Mbps means nowt

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Read more! If you don't already know, the EU contingent (apart from Benoit who paid for the cloud to move!) missed Fiberfete in Louisiana. However, what FF showed was the world has moved on. And the EU contingent were there in spirit to absorb the knowledge.

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

The Gigabit Society was just one of the talks that should have left UK politicians rewriting their manifestos.

Sadly, none of them seemed to be tuned in....out on the road campaigning, where of course all connectivity is minimal. Trouble is, this is the stuff they need to know. But they can't connect...so, for them, it still doesn't exist. Ho Hum.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, RDAs (Regional Development Agencies) are under siege from utility companies trying to get smart metering funding, FTTN=Fibre To The Nobody, ISPA took BT out at the knees for BET's roll out (that'll be a wholesale NO) and the electioneers failed to use Twitter, social media etc to engage with the people.

If you don't know where the links are for those stories, I strongly suggest you try Google. (It's a search engine.) Meanwhile, Google are digging up their own parking lot to avoid planning issues to discover innovative methods of laying fibre. Go every single private company and community who can find a route round bureaucracy to JFDI so we finally get FTTH (Home) or FTTB (Business).

This country is now in the top ahem 30 - woot, not - and unless we stymie the incumbents and ignorant ministers etc, there we will stay.

My favourite, favourite bit of the last two days has to be Lafayette's Truth Squads. Having spent a blissfully happy week there a mere two months ago, I think this blog may now become a Truth Squad Evangelist. Incumbents - put out your press releases.....we will respond.
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Don't miss out on Fiberfete

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Read more! Some ponderables from Day 1 of Fiberfete. The livestream for Day 2 is a must watch.

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

These are taken from delegate tweets on the hashtag #fiberfete

FTTN=Fibre To The Nobody - think about it!!

"The light at the end of the tunnel is not an illusion. The tunnel is."

Why community activity is SO important.....

Lafayette FTTH: every time telcos told a lie, truth squad responded with press conf same day. Community began [to] distrust telcos

"truth squads" important in fighting misleading info from incumbents

"Who are these big companies coming in here and telling us what we can't do, that we're not smart enough?" heh.

Judo metaphor - use the weight of incumbent/cable lobby's efforts against them. Community backlash groundswell ensued.

"The legal fees were the greatest marketing dollars we ever spent."


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RIP Guy Kewney

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Read more! It is with great sadness that I hear of Guy's passing last night.

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

His final blog posts made difficult reading, but his ability to write concisely was undimmed, and his humour still shines through.

There is an obit here from a colleague who knew Guy far better than I. However, I am privileged to say I knew him and will deeply miss his journalism and chats at conferences etc. His sofa I will miss far less!

RIP Guy.


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TODAY - the kids will tell you how dire current UK broadband is today

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Read more! If you can play this very, very simple game without it sputtering and halting you into submission and a score below 10k, your broadband is bog standard by world standards.

If you want to know if your connection is of equivalent standard to other countries, log into any MMPORG game or a live Second Life sesh and see how far you get.... or watch Newsround this evening and have it explained by 11-12 year olds.

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

If you can't do either - like me - you are one of the QUITE-VERY digitally excluded. Maybe what we need is a digitally excluded scale?

How digitally excluded are you?

Uber - shared lines (15 people on 5 phone lines, multiple DACS etc, not even meeting the USO for a basic telephone and 28k internet connection)
Extremely - dial up only
Very - connected to a digital exchange but even the engineers have given up. Often offered a solution that will cost £20-40,000+ - this is where nearly every single 'notspot' will find themselves.
Quite - Sold a product called "broadband" that, ahem, isn't even close and cannot be over the current incumbent tech.

If your connection cannot even cope with something like the games that are only marginally more advanced those that I played in Trent Poly in the early 70s, then how will it cope with telehealth, e-education, video on demand, video conferencing etc? As I watch my little 'cannon' jolt its way to the next lily pad and miss due to jitter, latency, contention etc, the whole scenario seems bordering on surreal for a country which claims/lies to be leading the digital revolution.

Send the PPCs on their election campaign to my doorstep NOW. Whilst I have multiple concerns about my deeply rural community and policies to solve rural issues, the PPC will need to answer questions about UK tech policies before ANYTHING ELSE.

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Spend the jackpot...now

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Read more! There is money, still, pouring in from Brussels and the EU for broadband/NGA projects, including in the UK. And the Euro lottery fund this week stands at £13M...so, what would you spend it on if you could access any of this money?

