funding exactly where it is needed.

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Bang for our broadband bucks

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Read more! Whilst it is quite clear that a serious amount of money has been invested within the UK on broadband, it is difficult for anyone to admit in all honesty that we have a broadband situation worth boasting about. Especially not internationally. But luckily other countries face the same broadband investment emergency that we do. So, we're not right at the bottom of the league. Yet......

America has similar problems and Geoff Daily of AppRising has taken the bull by the horns and looked at what we all should be considering when planning how we achieve next generation access for all, in our case, Digital Britain.

You can't help but applaud statements such as

Now is not the time to allow tired dogma to trump the serious consideration of new ideas. In going through the process of formulating a national broadband policy, all options should be on the table. There should be no sacred cows. Not even that facilities-based competition is the undisputed best way to spur investment in broadband networks.

or agree with this

Of course, many of you reading this are likely guffawing at the idea that we could ever unite private investment, but I should mention now that I have a different way of looking at private vs. public investment. In the end, I see all of those dollars as coming from our pockets. Whether it's money we pay a company for services or products that they can then invest, or that we pay in taxes that the government then spends, the money is ultimately all coming from us, the users.

Worthwhile read for consideration of how digital Britain is going to manage future investment for the good of all, rather than just the telcos.
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Telcos over the pond get their myths busted

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Read more! In the ongoing battle for Net neutrality, and with opportunities to comment on the FCC plans to blow Obama's broadband dosh finally closed this week, it appears that the arguments which are often used here to compound the dire state of UK broadband are as common in the US.

Hardly surprising, as everything American, good and bad, seems to end up on these shores, but the responses being made by FreePress to the telco arguments bear applying to the #digitalbritain discussions.

Read the FreePress myth-busting here.

Consider the first myth. Of course, we have never, ever heard BT et al try this one on Ofcom, have we?!

Myth 2 - what FP omitted to point out is the impoverished nature now of customer service, the reduced speeds to many on long lines and in rural areas, the failure to maintain the network in many areas, and every other consumer complaint we have all heard about broadband in the UK. And what is actually relevant here but not so much in the US when responding to this argument is that the majority of choice is actually just A.N.Other ISP flogging BT's service.

The last para of course hits it right on the head. It's all about profit. Yet broadband is such an essential service that to even let the corporate world have a say in it, let alone manipulate the entire situation to its own ends (read profits) seems more than just absurd. It is profoundly short-sighted.
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Sup-loop unbundling begins in Rutland

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Rutland Telecom have just tweeted that their civils start today. This is basically a community project designed to connect one community in a mobile and broadband crapspot using their own street cab, positioned to next to a BT cab......

Although this is FTTC, there is no reason why in future it cannot be upgraded to FTTH. More communities need to look at this type of option, even though obviously a full fibre path would be preferable to metallic, but it is at least taking control of the problem and delivering today what BT and others can't and won't.

Good on 'em. Read more about Rutland Telecom broadband solution

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That bloody 2Meg argument again

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Read more! There are always going to be people who are quite happy with their bicycle and have nothing better to do with their days than cycle tranquilly everywhere. Others think we should all drive around the country at 40mph or whatever the latest national speed limit is to be. That's fine if you only ever have to drive a couple of miles to get to all your local amenities etc and have plenty of time in your day to do everything you need to.....

However, if you are trying to, for instance, run a business or a family where your time is precious and finite, that slow speed to achieve anything is hugely restrictive. And so it is with 2Mbps.

Every forum, every press article about the USO etc has some jerk saying that 2Mbps is plenty. Look folks, it is dead simple, it bloody isn't.

Let's put it into a really easy to understand visual tool that FTTH Council and Utopia have provided to get through to people why FTTH is needed.

It's here Fibrespeed - click on it, check out the numbers, and think about what those speeds mean. How many hours and minutes will your life have in it? We don't know exactly but life is finite. Our time here is finite. We do not live forever, however invulnerable we may feel.

I run a digital business and have done for 14 years. I am an early adopter I guess, mainly because I am hyperactive on the net - that is my job. I export my skills to countries around the world, hence bringing money into this country ie I partake in the global economy. And my competitors can do things I can't even dream of doing.

An example: If I want to download 100 photos from a prospect, over a 1Mbps connection let's say, it takes me almost 9mins. That's 9 mins where my connection isn't going to want to be doing anything else particularly strenuous. So, I sit here and try to fill the time doing something else that doesn't need to eat into my connectivity, which seriously affects my productivity. But it's also 9 mins where one of my competitors could well have seen the photos, picked up the phone, pitched, and won the business. And that's just one instance of my daily problems running an e-business without true broadband.

As a mum with two teens, I get their frustration only too clearly about why they can't even contemplate downloading a film that their mate in Denmark has told them is fab. She can download it in minutes. They are digital teenagers, brought up in the world of 'NOW' that is the Net, but their 'NOW' to talk about this film is at least 5 hours away. The moment has passed, the conversation moved on, they have missed out.

Am I getting anywhere explaining this?

Imagine if you can do things with your mobile that many of us adults wouldn't dare even attempt for fear of knackering several hundred quids worth of hardware. You create stop animation films with music scores you have written, played and edited in yourself, for instance. Wanna share it with your mates? Well, it's a damned good thing it's the summer holidays then and you have plenty of time on your hands. Because whilst you sit and wait for it to upload, your friends elsewhere, including in urban Britain, have uploaded at least 3 other films. And you can't download them whilst you're waiting because the next door neighbour has decided to watch the Xmas special of Dr Who and the contention rates means your connection has ground to a halt.

Get it yet?

This is not about being content to watch iplayer, or read emails. This is about pushing the envelope, even just a little. And many of us want to do far more than that. This is about being hyperactive on the Net and NEEDING to do 10 things at once. It doesn't take much application of technology to set up processes running simultaneously to bring 2Mbps to its knees. And we have no idea what is round the corner, although some of us have had glimpses of new applications and are now very close to the realisation that in order to live our lives how we wish to, there is gonna be little option in the next decade but to take our earning capacity, skills, family, and pay taxes in another country.

This 2Mbps bar is way too low. I don't care that there are 7 million people who couldn't give a figroll if they ever get on the Net or not. They aren't earning online and paying taxes from their earning. I don't care if matey 3 doors down is perfectly happy logging on once a week and reading his emails and thinks 2Mbps is generous. "What on earth would you do with it?" LOL. Come and sit in my house and watch my kids trying to do things you have never imagined with 1s and 0s, and you might understand.

Try running my business where I can't even make a Skype voice call to my clients in Canada. Then work out how much of my profit is going to BT and The Phone Co-op, not the Treasury or my local economy, because I have no option but to make an international landline call. Video conferencing. ROFL. I could be retired by the time the rural areas of this country can do that to any degree of usability if we attempt to infill with mobile instead of fibre. I will definitely be living abroad though if this continual noise about 2Mbps being sufficient continues.

What we are doing is allowing a BIG LIE to become truth. And we are allowing the spreading of that lie to be done by people who are entirely ignorant of what they are saying, the impact this lie will have on our nation and citizens and businesses and children and communities and rural areas and LIFE.

