Ofcom are looking into use of so called white spaces in the TV spectrum that could be used for other purposes such as delivery of broadband into rural areas.
For more detail on this see the Ofcom website: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/media/news/2009/11/nr_20091117a
On the surface of it this is good news - this could bring fairly high bandwidth over long distances and be relatively unaffected by buildings, trees or weather. However the key comment in the Ofcom article is "this technology remains largely unproven and a significant amount of work needs to be done..." in other words, don't get your hopes up!
The trouble is this 'new' technology will require new equipment both at the transmitter and receiver ends of the communication path. As with any new technology it will have technical challenges before it can be relied on. In addition in its early days it is likely to be expensive (volume drives down price but cannot be achieved until the technology is mature - the classic Catch 22 of tech companies!).
Nonetheless we should welcome such innovation and hope that some UK companies can be the ones to bring this to market thereby benefiting both themselves, the rural communities and the economy at large as they will need to employ staff to manage their growth!
Wednesday 18 November 2009
Friday 6 November 2009
Messages for the Community
I'm putting this out for comment. Please feel free to make any suggestions you feel worthwhile.
I have come to understand the dilemma of trying to put in place a community project. It is easy to gain support - a small number of people will always be found to help and support the project. The critical factor is broad engagement. How do you not only inform the whole community about the project but engage them to the extent that they are willing to express a genuine level of interest. Without that broad support the project goes nowhere.
And so I move on to the next phase of my project - community engagement. And I would like to ask for your help. Below is the messaging that we are putting together in an endeavour to broadly engage my local community for our NGA project (through a variety of means). This has been compiled from comments received from the existing supporters as well as my own thoughts and experiences and, of course, those other rural activists with whom I have the pleasure of engaging. I'd like to ask for your thoughts now, as well. Am I missing anything? Am I misrepresenting anything?
All input will be very gratefully received!
LECB (Lane End Community Broadband) will deliver a new & improved broadband service
* Superior bandwidth to allow access to all Internet information & services
* Next generation telephony solution
* Freeview digital TV service (possible to include in the package)
* Access to a wide variety of Internet-based applications (e.g. BBC iPlayer HD, SkyPlayer, XBox Live, Online Banking etc.)
* Potential for a new range of public services (Telecare - healthcare via the Internet, eGovernment)
No need for a BT connection
* One line for Broadband, telephone & (potentially) Freeview TV
* Retention of your existing phone number
* Potential for future integration with your mobile phone
A more reliable service
* Our network will be the latest technology, unlikely the copper plant that BT uses that is more than 100 years old
* It is far less likely to go wrong
* If it does, fixes will be done far more quickly as we will only serve our community
A less costly alternative
* LECB aims to offer this package at around the same, or even less, than you currently pay
A service that will be available to everyone
* We will offer a limited speed, entry-level service that will be available free of charge for those who cannot afford a broadband service
* Digital inclusion is vital for the future of our community and our country
Protect the Future for your Family
* This will be a flagship project that will be used by generations to come
* It will increase the visibility of the Lane End community
* Next generation broadband services can increase the value of your house
I have come to understand the dilemma of trying to put in place a community project. It is easy to gain support - a small number of people will always be found to help and support the project. The critical factor is broad engagement. How do you not only inform the whole community about the project but engage them to the extent that they are willing to express a genuine level of interest. Without that broad support the project goes nowhere.
And so I move on to the next phase of my project - community engagement. And I would like to ask for your help. Below is the messaging that we are putting together in an endeavour to broadly engage my local community for our NGA project (through a variety of means). This has been compiled from comments received from the existing supporters as well as my own thoughts and experiences and, of course, those other rural activists with whom I have the pleasure of engaging. I'd like to ask for your thoughts now, as well. Am I missing anything? Am I misrepresenting anything?
All input will be very gratefully received!
LECB (Lane End Community Broadband) will deliver a new & improved broadband service
* Superior bandwidth to allow access to all Internet information & services
* Next generation telephony solution
* Freeview digital TV service (possible to include in the package)
* Access to a wide variety of Internet-based applications (e.g. BBC iPlayer HD, SkyPlayer, XBox Live, Online Banking etc.)