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

You're about to be inundated with electioneering in the UK. Respond and retaliate. Imagine you only stood on communications and broadband issues. What are your policies? How would you spend the money available to solve the problem - phone levy, major EU subsidies, a lottery win etc?

What would be your solutions? Where would you start? Final Third First or a competitive market place? Force incumbents to play? Or offer new entrants a level playing field?

There are over a thousand people read this blog regularly - have your say! Post anonymously, if you wish. Perhaps it is time to speak now, before the election, and show you care about this issue........



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Protecting the creative industry

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Read more! Yesterday, I read hundreds of comments about the Digital Economy Bill. I came away with a single thought....

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

Aren't you...as the creative industry....lucky to have people out there 'protecting your interests'? Because many of us are doing what we feel to be right, because it needs doing, and knowing there is no chance of EVER being paid. We don't have a BMI etc to back us up.

It doesn't stop us doing it. Whether it is a scarecrow festival, an outside art installation, a campaign to save a pub or a village hall, a Parent Teachers Association raising money for the school, or major/minor campaigns endeavouring to prevent democracy being made a mockery of.

Unpaid? Who cares? If it matters, we will attempt to change the course of events, actions, thinking, etc. AT OUR OWN COST.

Do you?

Will you stand by your own beliefs, even when they cost you £££s? Or are you so shallow that you will only fight the corner when £££s enter the equation? Is any of it about £££s, or is it about a way of life, a community, the values that can be attributed to the maintenance of a tradition or an asset? The longevity of creativity, innovation, and far-sighted thinking?

Take 2 steps back. Why do you support what you support? Are your reasons for doing so - ethical, moral, purposeful, community-minded, long term? Or are they just egotistical and with a few £££s signs littering the path you choose to temporarily fill your £££bank account?





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UK broadband, ID cards and why I can't sleep

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Read more! “However, we are concerned that the Government’s intention to create state-owned ‘business service companies’ could actually backfire by preventing commercial companies from competing for contracts. It would be better to create a level playing field to encourage competition and efficiency.” CBI, Samknows



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

I knew someone, somewhere must have put it succinctly. The more I have heard this week, the less I have slept. That quote sums it up for me on a specific issue:

Why is the Government trying to create services that the private sector SHOULD be best placed to assess, research, develop and deliver?

Is it suddenly their job? Just because the UK now has more employees in the public sector than the private sector, should we actively encourage that huge disparity and illogicality? My economics skills are pretty basic because it wasn't taught in schools (is it now? - Sadly, I know the answer, it is a resounding State Education "No") but even I can see the lunacy of pursuing this path.

Dear Govt., Your job is to protect and promote the community well-being of your electorate. Please do not force me to write yet another letter about the Destruction of Trade and Industry based in Victoria St, London. You can change your name as often as you wish, but we will see through it. DTI, Berr, BIS - you are all trying to muscle in on the few remaining industries that can attract external investment and encourage internal investment and growth.

You should not be nicking all of our ideas and implementing them, but be fostering them, enabling communication within industry, introducing industry people in a 'social network' capacity, funding trips abroad for industry people who 'Do', not politicians etc on a career path to nowhere. Some of the most recent quangos exhibit all of this hidden entrepreneurial/career-driven desire; it can only go very badly wrong for the country if it continues.

Yours etc

Let me put one issue into two sentences:

1. It is not the government's job to decide what we want and force it upon us, viz personal websites - hide it behind this week's fluff, but it is online ID cards by the back door.

2. It is certainly not your job to spec and procure it, whatever the ELECTORATE choose, and definitely, absolutely, not something you should even consider in-house with your appalling record for IT projects.

If I could draw, the following would be a cartoon. (I am counting on the skills of the 5tth blog audience to render it).

For those who don't know the UK, we don't need to carry ID cards. Yet.

2010: Policeman pulls me up in the street.
Name? Josephiah Judas Smith.
Address? 94 Azure Acacia Avenue. (You get the idea.....)
Seems the privilege of anonymity may be about to removed.....
2012: Policeman pulls you up in the street: URL?


I think it's referendum time..................stuff the election. Can you be trusted any more with the well-being of this country?

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Brown's speech yesterday

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[It was yesterday when I wrote this]

Am reading the transcript of Building Britain's Digital Future speech as Gordon Brown was delivering it at such a speed that I think some of the nuances require a re-read.