---Thursday rant over----
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Make FTTH an election issue

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Read more! Not some impoverished USO. Nor anything to do with copper eg Fibre To the Copper/co-ax. But Fibre to every home and business in the country. Start lobbying your MP, find out where they stand, let us know. Make it a matter for the hustings.....

We have to start making this a major issue that matters and get the right policies in place through a) education of the masses during the run-up to the next election, and b) policy delivery, preferably before but also post-election, whoever is elected.

The next election will occur within months of the UK Olympics. Without a decent national communications infrastructure, our Olympics could be a disaster. Every visitor, whichever venue they visit, will expect wi-fi and true broadband in cafes, pubs, venues, B and B, hotels, train stations, etc etc. They will be UPLOADING pictures and videos. Can our network cope??? Can we offer what they are accustomed to at home? Will we seem like a 3rd world broadband nation, even in 2012?

Join us in:
* mapping where the current MPs stand on the issue
* getting FTTH on every party's manifesto
* explaining next gen FTTH broadband in clear, simple, plain English and standard terminology
* by the time of OR LONG BEFORE the next election.

You heard it here first ....;o)
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Proposal to solve the property tax issue

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Read more! I've been following the property tax on fibre issue since the beginning of this century. Other countries have dealt with the problem by scrapping the tax entirely (Korea, Holland etc) to encourage investment in fibre and FTTH, but here in the UK, the Treasury has not seen fit to do so, thereby stymying investment. I have a proposal for a solution to the problem.....

If you are confused by fibre tax, there are several VOA links to follow to increase any confusion:
VOA Practice note 2005
Practice Note 2010

(Aside: anyone got Michael Hetherington's email address???)

MY PROPOSAL:

The eNdGAme has to be to have open access to fibre. This would allow us to deploy the minimum amount of new fibre to get Fibre To Every Home and Business, use existing fibre, and get maximum benefits, not just for the consumer, but for those who invest or have invested in deploying. It is environmentally friendly, best practice and bloody sound common sense to deploy what is required rather than duplicating, as we have permitted with mobile phone masts etc. The Victorians didn't allow competitors to build railways or canals next to each other and we shouldn't either with fibre optic networks.

However, at present, property tax makes no distinction between fibre which is open or fibre which is private. It screws everyone alike.

So, it's easy, innit?

If you plan to invest in deploying fibre, or already have fibre, and it is OPEN, then zero property tax. If you have fibre that others cannot use, or plan to deploy fibre which is closed, then you pay double.

The Treasury will get loads of dosh from Branson, councils,and the like, (who may be persuaded to change their (closed) minds if we hit them in the wallet), whilst those who are wise enough to see the benefits of deploying open fibre can get on with it without the crippling property tax.

Simples.

And you heard it here first......;o) (like the FTTH / NGA cereal packet, amongst other things)
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The COTS Project

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Read more! The BSG (Broadband Stakeholder Group) have just sent out an invite to the initial COTS Project meeting next Wednesday. For those who cannot get to London, we will know early next week if there is to be a live stream. Anyone going please tweet or live blog on #oplan or similar...full details below


Commercial, Operational and Technical Standards for Independent Local Open Access Networks (The COTS Project) – kick-off meeting



Venue: Ingenious Media, 15 Golden Square, London W1F 9JG

Date: Wednesday 29 July 2009

Time: 14:00 - 17:00



What is this meeting about?

Around the world there are now numerous examples of successful local and community-led broadband infrastructure projects. Looking forward, it is likely that similar projects could play a key role in delivering next generation broadband to parts of the UK.



However, there is a need to ensure that this does not lead to the emergence of a disjointed ‘patchwork quilt’ of networks that results in consumers and businesses being offered a sub-optimal range of services at the retail level.



In order to mitigate this risk a degree of standardisation and harmonisation is required. This would aim to reduce costs for scale retail service providers, for whom cost minimisation is a central concern. However, any standardisation and harmonisation should not inhibit the scope for grass roots innovation at the local level.



Government, regulator, industry and other stakeholders have all indicated that this is an issue that needs to be addressed, and similar activities are currently being undertaken in other markets.



The BSG is therefore proposing the COTS Project (Commercial, Operational and Technical Standards), an industry-led project to examine what needs to be done in order to ensure consumers have access to a full range of service providers, regardless of the underlying network ownership or technology.



In addressing this issue there is an opportunity to create a win-win-win situation where network operators are able to provide a choice of services to consumers and maximise wholesale revenue potential; retail service providers benefit from a larger addressable market; and consumers and small businesses benefit from a wider range of services.



Who will be speaking?

BSG will set out the proposed project and how we intend to take it forward, with the views of government, Ofcom, and industry stakeholders put forward in order to stimulate debate amongst participants. We aim to achieve an in-depth discussion amongst participants, capturing a variety of opinions and establishing a view on the key issues the project needs to address and how this might be achieved.



Who should attend?

The project is open to anyone with an interest who wishes to participate. BSG is keen that as many stakeholders as possible are represented at the meeting, and engaged with the work going forward.



The kick-off meeting will be of particular interest to: service providers; network operators; vendors; local authorities, RDAs, community projects, developers, and their partners.



If you wish to attend, or are interested in the project and would like further information, please contact: Peter Shearman, t: 020 7331 2163, e: peter.shearman@intellectuk.org


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With all they do for us....

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Read more! The Royal National Lifeboat Institution at Spurn Point (possibly the most famous lifeboat station in the UK) need your help. See below.

The RNLI is one of the most honourable and valued organisations in the UK, with their brave members saving lives, often in the most foul of weathers, from mother nature. They have saved over 137,000 lives at sea, and sadly, many of their own have died in the attempts.

Dig deep for these guys - they survive on charitable donations anyway as our government doesn't see fit to support the incredible work that they do - and please support the efforts to put in a pilot FTTH project to the community of lifeboat men, their families and others around Spurn Point. With 195 years of history, and in a deeply remote location, these guys need your support to get connected.

If you can help in any way, whether financial, with a donation of ducting, or to spare a few hours digging for men who risk their lives for us all, day in and day out, please get in touch with Fibrestream as soon as possible.

Remember, lifeboat stations are often located in the most inhospitable of places and need connectivity using the very latest technology to keep their members and those they aim to rescue alive.....a few pennies or hours of your time could save lives a long way into the future.

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Why Martha Lane-Fox MUST focus on rural notspots

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Read more! Our new digital inclusion champion (such an unfortunate acronym), Martha Lane-Fox, has recently said, both on twitter and to the press, that her task is to focus on the poorest in this nation for broadband and internet and not....

...those most desperate for connectivity, particularly in rural areas ie the digitally excluded who really, really don't want to be excluded any longer.

So, her job is purely to try to bring on board those for whom the internet age is still anathema, viewed as too expensive, of no interest whatsoever, etc, right? In order to achieve this, we have given her £2m of the public purse. There is no guarantee whatsoever of any substantial payback or return on investment of this public money by dragging the unwilling and impoverished online. Not to say that there won't inevitably be some box ticked (and much lauding and backslapping done) when an illiterate sink estate resident who has had few chances in life gets online, off benefits, and becomes the next Martha Lane-Fox.