* Potential for a new range of public services (Telecare - healthcare via the Internet, eGovernment)
No need for a BT connection
* One line for Broadband, telephone & (potentially) Freeview TV
* Retention of your existing phone number
* Potential for future integration with your mobile phone
A more reliable service
* Our network will be the latest technology, unlikely the copper plant that BT uses that is more than 100 years old
* It is far less likely to go wrong
* If it does, fixes will be done far more quickly as we will only serve our community
A less costly alternative
* LECB aims to offer this package at around the same, or even less, than you currently pay
A service that will be available to everyone
* We will offer a limited speed, entry-level service that will be available free of charge for those who cannot afford a broadband service
* Digital inclusion is vital for the future of our community and our country
Protect the Future for your Family
* This will be a flagship project that will be used by generations to come
* It will increase the visibility of the Lane End community
* Next generation broadband services can increase the value of your house
We are on The Edge
I spent a couple of days this week at a Telco 2.0 conference in London. Excellent subject and some great presentations and interaction. The premise of the conference is essentially to look at the evolving business model of the telco and how this can take advantage of Web 2.0 like business practices.
We heard from a vast array of 'experts'. Vodafone showed us their new 360 solution which looked great, but sadly the demo failed as there was only a GPRS connection available! We heard from Spotify, the new streaming media service. We had a panel comprising Fergal Sharkey, now CEO of UK Music with representatives from the music industry, the advertising industry and BT and Virgin - all the players in the mix, and guess what? They had consensus on issues such as varying business models to use in the delivery of such content. They also agreed that the 3 strikes rule is not going to make any difference to the illegal download of music.
Another panel looked at SaaS, or Software as a Service. You may not have heard of this but you are probably familiar with the concept of using applications or services that are not resident on your computer but within the 'cloud'. This model is rapidly growing and new applications are available almost every day - both for the consumer and business. It is also a growing trend for people to be using these services (how many gmail users are there now?) and for businesses to put some of their mission critical functions in the hands of SaaS providers (think of the growth of salesforce.com as an example).
Talk was made of the next wave of content: HD video, healthcare services, home networks and many others. All in all I came away with the reinforced impression that we are moving into the age of digital maturity. An age where the Internet has truly grown up, become a ubiquitous tool and a vital part of the lives of future generations.
So yes, we are on the edge. The edge of something transformational, the edge of something truly great. Unfortunately the platform we are standing on is narrow and while we look on one side to the huge benefits such technical advances will bring to us we only have to look down to understand how close we are to falling back into the digital chasm. I cannot tell you how many people I spoke to who have a concern over the broadband infrastructure in the UK - and these are people in the communications industry! I had many conversations about just how good this would be if only we could get it. And I came away with another impression: I have been saying for some time that the economy of the UK could suffer dramatically if we do not improve our broadband position and that has been reinforced but I would like to turn it on its head and express it differently. The UK economy would have a massive boost if we truly embrace our digital future and give unlimited broadband access to all. We are a nation of innovators and entrepreneurs so let's stop stifling that creativity and put in place an infrastructure to support it.
We heard from a vast array of 'experts'. Vodafone showed us their new 360 solution which looked great, but sadly the demo failed as there was only a GPRS connection available! We heard from Spotify, the new streaming media service. We had a panel comprising Fergal Sharkey, now CEO of UK Music with representatives from the music industry, the advertising industry and BT and Virgin - all the players in the mix, and guess what? They had consensus on issues such as varying business models to use in the delivery of such content. They also agreed that the 3 strikes rule is not going to make any difference to the illegal download of music.
Another panel looked at SaaS, or Software as a Service. You may not have heard of this but you are probably familiar with the concept of using applications or services that are not resident on your computer but within the 'cloud'. This model is rapidly growing and new applications are available almost every day - both for the consumer and business. It is also a growing trend for people to be using these services (how many gmail users are there now?) and for businesses to put some of their mission critical functions in the hands of SaaS providers (think of the growth of salesforce.com as an example).
Talk was made of the next wave of content: HD video, healthcare services, home networks and many others. All in all I came away with the reinforced impression that we are moving into the age of digital maturity. An age where the Internet has truly grown up, become a ubiquitous tool and a vital part of the lives of future generations.