I want Britain to be the world leader in the digital economy which will create over a quarter of a million skilled jobs by 2020;

Evidence and research from other countries indicate that just putting FTTH in nationwide* could easily create that number of skilled jobs, and bring with it the associated rise in tax to the Treasury etc. Therefore, why wait till 2020? Why not start the process today?

Underpinning the digital transformation that we are likely to see over the coming decade is the creation of the next generation of the web - what is called the semantic web, or the web of linked data.

Actually, underpinning the transformation will be the appropriate infrastructure. Whilst we all know that Tim Berners-Lee has been advising Brown extensively recently, this is a bit cart before the horse. Again. Yes, open data is hugely important and there have already been steps taken in this direction. Tim's recent presentation showed off some of the great uses to which people have already put open government data.

But without the infrastructure to access and share this data, as well as the need for everyone to become digitally literate and not drown in the information overload we are already seeing, these fantastic opportunities become slightly meaningless for your everyday consumer.

First to digitalise - to make Britain the leading superfast broadband digital power creating 100 per cent access to every home;

Ah yes, the headline everyone jumped to write. BUT, and this is a very big BUT, neither of the main parties, nor the telcos themselves, know how to do this where 'superfast' is a term which makes 100% sense when looking at the levels of connectivity other nations offer today, or plan to within that same timeframe. As a cynic, "100 per cent [sic] access" could mean that 100% of homes have access to the level of access that is available to many in the UK today, which is only debatably eligible to be called "broadband". ....And then, Ofcom today defined "superfast" as meaning 24Mbps. No mention of symmetrical. Even setting the bar that low, I would suggest, leaves us out in the cold.

The problem is that Andorra, for instance, is on track to beat that ambition THIS YEAR with 100Mbps symmetrical to everyone. There are many other nations who are also more than likely to do so long before Britain can. Even if everyone in the country who was currently doing nothing set to with the right equipment, mapping on the fly, etc etc, we'd be hard pushed to beat other nations to that goal. So, pinch of salt, flung over shoulder.

Third to economise - in the Pre-Budget Report we set out our determination to find £11 billion of savings by driving up operational efficiency, much of it enabled by the increased transparency and reduced costs made available by new technology.

One could argue that these savings could be substantially INCREASED by deploying the infrastructure first which would allow every citizen to interact with government services NOW, not in 2012, 15, 17 or 20. (Whilst no figures are given in this article about the savings made by a Maryland Council, one can immediately see the benefits if councils interact with their constituencies in this way).

The other day I heard how one of Britain’s leading musicians, who spends most of his time abroad, reads his young son a bedtime story from thousands of miles away using Skype. And millions of us can now spend more time with our families because technology allows people to work easily from home.

For many, it is not possible to use Skype (I still cannot make a call to my clients in Canada without using my landline), nor to 'easily work from home'. Listen to Ted's audio clip here for evidence of the problems still faced in so-called broadband Britain for those who want to work from home.

However, Skype was first sold to Ebay in 2005, and is um sort of old hat as an app.

The next stage will be radical expansion and enhancement of two-way communication between service providers and homes that new superfast broadband is beginning to make possible.

As long as we hold clearly in our heads that 2Mbps asymmetrical cannot make that happen.... up the bar if this is the vision you have, GB.

Britain is uniquely equipped to lead the digital age.

Because we have no concrete plan to do so?

This country has always been at its best when it has led the world in its pursuit of creativity and innovation and in the promotion of fairness and liberty. And in so many ways these issues have come together in the extraordinary development of the world wide web.

Allow me to paraphrase: "This country has always been at its best when...our backs are against the wall, like now." I could add to that: Necessity is the mother of invention.

Next para: The UK can hardly hold its head up and say we are developing the most fantabulous web apps nor using even the Web, let alone bandwidth to irs full potential. Actually, I think, without a doubt, that honour has to go to the eastern Bloc and Russia, Korea and China from whence many ideas and workable apps have come. Our digital literacy is astoundingly low, however high our take up of "broadband" has been.

And then we go into people who haven't accessed the Net.

Spot the telco blame??? Nowhere in sight. Spot the blame for Labour policy to allow the competitive market to dictate where we are today?

We can allow unbridled market forces to provide a solution on its own terms and according to its own timetable as others would do.

Yep, that is what we have been doing for a decade and more. Where has it got us??