If we are to get a #digitalbritain, and we know that there are limited resources to do it because of recession, telco greed/reluctance, stupidity, (pick one or all) then why the hell are we not investing some of the money we do have in putting it where there will be a reasonably guaranteed quick win / payback to generate more to refill the coffers?

That's my first question. Why spend it on the digitally reluctant? They will come aboard when they are ready. And by then the right infrastructure may well be in place for them to benefit from it.

My second question is where would that money be best spent to get poor people connected to decent broadband?

Let's look at the reality of where many of the 'poor folk' are located who Martha wants to engage. Just taking my own county, Cumbria, as an example, our average wage is 63% of the national average. That's pretty bloody low and on the scale of things puts us down near the very bottom of the league tables for earnings. ie POOR. But lump us into the North West region and it all looks more rosy because of Liverpool, Manchester etc. However, Cumbria is POOR. As is much of Yorkshire and Lancashire.

On my patch, we now have credit unions being set up (Westmorland Herald, 18th July 2009) because there are "significant pockets of poverty in Eden", while low wages are a problem across the district. In many rural areas, poverty is hidden from view - we have no beggars on our streets, nor homeless people in doorways, but that doesn't mean there are not many homeless and poor people.

There are a "remarkable" number of people in my area who don't even have a bank account - my neighbour is one, and I know the problems this causes, just in paying bills etc now both our local Post Offices have been closed. Nor can he afford a car. Many of us are struggling to afford fuel to buy food from the cheaper stores such as Aldi, Lidl or even the main supermarkets - a mere 40 mile round trip no town dweller would envy, especially in winter. In fact, Eden is the most geographically deprived area in the whole of mainland UK.

I could cite facts and figures all day about rural poverty. It is hardly a hidden issue. Over 2 million living in rural poverty - 2008; Over 900,000 children living in rural poverty; etc - add your own below.

However, when rural broadband notspot folk stand up and voice their growing frustration at the situation, they are invariably just told to move house. Apparently, we have made the choice to live in the countryside. And yet what those rural broadband notspot people are doing is

DEMONSTRATING DEMAND.

Precisely what government and telcos are so desperate to see to justify investment and get a return. What do we need to do to make it any clearer that demand for broadband in rural areas is HIGHER than in urban? Even Ofcom have published figures showing that...

My argument would be that the previously-mentioned sink estate resident (who is of course utterly fictional) has just as much option to get off their arse and work, move house etc and doesn't need further state handouts to get online. If they haven't got the importance of the internet, ICT, broadband and so on with all the previous government projects we have had, so be it. At least, if they want it, there is probably a choice of broadband providers offering 8Mbps+ to their home.

Being geographically deprived means that if you are living in rural poverty you are worse off than anyone in urban poverty. Why? Because the urban poor have easier access to the basics - primary healthcare, education, as well as commerce choices, communications options, and so on.

The need to regenerate rural areas has long been known, and whilst we have frustrated business start ups with innovative ideas champing at the bit in rural areas to supplement their meagre income, many are unable to do anything about it, except make a major social, economic and emotional decision such as move house, according to those who keep suggesting it.

As affordable housing is a prime problem for government because we are lacking sufficient, then moving house from rural (low house prices) to urban (high house prices) may mean removing yourself from the property ladder entirely, or downgrading (this is downward social mobility and is very much NOT what this country needs) just to set up your business and help to contribute to UK Plc.

So, joined up thinking, please, Ms Lane-Fox, friends and advisors. Put the money where it will have most impact. Put it where just for once we get a return on public spend. Put it where it makes most sense for future innovation and investment.

Not just the poor, but the poor in rural areas who most want broadband NOW.

£2m would make one helluva difference and we could have next gen pilot projects creating high-tech rural clusters where networking amongst companies will make the most of the urgent desperation by so many to make the most of their lives. And we might even see some of those urban deprived heading out on public transport to areas of the countryside where they can additionally help to regenerate the rural economy by working, eating and spending there.

--End Monday rant--




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Cable companies continue to mislead the punters

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Read more! For those of us in the UK, Virgin's Mother of all broadband adverts claiming to be 'fibre optic' have been driving us to distraction for quite some time. (Virgin is a cable company so in their case what they are flogging is FTTC - Fibre To The Co-ax) Now the misleading of the public is continuing in Holland with this advert.....

The problem is that bodies set up to protect the public from misleading adverts eg the Advertising Standards Agency are in on the act, for instance, by making rulings about complaints made when the Virgin ads first started to air in 2008.

The point being that ISPS and telcos have redefined many aspects of the broadband world to suit their own ends viz the redefinition of "broadband" from 2Mbps+ symmetrical capable of simultaneously transmitting and receiving voice, video and data (back in 1984) to "um...well, any data connection that we can get away with convincing Joe Public and government, Ofcom etc might be called 'broadband', however slow, incapable of doing more than one thing at once, asymmetric....." (you know the marketing spiel yourselves!).

The continuing failure by the telcos and ISPS to monitor their own marketing has not been assisted by Ofcom and other regulators, who seem to steer clear of getting involved in ensuring the consumers and customers are told the truth. All that is required is to lay down a few guidelines to telcos about what they rightly can and cannot call their products or claim about their networks.

Just because Fibre is the new black in the world of broadband, does not mean that everyone can suddenly include the word 'fibre' in their advertising to jump on the bandwagon. Unless consumers are accurately informed, and not misled by marketing departments, how on earth can they make the decisions about which products will suit their needs or understand how the changes in technology affect their ability to use 'broadband' to live, work and play online?

It is time for an EU wide enforcement of accurate advertising standards for the telcos before we have further consumer confusion with 'fibre broadband'. The rot has already set in, and it needs stopping NOW.

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Get the Word Out

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Read more! Part of the battle we face is one of ignorance - a lack of understanding why NGA is needed and a lack of appreciation as to how it could be delivered.

Education is crucial if we are to spread the word. As such I have launched a new website: www.nextgenerationaccess.com . It is designed to inform and educate and perhaps even to stimulate. There is no commercial angle so take a look and tell your friends. I'm also open to all comments and suggestions as to how to improve it. Read more!

Business & Enterprise Committee to inquire into Broadband Speed

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Read more! www.parliament.uk%2Fparliamentary_committees%2Fberr%2Fbecpn47_0809.cfm

Hmmm... another committee, another report. Just what we need.

I can understand the sentiment and the thought that perhaps the DB report was not aggressive enough in its aspirations but the way to fix it is not to form another committee (which BTW does not look very representative to me) and deliver another report which will also fall short of our aspirations. Time to ignore the politicians?

Here's a thought... DB set a 2Mbit/s USC. That means 2M to every house in the UK. Let's take some of the most rural. How do we do that? Copper doesn't work, wireless has too many issues, satellite is too expensive. Is fibre the only option?

Can we deliver on the USC to all areas without implementing an infrastructure that is capable of drastically exceeding it? Read more!

Broadband Poll Tax

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Read more! The injustice of the £6 per line annual broadband tax as proposed in Lord Carter’s Digital Britain Report is that it is applied to copper fixed line rental, a.k.a. dial tone, rather than to broadband itself.

