broadband

Scottish villages chosen for broadband boosting pilot

Can we have some of these pilots in remote rural England please. This fascinating story tells us:

Villagers in some of the more remote parts of Scotland will take part in a pilot for a new broadband boosting technology.

It is the first commercial trial of the technology, which increases broadband speeds over very long phone lines.

About 60 premises in Argyll and the Hebrides are among six UK locations picked to take part.

The pilot comes after successful trials which began on the Isle of Lewis last summer to see if the technology worked.

The technology – known as Long Reach VDSL – is being piloted by telecoms infrastructure provider Openreach which wants to understand how the technology can improve broadband speeds for homes and businesses across the country.

Because of the laws of physics, broadband speeds tend to slow down over long distances.

But Long Reach VDSL operates at higher power levels and makes use of a wider range of frequencies to increase broadband speeds and the distance over which they can be delivered.

Clachan and Whitehouse on the Kintyre peninsula and Eriskay in the Western Isles were chosen because of their remote locations and low download speeds, which are currently less than 10Mbps.

Branch Offices: the public sector’s Achilles’ Heel

, ,

With many rural businesses and communities wanting an end to the broadband and mobile phone connectivity arms race – apparently we are ‘digital by choice’ rather than ‘digital by default’ now –  this article provides an interesting commentary on the Government’s digital transformation projects. To succeed, the key is to build an agile and responsive infrastructure that will allow innovation across departments. As so many departments are dependent on different branches, if one office still runs on old equipment then communication and processes will undoubtedly break down. The article cites examples from border control and health trusts to highlight the remote offices and branch offices (ROBO) underpinning our public services. Without a seamless connection between the equipment that staff use to do their job, the whole infrastructure and the information it delivers falls down. Is it about speed, performance, resilience and communication or will departments (no names!) have to resort to pinning announcements on noticeboards?

BT avoids Openreach breakup but Ofcom orders more investment

I feel this monopoly position has at least something to answer in terms of the challenges facing less connected rural communities in terms of broadband. This story tells us: BT will not have to sell off its Openreach broadband division despite concerns that it has been starved of investment and provides a poor quality of service to millions of homes.

The telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has instead ordered BT to give more independence and investment powers to Openreach, which owns the fibre and copper wires that run from the local telephone exchange to homes and businesses.

Ofcom said Openreach should be run as a legally separate company within BT Group, with its own board, an independent chairman and its own brand. The regulator’s chief executive, Sharon White, said the alternative choice of forcing BT to sell the division – as demanded by its rivals – would take too long.

“This is a practical plan that can be implemented within months, unlike a sell-off of Openreach, which would take years,” White said, pointing to issues such as land contracts and pensions. “This model should deliver … without years and years of legal wrangling. This is a structural change in incentives.” She said the UK was lagging far behind other countries, with only 2% of the country receiving ultrafast broadband delivered via fibre-optic lines, similar to Germany. Korea, Spain, Lithuania and Portugal are at around 60%, and Japan at 70%.

Steve Unger, Ofcom’s director of strategy, said a full-blown separation would trigger “very significant costs” related to BT’s £7bn pension deficit pension, to make arrangements for employees within Openreach. White added that making Openreach a legally separate company within BT would require it to act in the best interests of all broadband customers in the UK and not just BT customers. “Openreach has not done a good enough job on customer service.”

Broadband not an automatic right for rural communities, says government

,

In November 2015, the Prime Minister announced the Government’s intention to implement a new broadband Universal Service Obligation (USO). Government wants to give people the right to request an affordable broadband connection, at a minimum speed, from a designated provider, up to a reasonable cost threshold (with everyone accessing minimum speeds of 10Mbps by 2020).

However, this article tells us that Government has now stated in a consultation document on the USO that broadband will not be an automatic right in “hard-to-reach” locations, due to the expense.

“Given the high costs of providing broadband access to premises in remote areas it is right that this is done on request, rather than rolling it out and waiting to see if people in those areas want to be connected…We know from the various interventions that the government has made to date that it is unlikely that everyone will want to be connected, even if that option is made available to them, and so we do not believe that an additional broadband rollout programme at this time is proportionate or would represent value for money.” A range of organisations including the NFU and CLA have warned of an impending crisis in rural areas if the Government does not do more to support the rollout of superfast broadband and improve mobile coverage in rural areas.

The Countryside Alliance has criticised the decision and accused the government of showing a “casually metropolitan sentiment…No special treatment is necessary, just equality.”

As well as the delivery infrastructure put together by Government, there are a plethora of examples across rural England where communities have decided to ‘do it yourself’ – Cybermoor, B4RN and Fibre GarDen. Policy-makers have introduced initiatives and funding pots for several years now: to what extent are these reducing the digital divide between urban (leaders) and rural (laggers)?

Map: Farmers still missing out in push for rural broadband

Ed Vaizey was very self congratulatory about what he and BT had achieved in terms of broadband coverage on the radio this morning. This article suggests not all rural dwellers are convinced. It tells us:

But countryside and farming groups have given a mixed response to the announcement.

Suzanne Clear, the NFU’s senior adviser for planning and rural affairs, said: “The NFU welcomes the wider rollout of broadband, but our members are currently telling us, via our own digital survey, that they need a faster rollout to their farms both in the open countryside and right next to towns. Currently they are missing out.