The result would be superfast broadband coverage determined not even by need or social justice, or by the national interest but by profitability alone. This would open a lasting, pervasive and damaging new digital divide.

Ah, so you recognise that using market forces has failed. Is that because the Conservatives are now proposing to go that route, again? Because you have seen sense? Because you are going to try something different and radical? Because you aren't quite sure what you are going to do next and this sounds good?

By this point in the speech, my ears are bleeding, my eyes are also bloodshot, and my brain is mentally packing my house up to leave the country.

I don't think I need to continue. Any of the good readers here can. Or you can post what you would do for broadband UK if you were PM.

I think the speech highlights the complexity of the issue that this country faces, the numerous toes it steps on, and the need to think big and think holistically.

Bringing 4 Ministers to the meeting didn't exactly simplify this so that the majority of people in the country could understand. In fact, all it did was highlight my palaver the week before last trying to find that raw data - 5 agencies. NO!

If you want to win votes, and support, and encourage action, then you need to simplify and talk concrete solutions to construction problems. And this country needs, more than anything, to start building and stop waffling all around the houses. Especially by people who don't 'get' what normal people do on the Internet, and really, really want to do.


* Far better links are available but I am fitting this in round a book deadline. Would appreciate hard predictions, stats, evidence etc for UK if anyone has any....

Read the original blog post on http://5tth.blogspot.com

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If you were UK Prime Minister.....

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Read more! Right, dear readers, the great British Press and journalists need your help. As do, we are all beginning to suspect, the government and MPs. There is an ever-growing demand for a simple explanation which answers "What are the plain facts of the matter?"

We can point these good folk to the very many blogs etc, but as is the impatient wont of today's human bean, they want everything in one place. So, here's your chance to let them know.

If you were Prime Minister of this country, how would you solve the broadband problem?

Here's your chance to be PM...and get this right for all of us.

Be as technical as you wish or put it in plain English, just attack one single issue or approach the whole problem holistically, look at rural, or urban, or just speak from your own point of view. But speak now about Building Britain's Digital Future or forever hold your peas...

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Thinking beyond just the Internet - news and media

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Read more! I've been asked today to put down my thoughts for a 2030 Vision for our region so it can feature in a "future news newspaper article". I had to point out that newspapers won't exist then! And then, this landed....

Here is a fine example of what is already happening in news and media and that must be, of course, worrying for the likes of Monsieur Murdoch, BBC et al.

It's a mashup of the footage of Gordon Brown's speech yesterday with the tweets from the #bbdf hashtag as subtitles. Kudos to Martin Hawksey @mhawksey for putting it together.

It highlights some issues for next gen media.

1. With all their ginormous budgets, we have not seen any of the mainstream media (AFAIK) put together something like this yet. And yet, it is precisely what people are looking for, particularly when it comes to key issues that affect us. So, double kudos to grassroots for JFDI!

2. The closest mainstream media have probably come to this (again AFAIK) is when Question Time permitted text/SMS comments to be sent in during the programme and could be viewed on Ceefax. Now, that was some years ago and as I can't get Ceefax etc to work properly since the digital switchover, I don't know if it still happens. But, those SMS were tightly monitored and controlled. This example shows what happens when all comments from a specific hashtag are put in, AS THEY APPEARED in real time. The box cannot now be shut. This is the way things will continually go from now on. Control has been removed. The people have the voice that GB went on to speak about, and media and Govt need to get used to it.

3. Mashing together the VT and the comments from another channel (in this case Twitter) gives a brilliant multi-channel experience for those who want to access it. Media are going to have to start doing this or they will find people grabbing the output from their TV and chucking it in near real-time on the Net, mashed together with other online channels. Perhaps this is one reason why there is so much 'fear' about symmetrical pipes? Or am I just being cynical?! I know damned well that if we could all run our own servers from home, life would get really rather exciting.

4. Accountability - all of a sudden, having to phone in to A N Other complaints service and be given the run around and left to feel you could well be the only person complaining about a certain issue would vanish. Now, you can not only see that other people are complaining, but you can contact them directly and create a pressure group, louder voice etc. Now, today, whilst it is bugging you. And them. And that will make anyone featured in a TV programme accountable. Be they a goverment minister, a journalist, a programme producer, a company, a council etc. Now, personally, I think this can only be a "good thing" because it means that no-one can claim they didn't realise what their constituents, customers, viewers, electorate, etc thought on the issue.