As well as being regressive and a most unwelcome extra burden in the currently depressed UK Economy, this taxation is also wrong headed - put simply, why should people who don’t want broadband subsidise those who do?

By analogy, Carter’s Broadband Tax is like taxing Jews, Moslems and Veggies to subsidise the price of pork (…barrels?)

- a proposition that would certainly draw howls of protest, so why should the matter of broadband be treated any differently?

Whilst universal broadband choice is laudable and something that FibreStream exists to enable, setting out to achieve this outcome by applying taxation to those who do not necessarily want broadband is simply inequitable discrimination

- nothing less than the tyranny of the majority against the minority, often the Elderly and the least well-off members of Society, hardly an exemplar of caring Socialism in action.

If Carter’s Broadband Tax is instead targeted fairly at existing broadband subscribers, both fixed line and mobile, then those who do not wish to take broadband service would not be penalised for having a conventional phone line, in order to subsidise those who do.

An inevitable, perhaps unintended, outcome of this regressive tax will be a marked increase in mobile broadband uptake at the expense of fixed line services which will result in the total revenues from fixed line services dwindling rapidly away.

Say No! to the Broadband Poll Tax

Also posted at FibreStream Blog

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Time to start the Push

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Read more! So, we now know where we stand... Digital Britain has come and other than taking £6 per year from us has made little difference.

When can I have my ultra high-speed broadband line? Well, to summarise what I believe Lord Carter would tell me if I ever do have the opportunity to ask him that question, don't expect it any time soon from the 'usual' providers and if you really want it that badly then do it yourself.

It's time to get things moving, to spread the word, to get others involved and to drag ourselves into the 21st Century.

As a starting point I have created a new group on LinkedIn called 21st Century Communications for Britain. If you have a LinkedIn account please sign up (here's the link: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2042766&trk=hb_side_g ). It's just a starting point but the more people we can get involved the quicker we can start to make changes for all of us. Read more!

Announcement of Independent Networks Co-operative Association (INCA)

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Read more! At the CBN Next Generation Roadshow in Manchester today we got some further information about INCA, as (briefly) mentioned in the recent Digital Britain report. Here is what they shared with us:

INCA: A National Framework for Local Action

The Digital Britain report backed the proposal by CBN to create a body to represent and coordinate local next generation broadband networks and initiatives. The Independent Networks Co-operative Association – INCA – is being launched at this event.

INCA will:
• Act as a unified voice for local projects to government and industry
• Promote common technical & business standards
• Create a body of expertise supporting next gen projects
• Underpin the development of the ‘patchwork quilt’ of local projects by developing a ‘Joint Operating Network’ (JON) providing technical and operational support
• Create a development service to promote local project opportunities
• Encourage public sector investment in innovative local schemes
• Focus rural investment on Next Generation, not simply catching up with First Generation broadband

More information at www.inca.coop


INCA will receive £150,000 in funding from the government but will establish itself as a co-operative model whereby future funds will come from the members.

They will model their approach on the National Co-operative Telecommunications Association from the US.

Clearly this is a necessary model if the ‘patchwork quilt’ of fibre networks is how Britain is going to build its digital economy, however I have to ask if the business model is viable. The ‘members’ will be a very diverse group of organisations from co-op FTTH projects such as Alston Cybermoor (or Fibremoor as I believe they prefer now) to service providers wishing to offer their services over these networks (some new local and regional SPs and the usual suspects of large players including BT and Virgin Media) to other content providers wishing to deliver their content (for example the BBC). Do we expect all these groups to act together under the umbrella of an organisation into which they have all invested? Is it reasonable to expect that they will all invest? Beyond that as these JON “demand aggregation” centres are established can we expect these organisations to reach consensus on the common architectures and standards?

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50p/month is simply not enough

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Read more! The Digital Britain report has enforced a 50p per month per landline levy on us all in the UK for the next gen fund to connect the disconnected. Well, maybe. (See below) We did some maths....

Potentially, according to the report, this will raise around £150-175m a year. The Fund will not even begin to gather funds until post-election in 2010, which potentially means it will not actually see the light of day if Labour lose the general election. (So... don't get too caught up on this red herring.)

Let's do some maths. In countries where FTTH and other next gen solutions have already been deployed /are already in place and there is ample experience with the costings, the figures for rural and remote seem to average out at around £750-£1k per household when done commercially. (Hold those last three words in your head, as there are other routes to fibre lay, including dig where you live, #JFDI and CIC owned community solutions, which are FAR cheaper).

Therefore, £150m per year would allow the connection of approx 150k households/businesses per year, without the quango expenses to admin all this. (So, that'll be the other 25m accounted for.)

The report states that this fund would be for the FINAL THIRD ie 33% of the population who the telcos won't touch. We know from our previous Fiver To The Home 5tth work that there are approx 25million homes and businesses requiring connectivity, so the final third would be 8million homes and businesses.

8,000,000 /150,000 = 53 YEARS to deliver the eNdGAme FTTH using the tax applied through this fund on every copper landline. And that is a generous estimate as we all know these Govt IT schemes go over budget and over time....

Even if this Fund were to subsidise, encourage external investment etc, where exactly is it going to be spent and how? Are we allowed a say in making sure this farce doesn't degenerate into a total cock up?

Stephen Carter stated on Radio 4s PM program (45m:40s) this evening that UK is the first country to "find a solution to building fibre networks to the entire country" and the first country in the world to fund it.

Wrong on both counts. And certainly not out of that pot, Mr Carter. Not in your lifetime or mine, anyway.

I would like to refer you, again, Rt Hon Stephen Carter MP, to my 12 point broadband manifesto and also my open letter to you in January 2009.

It gets worse... what has been proposed is to hammer UK enterprises, rural citizens and businesses by making those who have NO CHOICE about having a landline because mobile coverage is so dire, or who have multiple phone lines/ISDN etc, pay to connect.....themselves.

Do you know what? I have a piggy bank. In it, each month I will save my 50p and using my impoverished business profits as my digital company is unable to generate what it is capable of because of the paucity of the UK broadband network, I will pay for my own fibre to the home connection, thanks. Just as many communities are now doing.

We do not need Govt (and resigning ministers) making suggestions, policy, regulation etc to deliver next generation broadband anywhere between 2012 and 2017 (with a following wind). We need true, symmetrical broadband that fits the 1984 definition of the technology NOW.

Can what you propose transmit and receive voice, video and data simultaneously? No? Not even 1984 broadband then, let alone next gen.....? Then I'll keep my 50p, thanks. And bin my copper phone line and use satellite until I join all the IR35 software talents abroad.

Watch this space for a mass exodus of the digital skills that 21st century Britain needs to replace the manufacturing industry it has so cunningly destroyed...


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Digital Britain Report - today's the day

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Read more! The Digital Britain report is to be presented to Cabinet today and published soon (possibly at 3.30pm). Follow it on these sites.....

Twitter (obviously!) #digitalbritain
Guardian site, live from the launch
Live Blogging from @beamadelica
Number 10 site (I can't get this link to work but maybe others on better connectivity can)
Parliament TV (This won't work over my connection either!!)