So yes, we are on the edge. The edge of something transformational, the edge of something truly great. Unfortunately the platform we are standing on is narrow and while we look on one side to the huge benefits such technical advances will bring to us we only have to look down to understand how close we are to falling back into the digital chasm. I cannot tell you how many people I spoke to who have a concern over the broadband infrastructure in the UK - and these are people in the communications industry! I had many conversations about just how good this would be if only we could get it. And I came away with another impression: I have been saying for some time that the economy of the UK could suffer dramatically if we do not improve our broadband position and that has been reinforced but I would like to turn it on its head and express it differently. The UK economy would have a massive boost if we truly embrace our digital future and give unlimited broadband access to all. We are a nation of innovators and entrepreneurs so let's stop stifling that creativity and put in place an infrastructure to support it.
Friday 23 October 2009
Rwanda is more switched on than Britain with its plans for rural broadband - Telegraph
via telegraph.co.uk
Well, the comparison to Rwanda is not entirely relevant and one has to question why their President feels this is the best spend of his budget. However, here in the UK where the issues of genocide, hunger and massive poverty are not ones our government has to deal with we should be asking why there is not a more forward thinking view to delivery of ubiquitous broadband.
I, for one, would like to see some economic stimulus fund to be made available for Britain's broadband infrastructure. Some should certainly be made available to deliver rural broadband services and it should not go to any of the established telecom operators who are traditionally reticent to address the needs of all the country.
What the Community Wants
Last night we had our first community meeting for our project to deliver NGA in my community. The meeting was an eye opener to me for a number of reasons:
1. It is very difficult to persuade people to come out of their houses at 8pm on a dark autumn night!
2. Broadcasting a live event is not very easy at all and fails dramatically when you cannot get a connection at the event itself.
3. There are community members who are willing to step up, get involved and help drive the project
4. What I thought would excite the people about the project didn't
#4 was the biggest issue, of course. There was I expounding the services and applications: the entertainment services, the healthcare services, education services. I spoke of better and more reliable access, of symmetrical access, of the benefits to home-based businesses and home workers. All of which did not strike the chord I had hoped.
The interest was there, the questions kept coming. We spoke for more than 2 hours on the subject.
So what did the community want?
If it is cheaper than BT, more reliable than BT, and offers us telephony services so that we can completely remove BT from the equation (to the point of removing our fixed line service all together) then we are interested.
Well, reliability can be done: NGA (using fibre and wireless much as described in this related post: http://5tth.blogspot.com/2009/10/why-fiwi-matters-in-uk.html) is inherently more reliable than copper. Telephony can be done, and indeed greatly improved on through the use of wholesale consumer IP telephony solutions.
So to cost... I need to work that one through. Speed is not enough of a concern to want to pay more to go faster. The expectation is a reliable, fixed and low cost solution that means they don't need to concern themselves with how fast it is going. The question is how much will people be willing to pay?
1. It is very difficult to persuade people to come out of their houses at 8pm on a dark autumn night!
2. Broadcasting a live event is not very easy at all and fails dramatically when you cannot get a connection at the event itself.
3. There are community members who are willing to step up, get involved and help drive the project
4. What I thought would excite the people about the project didn't
#4 was the biggest issue, of course. There was I expounding the services and applications: the entertainment services, the healthcare services, education services. I spoke of better and more reliable access, of symmetrical access, of the benefits to home-based businesses and home workers. All of which did not strike the chord I had hoped.
The interest was there, the questions kept coming. We spoke for more than 2 hours on the subject.
So what did the community want?
If it is cheaper than BT, more reliable than BT, and offers us telephony services so that we can completely remove BT from the equation (to the point of removing our fixed line service all together) then we are interested.
Well, reliability can be done: NGA (using fibre and wireless much as described in this related post: http://5tth.blogspot.com/2009/10/why-fiwi-matters-in-uk.html) is inherently more reliable than copper. Telephony can be done, and indeed greatly improved on through the use of wholesale consumer IP telephony solutions.