Media has to change. Whilst certain content producers are protecting their so-called invaluable copyright, others are turning it into TRULY valuable content. You can hide your content from others by putting it behind pay walls, you can control the voices of your viewers by only reading out certain texts or emails, or you can do this sort of thing and face the music, work with the feedback, create better TV, policies, products etc.

Because if you don't, it won't be long before we do it for you!!

The point here is that the reason to want fat pipes is is not about ever higher definition TV that we lean back on our sofas and watch, nor 3D, nor more and more on demand programming. It is about INTERACTIVITY and consumer content creation. It has to be upstream as well as down. You have to become less possessive of your content and allow the consumer to consume and create.

Just because someone isn't wearing a BBC/Hollywood/Fleet Street suit, getting a BBC/Hollywood/Fleet Street wage, and spending some of the BBC licence fee/Hollywood style/Fleet Street budgets, doesn't mean they aren't going to create something immensely valuable, highly compelling to watch, and beyond what anyone else had up to date imagined. We are only going to see more of it, and it will leave present day media behind if they don't adapt.





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And so the mutilation of our language continues...

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Read more! Superfast broadband will not be available to everyone by 2012. Will journalists, bloggers, marketers, and social commentators please get their facts straight before putting fingers to keyboards?

"Superfast broadband" should be permitted to be used as a phrase ONLY when speeds of 100Mbps are involved. Not up to 100Mbps, nor 2Mbps, nor 20Mbps.

What is being promised in this week's speeches and headlines, although the detail of how it will actually be delivered is very unclear, is that every house in the UK should have an up to 2Mbps connection by 2012. Mobile and satellite are being mooted as potential solutions where the copper won't deliver, and no-one has been talking about ensuring that symmetry plays a part.

The facts are that it looks like it will be a Universal Service Commitment rather than a Universal Service Obligation (which carries a legal duty), that the actual bandwidth, quality, contention etc currently are undefined, and the depth of thinking which has been done to ensure that this is a logical first step in the delivery of next generation connectivity (which had better truly be superfast or this country will never catch up with other countries) seems to have been minimal.





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UK leads the digital world - believe nothing today

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Read more! Today, Gordon Brown is going to flog the dead horse which is Britain's leadership of the digital race. Much as I would like to support any party, quango, organisation, telco or anything else about Britain's pole position in the digital economy, we are so far behind that travelling abroad is now embarrassing.

En route to the FTTH Council conference, Lisbon, in transit, I nearly left the airport for a fag. Luckily, the nice Customs officer pointed me to the smoking room which had free wifi. He seemed a tad (x pi add a zero) perplexed that I thought I would have to even leave the airport for such normalities. We had a chat about the UK. I slunk away at the reality of this once great country as other people's honest perceptions in 2010 sunk in.

The smoking thing was one part; the "You don't have wifi everywhere?" was entirely separate.

Once again, today, a news item has landed that leaves me wondering what I am doing fighting this battle here in the UK.

FTTH 1Gbps hits Jaipur . C'mon, let's think this through. I've been all over India. I know how colonial we are about it. I know we think and treat India and its people as a 'developing nation'. So, when Gordon Brown's fab announcements about a webpage for every citizen etc hit the news today, ask yourself two things:

A) How the bloody hell are half the country going to access them with corroded copper and no working internet?
B) Why are most of the countries in the world announcing 1Gbps connections (or at the very least 100Mbps) and we can just about scrape "up to 2Mbps by 2012" as a Universal Service Commitment (not even a legal obligation?)

So, Mr Brown, (and your Tory counterparts) are we really leading the digital economy??? Or are we now so far behind that only the most ignorant who can't actually work out that a mouse should not be used with your toes are left believing you? Your aspirations today will only be real if you have actually taken on board and can counter what is today happening in Jaipur, Latvia, at the top of Everest etc etc etc.

Digital industries that have been in existence in this country for near as dammit 15 years (yes, amazingly,that long and more) are now ready to leave these shores unless you up your game. FAST.

Just because the Labour Digital Strategy was created by a man, who for today will remain nameless, who admitted to me inside No 10 that what he knew about technology you could write on a postage stamp, does not mean that you have to adhere yourself to it.

It is time to work out what this country needs. By my calculations, if you are going for a jolly to the Palace on the 25th to go to the country on the 6th/7th, you'd better get a bloody shift on and start talking to the businesses and citizens of this country like adults and stop assuming we are all morons.