It is interesting to note there are no mobiles nor laptops allowed into the launch of this report, nor is there any internet connectivity it seems. On top of this, the CRC Report on broadband in rural communities is being launched in central London on 23rd June. Deeply rural is the Palace of Westminster, so a well chosen venue to highlight the real issues.

Very inclusive all this, showing the world how good the UK is at using the technology it is planning to be a champion/expert with. Not.

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Another Need for Speed Report

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Read more! For those muppets who still think anywhere up to 2Mbps non-symmetrical is absolutely fine now, in 2012 and beyond, take note of the UPLOADS speeds on page 5 of this report......

The Need for Speed Report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, whilst being US-centric, offers some hard facts and evidence for anyone still in doubt about why the USO of 2Mbps is a joke.

Additionally, comments such as Vint Cerf's about the shift in innovation being away from those nations which have traditionally held it (and who have bog all left in any other sectors eg industry and manufacturing and therefore need to be heftily engaged in the knowledge and IT economy) should be viewed as timely calls to action/arms, not pontifications.

Dave Isenberg and others have long talked about the importance of activity and creation at the edge of the network, and the arrogance of telcos and others in restricting this through false scarcity models etc has to come to an end now. The benefits and importance of the edge of the network 'innovations' are well-known, and have historically led to the development of much that we take for granted today, eg from light bulbs to Word processing applications.

It is what will come out of well-connected bedrooms, garden sheds, and rural one-man ventures that will change the world and the way we live, work and play, not some over-funded corporate or government R&D department with a fat pipe to it.

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Digital Britain Unconference Reports

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Read more! It is unsurprising that Unconferences were held to debate the DB report, and the reports are now out, and embedded below. Please make comments before 16th June 2009.

There are still ongoing discussions on Twitter under #dbuc09 #digitalbritain and #ruralbroadband although today many of those in rural areas are far more concerned about DFB (Dairy Farmers of Britain) going tits up and what this means to the farmers, 10% of the UK milk supply and the rural economy - potential bankruptcies UK wide, land sales etc etc. #DFB.

Digital Britain Unconferences Summary

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Finance Business & Law dbuc09 digitalbritai

Digital Britain Unconferences Report

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Finance Business & Law dbuc09 digitalbritai

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Digital Hubs

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Read more! Speechless. Over 3 million homes and businesses can't even get 2Mbps, let alone have true broadband on the horizon, and we have digital jewellery on the agenda.

Digital inclusion funding, and which hub is based in a rural area? None of them. Like I said, speechless.
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BBC FTTH coverage

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Read more! About time Cumbria got some really good publicity! The BBC are focussing on FTTH and next gen for the rest of the week and there is plenty to watch and read.
BBC Tech pages by Jane Wakefield and Rory Cellan-Jones
LA on TV (sorry about sound quality at the end, am trying to get a digital version of the piece)

I would like to add that I forgot to mention far too many different things - Dig Where You Live, JFDI, C'mon baby light my fibre, the fantastic investment opportunity that is FTTH and the returns UK plc will see from deploying, etc etc etc but p'raps it is time to make our own Fibre TV shows anyway?! Anyone want to feature?

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Dig where you live works!

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Read more! Lyse have proven that getting your customers to dig in the fibre to their own homes really works, with 80% of customers picking up their shovels.

Amazing what a couple of hundred quid saving can do to motivate people.....! Read more!

12 point broadband FTTH manifesto!

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Read more! We have no choice but to pursue true broadband as a nation. However, to date (25 years and counting), we have failed to really get to grips with what is required. As the country becomes ever more aware of just what a mess it is in, broadband is actually one of the few investments we could make that stands a chance of turning things round. But do we really know what to do as a country? Or are we going to let a few civil servants and businesses dictate what happens next?

It has been a very long decade plus, often shouting into a lonely emptiness about broadband being as vital as air. However, the tide appears to have turned, and there is more noise now about true broadband than ever before, from so many different voices. At last - we have Fibrevolution!

Are we clear what is required though for UK Plc? Are there too many factions trying to pull in too many directions? Is there a lack of cohesive, joined up thinking on the matter? Are we actually allowing all the voices to be heard, particularly those at grassroots who have broken many barriers and destroyed many of the telecom myths over the last decade, whilst finding and implementing solutions?

Here are some thoughts on the matter.....my manifesto! Vote LA ;o)

1) There has to be a patchwork of solutions eg FTTH and FiWi. We cannot get FTTH to every single house and business, but we should try that first, starting in the most difficult areas so we learn the hardest lessons which we can them apply in the easy areas. The trick will be ensuring that these solutions connect all the 'islands/lilypads' together and leave no-one in the dark without next gen connectivity because of a lack of standards or advance planning. The Wi in FiWi may well have to be mobile wireless tech in some places for the primary connection but those places should be absolutely minimal in number. However, mobile and wifi and Wimax etc should be ubiquitous for the wireless cloud over the top of the country, not patchy. What we are implying here is that the smallest percentage of the population possible should only have a single choice (eg mobile) for connectivity, not that we should rely on mobile to infill just because the incumbent doesn't want to play. (This is what the DB report is implying and it is a scenario which should be avoided at all costs).

2) The network asset should belong to the people who use it. Not to the country per se as we have cocked up this nationalisation lark far too many times, nor wholesale to the telcos. There is no reason why we can't decentralise, regionalise and localise for effective community ownership. Mutuals have survived the financial crisis far better than private companies and we should learn from that model. Telcos must be prevented from further holding this nation over a barrel with monopolies, or even duopolies, and mutual ownership does that, whilst protecting a level of the telco revenue stream through maintenance etc contracts. And they can become more imaginative about their offerings to consumers in a truly competitive marketplace!

3) Rural areas are the hard bits, where costs will inevitably be higher. However, I have been saying for a decade that demand in such places is higher. If we adopt a sensible approach to ensuring that the return on investment is maximised, rural areas may prove the key to turning around this nation's engagement with the glocal knowledge economy. Why? There are more SMEs in rural areas than urban. Distance from services automatically isolates rural businesses and dwellers who then will use the Net to resolve some of those issues. The positive environmental impact of FTTH etc (deployment and usage) is now proven to be so high that if we see reduced energy and fuel consumption in rural areas (where extra resources are required just to transport electricity, goods and people about), we may start to hit eco targets by changing behaviour. Rural people are used to being self-sufficient and ingenious and we will undoubtedly see innovation and exciting developments across all sectors. (Check out the barrow mole as an example!)

4) It is not about technology. None of this is about what tech is used, how much it costs etc. It is all about connecting people so they can communicate. We must deploy a strategy for internet and IT education that reaches every home and every user, young, old, rural, urban etc. Prime time TV, schools, night classes, etc are required to ensure that everyone can use the Internet and IT efficiently and effectively. This is not about niche geeky programmes showing the latest electronic gadgets. This is about 5 min TV slots or video clips or 1 page of a newspaper which show how to upload a Youtube video, how to search for a website, how to backup your data, how to keep safe online, how to troubleshoot your PC problems. We need an IT equivalent of NHS Direct, manned by skilled staff around the country who can keep this nation online.