“We would welcome the returned BT funds being focused on getting those important food and farming businesses and their rural communities superfast connections, too.”

The Country, Land and Business Association (CLA), which has campaigned for all rural areas to have access to broadband for more than a decade, said the government needed to come up with solutions to provide broadband in the country’s hardest-to-reach areas.

Villagers in Somerset club together to pay for super-fast broadband after realising they had been forgotten

This is the kind of inspirational activity which the lottery programme Village SOS seeks to stimulate. The article tells us:

Residents in a small Somerset village, who realised the controversial £2 billion Government-funded rural broadband scheme would not reach them, have clubbed together to pay for it themselves.

Claverton, a couple of miles south of Bath, has become the first village in Britain to privately co-fund its own superfast broadband network, which is being launched later today.

The 70 households paid for two kilometres of underground ducting and four kilometres of overhead and underground fibre cabling to make sure their broadband speeds shot up to as much as 80mpbs.

Parish councillor Dr Rodger Sykes, who is also the chief executive of a technology company, led the residents’ campaign, and said they were not content to moan about the slow broadband and do nothing about it.

Hardest to reach must not be left offline

,

Thank goodness for the EFRA Select Committee. This press release features another insightful outcome from another useful Inquiry. It flags up the challenges facing a number of rural communities linked to the likely switch of almost everything government based to digital over the next few years. It tells us:

The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee fears hard to reach rural communities are being overlooked in the race to upgrade basic broadband to superfast for 95% of the country’s premises by 2017.

Chair’s comments

Committee Chair Anne McIntosh MP said:

“People living in the hard-to-reach 5% of premises need the same access as the rest to online and digital services.

There is a risk in the current approach that improving service for those who already have it will leave even further behind the rural farms, businesses and homes who have little or none.”

In their report, Rural broadband and digital-only services, MPs raise fears that a focus on improving access for most of the country may leave a minority with little or no ability to use key government services switching to online-only or mainly online delivery.

The Government plans to transform broadband require 95% of premises to have superfast speeds of 24 Megabits per second by 2017 then, although BT told the Committee that that target might slip into 2018.

Miss McIntosh added:

“The Government has committed to providing universal basic broadband coverage and superfast broadband coverage for 95% of premises by 2017.

We are concerned that the current broadband rollout targets are based on inaccurate assumptions that universal basic broadband coverage has largely been achieved when the reality is that many rural communities are still struggling with no access, or slow broadband speeds.

There is a fear that upgrading the majority who already have access to basic broadband is creating an even bigger gap between those with and those completely without broadband access.”

 

EE boosts rural 4G

,

At the Board of Notts RCC earlier this week we were discussing the importance of 4G compared to broadband and then I happened on this story…

EE, the UK’s largest 4G network, has announced it has completed the second phase of building its new network, claiming more than 3million people in 2,588 villages and small towns can access faster data services via phones and mobile broadband.

The announcement came as EE said that 4G sales had outstripped 3G for the first time. It now has 3.6m 4G customers, attracted by 4G speeds that are often faster than their fixed line broadband connection.

EE was the first network to launch a 4G network in the UK, but other major networks have now all followed suit. EE claims its roll-out was the fastest in the world, and is seeking to drive home its advantage as the first mover in the UK market with new products including an own-brand 4G tablet and a 4G-powered in-car WiFi unit.

The company claims it will “dramatically improve accessibility of superfast mobile internet across the UK, and set a new benchmark for the 4G user experience”.

Customers with 4G data plans use 66 per cent more data than those in 3G, largely thanks to their increased consumption of video content.

Rural broadband maps criticised for lacking detail

You know that feeling in your guts when things seem indefinably wrong. This story suggest to me some in Government are on this page with rural broadband

The government and BT are under fresh attack for the way the rollout of the UK’s rural broadband is being handled.

A committee of MPs said that many of the maps released lacked sufficient detail about coverage and the speeds that would be provided. It also questioned the costs involved.

It added that it had heard allegations that BT had been able to “kill the competition” by altering its own plans.

Both the company and the government have defended their record.

“It is… frustrating that the committee continues to try and pick holes in the programme,” said a spokesman for the firm.

Britain claims Europe’s best broadband – Official figures claim Britain now has the best broadband of the five major European nations.

Ongoing denial by Ofcom in terms of the experience of rural areas arises very clearly when one considers the approach set out in this article which tells us:

Ofcom, the communications regulator, said its latest European Broadband Scorecard puts Britain in the lead for coverage, take-up and choice of services, while also “performing well” on price.

It claims, however, that comparable figures for connection speed are not available across Europe, but places Britain’s average broadband speed at 17.8Mbps. Global internet data specialists Akamai measure it at just 9.1Mbps, but nonetheless place Britain first among Europe’s big five nations and ninth in Europe overall.

Ofcom’s report finds that the availability of superfast broadband has increased in the UK from around 60 per cent at the end of 2011 to 73 per cent today, taking the country from third to first for coverage when measured against France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

The data comes just days after German Chancellor Angela Merkel attempted to mock Britain’s programme. David Cameron, the Prime Minister, had travelled to Hanover to promote Britain’s relationship with Germany, but found himself on the receiving end of a joke from Mrs Merkel, who wanted to know when Britain would finally complete the roll-out of high-speed broadband to every house in the country.

Load More