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Challenge on....gauntlet laid down

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In the run-up to the election, and bearing in mind that Gordon Brown is going to try and hit every electoral button tomorrow with the latest "vote winning announcement", (Update: 10pm Sun -in the last 10 mins this page appears to have been taken down, but we happen to have a screenshot) we have a challenge for you. It's open, bring it on!!

We believe in our little world that broadband is at the centre of everything. To us, it is the solution. Whatever the question.

So, the challenge to you is to come up with any social or economic issue in this country and we will tell you why broadband and FTTH is the solution.

Game on! (Oh, and if you want the actual game that goes with this, please let us know. We created it some years ago and it has now developed much further and is a fantastic resource, though we say it ourselves.)


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Thinking beyond just the Internet - telehealth

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Read more! Most of the time, when we hear about next generation access, we hear about faster downloads - particularly in relation to watching films (see Ofcom's history and vision of broadband published today). But that is not what next generation is about....

I know I have been a bit lax in writing publicly about my trip to the USA, and some of the many things I have learnt on my recent travels elsewhere, but all of this blogging and campaigning lark is done in my copious free time ;o) However, it seems that sharing this info becomes more timely and not less so, so here goes.

When building a FTTH network (or FTTB/FTTP etc) it is not about giving everyone faster access to t'Interweb. Far from it. What should be at the forefront of any network builder's mind should be the interconnectivity that network will create. Between users. Whether that user is a council, an individual citizen, a business, a doctor, the fire service, a community project, the village hall, the Highways gritter, or even a bus shelter.

A ubiquitous network is the key - it must reach, and interconnect, everyone.

Gordon Brown yesterday issued a statement, which amongst other things, talked about every citizen having access to all government services online. Unfortunately, instead of trying to K.I.S.S. once again the Government are endeavouring to add layers of complexity by including an IT project as well as infrastructure - an approach that will leave many with experience of govt IT projects climbing into a hot bath to get rid of the cold chills in their spine.

Let's deal on a small scale, rather than trying to think nationally for a moment. What are the services that your average citizen wants to access? Today's post is about telehealth.

There are huge environmental and economic savings, so telehealth is a key player. However, many of those involved in telehealth see it far too often purely from their own point of view - benefits, outputs, cost-savings - and far less about the experience and convenience for their 'clients', the patients. As an internet marketer, I am constantly telling my clients to step into the shoes of their website visitors and potential customers, become customer-centric.

The National Health Service needs to look at patient need, not how much it will save the NHS. Whilst creating increasingly complex websites that allow a patient to book a GP appointment may seem ideal to those in Whitehall, from out here it doesn't solve many of the problems we face.

Let's take some examples I have seen recently.

The Mayo Clinic in Florida and Arizona advises on pretty much every type of illness and disease. However, if you don't live in either of those two States, just raising the money or being able to travel there to be diagnosed, treated, learn to manage your health etc would count you out. Ergo, it could be seen to be exclusive. But, the Mayo Clinic don't want to be exclusive. They want everyone to be able to access the incredible range of expertise they offer. So, the solution? Work with FTTH providers to link up directly into people's homes. Bedbound? No worries. Talk directly to a consultant over a secure and private video link. Live in another State? No problem, click here.

Need to manage your diabetes wherever you are? Agoraphobic? Bipolar? Managing heart disease? Whatever your health situation, an online connection can make it easy.

Why leave home if you can't, physically, mentally or emotionally? Do your consultations online. Bipolar and can't even get out of bed today? You don't need to miss your appointment and add yet more guilt to the situation. Run an audio channel to your psych. Simples. Heart problem that needs regular monitoring? Do you need to be in a specialist unit or just a gym? OK, that'll be the latter - wire up the gym to the consultant so they can see real time stats from your work out. Need physio, but snowed in? Do your physio at home, watched over by your trainer on the TV.

At the moment, we are letting people miss appointments, and hence treatments, left, right and centre, for no good reason, and often pandering to the NHS instead of the patient's needs.

I have seen so many telehealth applications in the last few months, from bed sores to paraplegia being dealt with online. It allows people to maintain their dignity, independence, treatment schedules and health. Why sit in a hospital for hours waiting for a consultant or nurse whose Strategic Health Authority is running them ragged between three hospitals? Whilst you await your appointment (a mere 80 mile trip), they are stuck in a traffic jam 35 miles away, unable to work with anyone.

There are better ways to do this.

It is all very simple. It just needs fat pipes.