5) We have to bin the false scarcity model. Immediately. Bits are not scarce, they are not expensive any more. Scaring people into non-use, or charging them prohibitive amounts to use bits does not work except for the bank balances of the telcos. There should be an international league table of bit usage by nation. The countries using the most bits have obviously engaged more directly with the digital economy. In fact, it should probably be an Olympic event!

6) We should use the digital dividend immediately for broadband into rural and remote areas. We need to comprehend clearly that there need to be different solutions for rural and urban areas, and we need to look at our existing resources and re-use them where possible - ducts, poles, masts, spectrum etc. The HIE method of sitting all the mobile operators around one table to work out which masts could be used and shared saw mobile coverage brought to the Highlands & Islands with minimum disruption and maximum resource sharing. (Kudos to HIE!)

7) The property rating on fibre should be waived for a minimum 10 year period to allow new build, use of existing resource, new entrants and so on to benefit. The Treasury will lose far less by waiving it and letting the infrastructure build-out take place and be used, than it is gaining by attempting to charge it and stymying the development of next generation networks.

8) All planning departments and Highways should be forced to adopt new regulations about FTTH, wayleaves, permissions etc. No business or residential property should be constructed from now on without FTTH (wiring, media kits etc etc) in place, and should an application be made to cross a road with fibre etc, it should be granted unless there is existing resource which could be used instead.

9) Dig where you live should be actively encouraged. UK Plc is footing the bill for this infrastructure build, and the last thing we need is yet another stupidly expensive government IT project. (Which, judging by recent history of such grandiose plans, will fail anyway and undermine confidence yet further.) Want to get to know your neighbours? What better way than digging through to their garden and discussing all you need to create a community network? If the Scandinavians can do it, we can too!

10) Smart meters must be an integral part of next gen and FTTH and the ubiquitous wireless cloud. If I, as a single mum living in the middle of nowhere, found out 4 years ago that you can get smart meters that can create an intelligent local wireless mesh network for broadband connectivity, then people in the utility industries must be more than aware of it. If we install smart meters that are only good for remote meter reading, we have not just wasted an opportunity, we are wasting MONEY.

11) The 2Mbps USO falls into the underachievement, lack of aspiration post from before. It is simply not enough. It is not enough today and it won't be in 2012 and beyond. because what keeps getting forgotten is that once that USO is set at 'up to 2Mbps' there it will likely stay for another decade or more. If Korea can go for 1Gbps by 2012, we need to increase our own ambitions and get real. 2Mbps is pathetic. It may be all the telcos and mobile operators want to invest in, but we have to raise the bar and think about the actuality. Educate our Internet users (see point 4) and they will be as dissatisfied with 2Mbps as they should be. The problem is, as I saw this morning illustrated far too clearly when the BBC were in Caroline and David's house, anyone who has been stuck on dial up has no idea what is now available to do on the Internet, so a reasonable proportion of the country still has NO IDEA what they can do on 2Mbps, let alone 10 or 100Mbps SYMMETRICAL. Let's not keep these people in the dark forever by only offering 2Mbps.

12) FTTC - if we have to, let's go Fibre To The Cabinet in some places to get the creative juices flowing, but let's do it right. There has to be urgent talks about unbundling those street cabs and the first mile/inches of copper cables. BT should not be given that on a plate. We need a competitive marketplace and to be realistic, that needs to include local communities in that competition. Nearly every community I have been to in the UK (and that is _many_) has a local champion or IT specialist or computer fixer who has ideas about local content, local delivery of network resource etc. Don't just keep it for the telcos.

Discuss!!

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RT: fibreactive

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Read more! RT @fiberactive: Poor Old BT : BT is a badly run hedge fund that happens to own a phone network http://tinyurl.com/r5ythl (via @FTtechnews)

Nuff said. Read more!

Broadband Aspirations

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Read more! It strikes me, more and more forcefully, that what we are doing in this country is encouraging people to aspire to crap broadband. We make out that 2Mbps should be more than enough for anyone - if I hear that once more this week, block your ears, my screams of wrath and frustration are likely to be loud! We hear more and more about how speed is not the issue, quality is - well, maybe speed isn't the be all and end all, but having a fast connection doesn't half help!

We take people to the cleaners for using more than their fair share of a network with abundant capacity and spread horror stories about how hard their pocket will be hit if they overstep the 'false scarcity' mark with down- and uploads. We fail to attack the issue of symmetry and yet in a consumer content creation world, we need people to upload as much, if not more than, download. We don't fill our primetime TV with exciting programmes about what you can do with superfast broadband, as they do in Korea where MMPOG online gaming competitions are prime time; we don't educate our users. I watched again this morning as a major SEO/internet marketing headache happened in front of the camera - who types the URL of a site they know the URL for into Google? Just about bloody everyone in Britain! Do they not know what the location /address bar is for?!

We don't encourage kids to aspire to be games programmers and push the envelope, or even make sure all of our teachers are au fait with the online world. We generally teach kids very basic first gen website design, instead of letting them explore cutting edge techniques from smart developers etc. Etc etc etc.

In fact, this lack of aspirations is across the board, through general IT to true broadband. And yet, it is not normally a British trait. We used to aspire to be 'great', to conquer the world, to have an Empire. Now, we seem content to allow private companies and government to drop the bar to as close to ground level as possible and then we attempt to crawl under it. Luckily, the more adventurous and creative are trying to limbo under it, whilst yet others are determined to raise it as high as possible.



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BBC broadband coverage

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Read more! The next three days sees BBC news and website coverage of the broadband issue, both from the point of view of those who cannot get it to those who already have more than the UK is currently able to imagine.

This morning the BBC were on 'my patch' recording interviews with a family who can still only get dial up. This is a family who can't access Youtube, iPlayer or any of the other applications many now take for granted. Their children haven't even tried these apps, nor do they benefit from the opportunities presented by the technology. It is hard to remember how painfully slow dial up is until you try to get on facebook which took around 5 mins just to get to the log in page and sign in. Uploading photos, checking out your friends' profiles etc is a process that could not be fitted easily into a day let alone a quick flit in and out to see how your friends are doing. And experimenting, investigating and playing with the very many tools etc out there on the Net is impossible.

(Apologies for quality of video, it's on my phone - if you want to see better quality, watch BBC Breakfast News tomorrow!)

Rory did focus on the USO at one point during the interview, and once again, it is hard to see how 2Mbps could be enough for ANYONE except those who have been forced to spend their days waiting for an 8Mbps anti virus download and who are ignorant of the many possible other things that they could be using the technology for because they haven't had the opportunity to try it.

2Mbps is NOT enough as a USO. It is lowering the bar to the lowest common denominator, rather than upping it so that all our citizens are able to innovate, educate themselves, and help to drag Britain to a position at the forefront of the digital economy. And rural broadband is vital when funds are allocated, which they undoubtedly will be to solving this problem now it has finally become so high profile.

What I am still unsure about is whether this coverage will actually begin to pick up on the very many people who are out there resolving these issues whilst the telcos fiddle. Whilst Cybermoor and Alston will be getting free publicity tomorrow for their funded network when the fibres are lit, many projects around the country are now in development which are being and will be resourced locally and by the community, owned by their communities, and now (watch this space) supported by industry.