So to cost... I need to work that one through. Speed is not enough of a concern to want to pay more to go faster. The expectation is a reliable, fixed and low cost solution that means they don't need to concern themselves with how fast it is going. The question is how much will people be willing to pay?
Wednesday 14 October 2009
Sorry Sir we only do download speeds...
Warning... Rant Approaching!
A couple of months ago I installed a Vodafone Gateway in my house. That is their femtocell product that will give a better mobile signal in a small area by using the broadband line. All was well... the signal to my phone was drastically improved and call quality was great. That is until a week ago. All of a sudden people were complaining about very poor call quality. I thought it was strange as I could hear them perfectly but they could not understand me.
So I called Vodafone to ask about any potential issues with the gateway. They asked me to run a speed check which showed I had a reasonable download speed but a shocking upload speed (4.1M down, which is much better than usual but 210kbit/s up). They advised that you need a minimum upload speed of 300k for the gateway to function properly and that I should call my ISP.
Great, so I get on the phone to BT. In India. We go through the usual rigmarole of have I tried this, or done that and what is my set up etc. etc. Until eventually I was told, "OK, I am going to run a test to see what the problem is." Good. After a couple of minutes waiting she came back and confirmed what I already knew but added that they felt the download speed was good (agreed) and the upload speed was in the acceptable range. Again agreed other than the fact that is has been much better therefore surely something must have happened to cause the change. This was met with the immortal quote:
"Yes Sir, but we only help with download speeds not upload speeds."
At that point I gave up!
It amazes me that there can be such a lack of understanding of the importance of both directions of the communications path. In fact there should almost be more focus on upload speed and improving that as more people are uploading large files to sites such as YouTube, Facebook and Flickr.
Rant over. Thank you for listening!
A couple of months ago I installed a Vodafone Gateway in my house. That is their femtocell product that will give a better mobile signal in a small area by using the broadband line. All was well... the signal to my phone was drastically improved and call quality was great. That is until a week ago. All of a sudden people were complaining about very poor call quality. I thought it was strange as I could hear them perfectly but they could not understand me.
So I called Vodafone to ask about any potential issues with the gateway. They asked me to run a speed check which showed I had a reasonable download speed but a shocking upload speed (4.1M down, which is much better than usual but 210kbit/s up). They advised that you need a minimum upload speed of 300k for the gateway to function properly and that I should call my ISP.
Great, so I get on the phone to BT. In India. We go through the usual rigmarole of have I tried this, or done that and what is my set up etc. etc. Until eventually I was told, "OK, I am going to run a test to see what the problem is." Good. After a couple of minutes waiting she came back and confirmed what I already knew but added that they felt the download speed was good (agreed) and the upload speed was in the acceptable range. Again agreed other than the fact that is has been much better therefore surely something must have happened to cause the change. This was met with the immortal quote:
"Yes Sir, but we only help with download speeds not upload speeds."
At that point I gave up!
It amazes me that there can be such a lack of understanding of the importance of both directions of the communications path. In fact there should almost be more focus on upload speed and improving that as more people are uploading large files to sites such as YouTube, Facebook and Flickr.
Rant over. Thank you for listening!
Sunday 11 October 2009
What Would You Use FTTH For
Imagine for a moment that you have that 100MBit/s second symmetrical connection to your home...
What are you using it for? What would you like to use it for?
Please drop some comments to this post - I am interested to see what is driving our interest for genuinely high speed connections. Be as specific or general as you like.
Here's my list as a starting point (in no particular order):
1. Home working
2. Home entertainment (interactive TV, PPV sports events, PPV concerts, gaming etc.)
3. Learning (so much better to see what you want to learn about rather than have to read it!)
4. Communications - integration of voice, video & data with the most common tools I use today (e.g. email, Office docs, social media etc.)
5. Cloud-based software services (e.g. salesforce.com), now being called SaaS (Software as a Service)!
WISH LIST
1. Healthcare - a service that offers me online diagnoses or brings remote care to those in far greater need than me
2. Genuine online entertainment services - new & old TV shows from around the world, live sports, concerts etc.
3. Far broader use of video for customer facing functions such as sales or customer services (e.g. Blue Peter model - here's one I made earlier, just follow my instructions)
What are you using it for? What would you like to use it for?