This is my HD TV channel, I am exercising my limbs after the car crash, without needing an ambulance to the hospital 40+ miles away and the stress of waiting for that, nor putting my life on standby for 1-2 days a week when you, my physiotherapist, are stuck in a different hospital at the far end of the county.

Should I lean more to the left, stretch that muscle more often than I am, or can I just join in a physio session with others as part of a community? Are there people who have been doing physio for so long now that your absence, and their presence, or a little snow, means I can still join in and do some exercise and have fun? We're all at home, but we are together. Is smiling with my new found friends on this HD TV Health network for the physio patients at xyz hospital a "bad thing"? Of course not!

Oh, and whilst you were stuck in the traffic jam, we have arranged a swimming session all together next week....cancel our rescheduled appointments.


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#debill letters to MPS flooding in

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Read more! The Digital Economy Bill being rushed through Parliament prior to the election has hit a sore spot. Thousands of people have already written to their MPs about the Bill. Have you?

At least 7000 people have written in the last few days alone according to one website, but judging by the constant tweets under the #debill hashtag, it is likely to be many more.

The majority of the readers of this blog are perfectly aware of the issues, so there would be no point spelling them out. There are hundreds of articles and blog posts across the UK web which can bring you up to speed if you have been off-planet for the last few months!
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Taking FTTH/FTTB to the next level...

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It may be that there is a way to solve many problems in one fell swoop - FTTH, prime agricultural land becoming scarce, lack of green spaces in cities, the energy crisis, urban and rural regeneration, job creation, and no doubt more problems will come to light as we discuss this potential solution.

We all know that Korea, Hong Kong, etc have all, apparently, been able to solve universal FTTH purely because of multiple dwelling units. (We also all know that this is not **strictly** true!!) However, in Britain, we have a huge variety of problems, all of which universal FTTH could solve if we just got on with it.

What we need to do is not build high-speed railways (£14BN starting in 2017 vs FTTH £14BN finished in 2017) but build new farms in both towns and the countryside. Vertical farms. These could then help to re-populate the countryside, create thousands of new jobs, generate electricity, plus demand connectivity for telemetry - has that grass half way up got enough water? Also, this would keep DEFRA busy inspecting the number of tyres holding down the silage sheet on level 42 and whether the tags on every sheep and cow's ears on levels 18-30 are legible.

Especially for @cyberdoyle, here is a potential solution to the Final Third problem. Obviously, some thought is required to go into exactly which level her cows go on, and sheep, pigs, goats etc, but it seems that the current thought leader in all this, mainly because they have JFDI (or part of it), is right here in the UK, in Devon at Paignton Zoo

By creating multi-dwelling units in the towns and cities of UK, we could overcome the UK telcos' fears and give them MDUs to connect. Cows obviously need fibre in their daily diet (see photo) and Fibre To The Byre should help justify investment. Also, it would be simple to put 3G, LTE, wimax antennas on the structures, thereby building a wireless cloud over the surrounding area at the same time, and increasing the sadly minimal mobile coverage in rural areas.

There are several added bonuses to the technology neutral approach in that a byproduct of livestock farming, and one of the top causes of global warming/climate change, is of course methane, for which cows are regularly blamed. By a lucky coincidence, it would seem that methane is converted to hydrogen, acetylene and ethylene when subjected to continuous microwave radiation. This could then be stored and used to power the new hydrogen cell cars which we will need once the oil runs out. In addition, every farmer always needs to weld something so the acetylene should come in handy. There is also an increasing global demand for ethylene, so this should create a whole new industry sector within the UK.

This solution really could solve so many problems, surely?!


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Still want 2Mbps?!!

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Read more! I just watched this film about telepresence and immersion room.

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Imagine that in your living room so you can talk to friends and family, your doctor, your new teacher..... it won't be long until these become slightly smaller and cheaper and mass market.

What do we need to do this? Fat pipes, no more. As soon as.....
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Voices from the Final Third

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Yesterday, Radio Lancashire devoted the day to rural broadband. (As well as ironing, oddly). Here are some sound clips from those who are daily affected by this country's (market) failure to connect its citizens and businesses and who are represented by the Final Third First campaign. And from Stephen Timms, who phoned in to be interviewed.