Whether the Digital Britain report can even begin to take on board the speed at which solutions are being implemented and the impact that has on Net usage, network capacity etc, we can only wait and see. In the meantime, watch the BBC!

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Notspot surveys

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Read more! After years without any reliable information gathering about where the notspots in the UK are which cannot get 'broadband', (careful with the definition of that term because if you use the 1984 def of 2Mbps+ symmetrical, most of the country is still without broadband), we now seem to have two notspot surveys/reports ongoing.

SamKnows and the BBC have been collating information on notspots and this will be shown on BBC News tomorrow Wednesday 27th May. If you are in any way interested in the broadband 'state of the nation', you need to keep an eye on BBC news and the website over the coming days, particularly the comparison of Uk with other countries, and the message which hopefully will come over loud and clear that this Govt needs to start spending on basic and vital infrastructure. ThinkBroadband have just announced their notspot survey too so if you are in a crap spot or a notspot, add your details.

The mapping clearly shows that this problem is widespread and affects all areas of the country, even those within urban/sem-urban areas who one would assume would have decent coverage. The previous notspot report conducted by ABC and CBN showed exactly the same back in 2004/5, so sadly, little has changed in 5 years. Whilst for some the speeds may have risen, for those in notspots and crapspots, it really hasn't. Far too many people are still reporting substantially below 512kbps, and there are plenty below 2Mbps. For those who have tried, even 2Mbps isn't sufficient for Youtube, iPlayer etc when the quality of the network, in particular the first mile, remains so dire.

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Can BT JFDI?

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Read more! "50 Jigabytes... Not to the home yet but coming...." And not a correction in sight from Mr Gary Shainberg BT's VP of Technology & Innovation Support aka Mr JFDI (cough, splutter). Bring on the bandwidth in Israel, anyone else fancy moving there with us?


Oh, you want a link to the video with BT's new 'chap' in charge of getting things done?! If BT are working so hard with the Open Source community, perhaps they want to look at Open Sauce Digging from Chris et al. (There is more to come from other rural areas of the country but we can't get them off their connections long enough to edit the vids!!!)

Thanks to everyone for the calls, tweets, DMs, skype msgs, emails, diggs, and much more. I _am_ trying to be diplomatic (honest!) but let's face it,if you want your points putting across, you hang on to your company cars, pensions etc and I'll just keep being me with your input!! At least between all of us, some of the messages are getting through, it seems.
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Power to the people (JFDI)

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Read more! OK, now we have the next two episodes of the JFDI FTTH dig in Wray. For those within the industry, it seems there is quite some interest in the approach taken, which whilst not necessarily upholding the highest professional standards of industry has allowed many to consider that there are other routes to the superhighway than those which take years and cost billions.

Let's face it, the truth of the matter is that for 25 years, industry and government have been sitting around on their arses talking about FTTH. I and others have been growing increasingly frustrated, despite involvement for me for only half that time, at the apathy shown and barriers invented to prevent it happening. Those affected MOST by this failure are, of course, the ones who will inevitably pay for it in the long and short run - the consumers and the taxpayers.

It had to get to the point where the people said, "Enough is enough. If you are just going to sit there talking, we will get on with it." And lo and behold, it has now started. It's not a great surprise, in other countries similar Dig Where You Live projects exist too. It's just that the majority of those have had the support of utility companies, or local and central government funds.

We can no longer pretend that the incumbents are the only ones who can play in this area, and accept that more and more people are going to start taking matters into their own hands to take our families, businesses and communities into the world of 21st century fibre optic communications that many other countries are already well and truly entrenched in. Pun intended.

It is to be hoped that the Digital Britain report shows an awareness of the DEMAND for this level of connectivity TODAY, and stops assuming that all internet users are muppets, willing to be BROADCAST to and be PASSIVE. We are not. As a post-industrial exporter myself (one of those with so-called digital skills), I and many thousands of others have been watching the Department of Trade and Industry (and now DCMS too) allow a private company or three stymie our business development, hinder our economic growth, restrict our productivity, and force our children to suffer limited levels of interaction with what can only be termed as the 'real world' these days considering how much is on the Internet that they need to engage with. Ironic huh?

On with the show......
Part 1 - in the stables. Splitting the fibre to feed to two homeworkers with Lucid star, Dave!

Part 2 - in the utility room. Showing the end connects being done, also starring Dave.


There are lots of photos taken by Chris on Picasa to peruse too.

Nice to see the war of the Roses may finally be well and truly over. This is a northern project, with players from Yorkshire and Lancashire working extremely well together! Am just off to see Chris now (from Cumbria - by 'eck us northerners can cross borders, just as fibre can!) so will report back when I have had a play on the first rural fibre connection within the UK I have ever managed to get my hands on! And it ain't for want of trying ;o)

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All three vids of the JFDI FTTH crew

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Read more! Not sure what the BBC are playing at. We could have had a half hour series on this dig on prime time TV judging by the amount of interest!! All three videos are now on Youtube and the links are all here for you, with the third hot off the press this very morn. With suggested music to accompany this fab feat!


I need to stress that one of the most important reasons for this JFDI FTTH exercise is the fact that there is no ADSL in the vicinity. Whereas we have been pushing for FiWi for years (Fibre--> wireless), these connections are having to be wireless-fibre because of the lack of fibre in close proximity, nor decent copper for that matter.

This situation is rife across rural UK but has managed to vanish under the radar over the years, despite attempts to highlight the huge number of notspots and the impact this has on rural regeneration, quality of life, innovation, business development and so on.

However, there are some advantages to this route of starting with wireless backhaul. Firstly, the wireless connection is symmetrical and so users can upload and download at the same speed. The importance of upload speeds and capacity should never be under-estimated in this age of consumer generated content and prosumers. Secondly, the options for increasing the backhaul are open to competition and technology neutral - no reliance on nor even presence of copper capable of taking over from the wireless here. And unsurprisingly, those operators wishing to get involved in this type of rural connectivity have been coming out of the woodwork even prior to this video series.

Enjoy!

"Ain't no stopping us now" - Part 1 of the Great British fibre diet starts

"C'mon on baby, light my fibre" - Part 2 of the JFDI FTTH dig

"Pickin a bluebell in the merry month of May" - Part 3 of the rural fibre dig video series.


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JFDI Community Broadband Books

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Read more! More Amazon orders today. Please, please, please, if you want the JFDI Community Broadband books, especially in light of what has been laid and lit in the last couple of days, order them here on Lulu.

Why? I knew you would ask that! Because Amazon want the books for cheaper than I can get them published, and because of their system, it is desperately environmentally unfriendly for me to have them shipped from the south of England (the printer for Lulu) to Cumbria, to stick in Amazon's order slip, and despatch them back down south to Amazon's warehouse. Which I can only do at a loss, both from the printing and shipping.

Tis easy, if you want the books (which seemingly, many of you do looking at my email hashtag for Amazon Advantage recently), please buy them from Lulu and save the planet and my non-existent wallet. Cheers!
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C'mon baby!!!