Please drop some comments to this post - I am interested to see what is driving our interest for genuinely high speed connections. Be as specific or general as you like.
Here's my list as a starting point (in no particular order):
1. Home working
2. Home entertainment (interactive TV, PPV sports events, PPV concerts, gaming etc.)
3. Learning (so much better to see what you want to learn about rather than have to read it!)
4. Communications - integration of voice, video & data with the most common tools I use today (e.g. email, Office docs, social media etc.)
5. Cloud-based software services (e.g. salesforce.com), now being called SaaS (Software as a Service)!
WISH LIST
1. Healthcare - a service that offers me online diagnoses or brings remote care to those in far greater need than me
2. Genuine online entertainment services - new & old TV shows from around the world, live sports, concerts etc.
3. Far broader use of video for customer facing functions such as sales or customer services (e.g. Blue Peter model - here's one I made earlier, just follow my instructions)
More About ADSL2+
Since I posted about ADSL2+ a couple of weeks ago it came to my attention that the exchange I am connected to is due an upgrade before the end of this year. I had mixed emotions on that one: on the one hand at least BT are spending some small amount on this exchange on the other it does rather diminish the impact of selling a community broadband project to the community.
So I looked into it a little more closely. On the surface of it ADSL2+ allows a downstream throughput of up to 24MBit/s and upstream up to 2MBit/s - or about 3 times better than ADSL, at least for the headline rates. Then I found this graph:
What stands out from this is the very steep degradation over distance and the fact that if your loop length (distance from the exchange) is more than about 3,000 feet then this 'new' technology will bring virtually no improvement to your speed. So, yes I will be connected to an exchange that will deliver 'up to' 24MBit/s and will therefore be part of the statistics that show what broad coverage we have in the UK and yet I will be no better off than the (sometimes) 2MBit/s I get today.
In USC terms (the Universal Service Commitment of 2Mbit/s to every household in the UK) I guess my house will be ticked off the list although most days I don't even get close to 2M.
Still, those emotions are unmixed now! My sales pitch has been given another boost!
So I looked into it a little more closely. On the surface of it ADSL2+ allows a downstream throughput of up to 24MBit/s and upstream up to 2MBit/s - or about 3 times better than ADSL, at least for the headline rates. Then I found this graph:
What stands out from this is the very steep degradation over distance and the fact that if your loop length (distance from the exchange) is more than about 3,000 feet then this 'new' technology will bring virtually no improvement to your speed. So, yes I will be connected to an exchange that will deliver 'up to' 24MBit/s and will therefore be part of the statistics that show what broad coverage we have in the UK and yet I will be no better off than the (sometimes) 2MBit/s I get today.
In USC terms (the Universal Service Commitment of 2Mbit/s to every household in the UK) I guess my house will be ticked off the list although most days I don't even get close to 2M.
Still, those emotions are unmixed now! My sales pitch has been given another boost!
Friday 9 October 2009
Lane End Community Broadband
LECB is my project to bring high speed broadband services to Lane End - a rural community in Buckinghamshire, near High Wycombe.
The project is in its very early stages, indeed you may remember a post I wrote a few weeks ago about community engagement. Well, we are taking the next steps...
On October 22nd we will hold our first meeting. The intention is to hold an open discussion on high speed broadband to help educate people as to the benefits high speed broadband can bring to them, their families and the community. Of course, ultimately I am hoping to convince them that they should help support this project or even get involved with it.
The meeting is primarily for the community, however I am also streaming it (technology and local broadband permitting) and would be delighted to see others join remotely and perhaps learn a little more about this project and may be even get some ideas about how they could do something similar in their area.
Details of the event can be found here: http://nga-uk.com/page6/page6.html
By all means, spread the word!
The project is in its very early stages, indeed you may remember a post I wrote a few weeks ago about community engagement. Well, we are taking the next steps...
On October 22nd we will hold our first meeting. The intention is to hold an open discussion on high speed broadband to help educate people as to the benefits high speed broadband can bring to them, their families and the community. Of course, ultimately I am hoping to convince them that they should help support this project or even get involved with it.