Rachel, who runs her own horse riding and trekking centre and cannot get online even to check e-mails. (I think that counts as digitally excluded, Martha!) 2m50s

Sam, David and Matt, who are teenagers, are trying to cope with the lack of a social life, unable to do homework or revision, be part of a band, conduct Uni research, and suffer disbelief from peers and teachers. Why? Because they don't have access to broadband or the Net. 3m48s

Ted and his wife, Mandy, cannot work and study from home. They also have teenagers, who cannot do their homework, access revision from school. Ted cannot work as the rest of the international company he works for do - from home. He points out that many other countries offer broadband accessibility, even on the beach, whilst the UK doesn't. "We need a centralised approach to the infrastructure. This to me is like electric, it's like water ....we provide that ourselves...we have a generator and a wind turbine. We're not frightened of taking it on, we have the will to be able to do it". 4m59s

Chris talks about the Final Third First campaign, the social impact on rural life (especially for teens) without broadband, Wray network, loans, bonds and funding, and removing red tape to enable the build of sustainable community fibre networks. 4m37s

Lindsey (half awake, thanks Chris!) tries to explain what being an Internet Marketer means without broadband and why I want to take my business out of the UK now after 15 years trying to get a decent connection. I would like to point out that this is no reflection on my ISP who have done their very best to work with the laws of physics and ancient/decrepit BT copper. 3m09s

Stephen Timms responds to questions after Sam, a teenager in Lancashire talks about his problems with school, homework and no broadband.

Your comments on the Minister's interview would be welcomed!!

















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Response to INCA & CBN

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Having given some consideration to the most recent updates on the INCA and CBN sites.....

Ask yourself:

Why would I, Lindsey Annison, be running a "campaign" against the very type of community support network that I have already been instrumental in setting up TWICE in my own time and therefore obviously believe in?

For now, because I have no need to be verbose today, and I like misquotes......

"Methinks thou doth protest too much"

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Point Topic maps true broadband need by constituency

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Read more! Point Topic have released an interesting data set in the run-up to the election, showing by constituency how much subsidy is required for what they are calling "superband". It makes for fascinating reading.

Except that, as my constituency figures extremely close to the top, showing that 74.9% of premises here will require subsidy, I am opening an account for donations to enable me to move to Portugal or Lithuania and escape this seemingly never-ending torture.

The big problem, I guess, is that this is a safe Tory seat, and the tech manifesto gives little doubt that they are going to await market failure before freeing up money for constituencies like mine.

My response to that argument, Jeremy and Ed, would be that there is already market failure. Thousands of people round here do not have access to broadband TODAY, and we certainly don't have access to anything like the connectivity available in parts of rural Lithuania, Portugal, Sweden, Latvia, etc etc and at least 20+ other etcs.

Shall I spell this out? The market has failed us with first generation broadband. The market and our politicians are clearly failing us with the required change to the next.

So, would I vote Labour? Nope, not after Stephen Timms responded so depressingly predictably on Radio Lancashire this morning, ignoring the real questions and only giving us the reassurance that even by 2017 at least 10% of this country will not have next generation services. That'll be us then. Deep joy. And that's without mentioning the fact that BDUK clearly aren't going to have enough money to do the Final Third if they only have access to £1Bn to do so.

£28Bn/3 does not = 1, even in my highly chaotic world. Even I know that 3/3=1 and I have never, ever seen a figure anywhere that says it will cost £3Bn to do the Final Third. If it were only going to cost that much, then what are we waiting for?

Meanwhile, what virtual world does anyone live in where 2Mbps is sufficient for most businesses? Have you tried running a digital business, any business, on a connection that impoverished in 2010, Mr Timms? Especially asymmetrical.

Do none of these politicians get IT at all? If I and thousands of other rural SMEs cannot contribute what we should be capable of into the national economy WITHOUT decent or preferably true broadband, there is market failure. Not just telco market failure, but SME failure. And it's RIFE.

We can't afford to create jobs and employ people. We can't compete, not just with our urban peers, but with peers in other countries, even developing ones. As digital or post-industrial exporters, we can't export, therefore we are not bringing in external funds, just relying on the little we can earn here in the UK. Our bottom lines are overloaded with costs no competitor has to face - do you want my postage and fuel bills because I can't upload files and have to mail or deliver them by hand? Our environmental impact is far higher than it need be. And we obviously can't pay more taxes on non-existent revenue.

When you do your sums for how much it will cost to FTTH, I think you should try doing some sums on how much it is costing right now NOT to. And if anyone else tells me to move house, I will point them to my new Paypal fund, expect an appropriate 'relocation donation', and gladly take them up on it.

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