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Read more! The first JFDI FTTH rural connections are lit!! Excuse me whilst I just crack open a bottle of champagne. It has been a VERY very long 14 years waiting for today.

The videos will be up on Youtube shortly and I want to be the first to publicly congratulate Chris (who I thought would never, ever understand how important fibre was in her diet!) and all the rest of the team who have made this and much more possible. Watch this space!!

CHEERS ;O)
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Dig where you live

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Read more! Dewayne has just posted this article about dig where you live in Norway.

Do you think if we say this out loud often enough, Britain might f*&^ off the large telcos and JFDI properly, as others have?!

Quick update on the rural FTTH stuff happening today - tis now on Youtube. All power to their mole ploughs etc. GREAT STUFF!
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Rural broadband Dilemma

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Read more! The story from the providers on video...

As today has seen, we can now start to disprove the rural broadband payback arguments.
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Rural Village tops the fibre lay

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Read more! Dig where you live!! Just had a call from a rural village who TODAY, right now, have started to lay the first miles of their community owned fibre optic FTTH network, beating pretty much everyone else in the UK to the post.

On top of a mountain, the digger has just arrived to start the work to connect the first houses. By the end of the afternoon, this community will be able to boast initial first mile connectivity that other communities (eg Ebbsfleet) can only dream about. No copper in this network, just glass and broadband at the speed of light.

This is an unfunded project - no public sector money here - whose entire ethos of JFDI has been borne out of a deep frustration at the failure in this country to solve the massive problems that lack of true broadband has caused in rural areas. There are now very many people for whom the approach to Digital Britain by our government and telcos is now so inappropriate, slow and so yesterday, that they have taken the issue into their own hands. This will not be the last community who are talked about here in the coming weeks and months who are JFD FTTH - I know of more than several others who are very close too.

The work that has gone on to reach this stage has been startling in its ability to find the right people and companies who can help to deliver FTTH, and get them involved. There is an appetite amongst much of our commercial sector to actually get on and do this, which is not always apparent when you hear the bureaucrats and industry 'specialists' etc talking about FTTH. The drive is coming from the consumers and communities, so it is difficult to see how anyone can say the demand is not there, particularly for roll outs such as this into rural communities who have patchy mobile coverage, little or no ADSL, etc.

Photos and video to follow later. For those who think BT et al are the only ones who can afford and should deliver FTTH for UK Plc, think again!!!

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Virgin trials 200Mbps

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Read more! Virgin bonds DOCSIS 3 lines together to get 200Mbps for 100 users in Ashford, Kent. BUT, no sign of symmetry and therefore how can you establish demand without testing what users may want it for?

Article on PC Pro This approach still fails to understand what many people _want_ to use their connection for - sharing, be it videos, music, video conferencing ie talking to their friends and family, or using innovative apps. Most of us are still unable to share any video longer than a couple of minutes or video conference because the upload speed or capacity are just not available, especially for an enjoyable experience. People aren't doing it because they CAN'T. Not that they don't want to.

We keep seeing research saying that the majority of users are only emailing, surfing etc with a little multimedia thrown in on the side. Until users are able to start playing around on symmetrical connections (bear in mind we don't even have SDSL in this country), the apps that are likely to evolve from that availability, and hence consumer education about, and uptake of, such apps, will remain severely limited.

Look at SMS - that flies, and makes untold millions for the mobile operators because it allows users to COMMUNICATE easily. Two way comms with user generated content. All the mobile operators provide is the transit channel.

The first company to offer 100Mbps symmetrical deserves a prize for consumer awareness. In the meantime, the assumption that all consumers are still happy in the 20th century broadcast world remains flawed. Read more!

Has Digital Britain got talent?

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Read more! Time for a debate. In light of the DB report, and the discussion, unconferences etc which surround it, Bob Franklin of TelcoConsulting has sent this article through to stimulate the thinking we need for the future. Some very interesting points are raised, and we would welcome your views.


The future of Digital Britain is uncertain. The usual excuses given are lack
of broadband demand, high costs to build fibre to access our homes and
money but the real gap is in understanding why we need big investment
and the benefits for Britain.

The Government’s Digital Britain interim report stresses content but future
services will not be delivered without very much better infrastructure for
fast broadband. The so called last mile of local access networks taking
fibre to a cabinet in the street or up to the home or the use of wireless
technology is absolutely crucial. The existing old copper network of BT
and parts of the cable networks need to be upgraded by deploying new
technology. Further, 50% of homes have no infrastructure choice other
than BT and that cannot be right.

Today the digital information revolution is in its infancy. There will be an explosion of home usage as we seek more information for online shopping, for our education, for our health, entertainment and leisure. Simpler devices throughout the home would dramatically drive up demand and free up the family information
bottleneck -the single PC. Demand is always uncertain for the future –
none of us in the telecoms industry ever predicted the growth in mobile
service and more recently text messaging but the mobile infrastructure
and network capacity was soon built to give users what they wanted and
it makes money for operators.

Build costs are an issue but new infrastructure must be installed to every
town and community. There are alternative access technology solutions,
some can be overhead on poles and digging up the streets is cost effective
given the investment is for the very long term. The Victorian engineers
rightly over engineered the capacity of our London sewers. We have good
civil engineers in Britain today who would build for the future and it would
create lots of new jobs.

On regulation the focus should be encouraging investment while any competition concerns can be resolved given time. Finding the money today is a challenge for everyone. In telecoms it may come from existing operators, new players or the Government. BT and Virgin have proposed some new investment in access and fibre but have financial pressures while a few new small firms and even some local
authorities are interested.

New players would be a real shake up for the sector – maybe a retail giant or a utilities company or some content player should enter. After all we needed a duopoly to get things moving in the 1980s, cable TV led us in the 1990s and additional new players, such as Orange, showed us how in mobile. Big government investment could
stimulate development. In the USA President Obama has announced a significant telecoms public funding programme and Australia have too while Korea and Japan just get on with it anyway.

So what for Digital Britain? Ultimately of course it is the customer who will pay. Some would pay now to get 100Mbit access, most of us can and will pay over time and
those with special needs and poorly served areas should be supported through new universal service funding.

The real gap is not the demand, the build or the money but the lack of understanding and confidence. People do not yet fully understand why they need information via digital services and how they will be used and why pay – this will come in time. Confidence is about doing things well.

With 30 years in this industry, some 15 years ago I wrote that Britain was
the world’s laboratory for the telecoms sector. We must innovate to get
ahead of the game again and invest in infrastructure now and show the
world that Digital Britain has got talent. When an unknown singer can
attract 100 million hits on the web from Britain’s Got Talent think what
social and business benefits let alone innovative talent could be unleashed
with digital access services to 25 million homes in Britain.

We need: existing operators to invest a great deal more - new players to
enter the infrastructure market and the Government to deliver some
target funding, a small sign was given in the recent budget, at areas and
sections of the community for the wider public good. It is time to get off
the line, stop the talking and file all the policy reviews - it's time to start
digging and get Britain’s first mile online.

Bob Franklin
May 2009
CEO telcoconsulting.co.uk
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