The meeting is primarily for the community, however I am also streaming it (technology and local broadband permitting) and would be delighted to see others join remotely and perhaps learn a little more about this project and may be even get some ideas about how they could do something similar in their area.
Details of the event can be found here: http://nga-uk.com/page6/page6.html
By all means, spread the word!
Wednesday 7 October 2009
Will FTTH (Football to the Home) be the death of Copper?
So, this weekend in the UK our broadband lives are to be enhanced with FTTH!
No, sorry, not Fibre to the Home but Football to the Home.
For an increasing fee (the closer we get to kick off the more the subscription will be) you will have the opportunity to watch a somewhat pixelated version of the now meaningless World Cup qualifier between England v Croatia.
There is a lot of debate as to how our broadband infrastructure will cope with this so I thought I might take the opportunity to add to that. As far as I can tell there are three possible outcomes:
1. Everything works just fine. People will quickly realise that paying between £5 and £12 for a low quality version of a meaningless match is ridiculous so virtually no one will watch therefore our broadband lines will cope just fine (that is for those who have a 2MB service - those who don't should probably not even try to watch!). The net result being it will be heralded as a great success by those in ignorance and we will be no closer to a broadband infrastructure for the future.
2. Works fine on urban exchanges that offer ADSL2 or ADSL2+ but rural areas who have the paltry "up to" 8MB service have quality issues that mean watching becomes a pain rather than a pleasure. The net result being a maintenance of the status quo in which the digital divide is no closer to being bridged.
3. Everything comes crashing down around our ears. So many people try to stream the match that exchanges cannot cope, DSLAMs burnout and the whole thing is shown to be a huge farce (our broadband rather than the England football team, for once!). People finally see that improvement must be made if we are to enjoy our expanding possible uses of the Net and demand that high speed broadband is made a reality.
Sadly, while I'm praying for #3, #1 is the most likely so don't get your hopes up too high that changes are afoot.
But do try to remember that Internet delivery of high profile events (Pay per View events) will become the norm. It is technically very feasible today. In fact it is technically very feasible to deliver this in high definition - other than that first mile connection. As long as we remain on copper we remain constrained and unable to improve.
You know the answer!
No, sorry, not Fibre to the Home but Football to the Home.
For an increasing fee (the closer we get to kick off the more the subscription will be) you will have the opportunity to watch a somewhat pixelated version of the now meaningless World Cup qualifier between England v Croatia.
There is a lot of debate as to how our broadband infrastructure will cope with this so I thought I might take the opportunity to add to that. As far as I can tell there are three possible outcomes:
1. Everything works just fine. People will quickly realise that paying between £5 and £12 for a low quality version of a meaningless match is ridiculous so virtually no one will watch therefore our broadband lines will cope just fine (that is for those who have a 2MB service - those who don't should probably not even try to watch!). The net result being it will be heralded as a great success by those in ignorance and we will be no closer to a broadband infrastructure for the future.
2. Works fine on urban exchanges that offer ADSL2 or ADSL2+ but rural areas who have the paltry "up to" 8MB service have quality issues that mean watching becomes a pain rather than a pleasure. The net result being a maintenance of the status quo in which the digital divide is no closer to being bridged.
3. Everything comes crashing down around our ears. So many people try to stream the match that exchanges cannot cope, DSLAMs burnout and the whole thing is shown to be a huge farce (our broadband rather than the England football team, for once!). People finally see that improvement must be made if we are to enjoy our expanding possible uses of the Net and demand that high speed broadband is made a reality.
Sadly, while I'm praying for #3, #1 is the most likely so don't get your hopes up too high that changes are afoot.
But do try to remember that Internet delivery of high profile events (Pay per View events) will become the norm. It is technically very feasible today. In fact it is technically very feasible to deliver this in high definition - other than that first mile connection. As long as we remain on copper we remain constrained and unable to improve.
You know the answer!
Wednesday 23 September 2009
ADSL2+ : A Better BET?
So, more exciting news from BT - http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/sep/23/bt-doubles-fast-broadband-network Yes, that's right within 2 years 75% of the country will have a whopping 25Meg available to it!
No, no... put the cork back in... it's not something to celebrate. Why? Well, take all of that vitriol you have thrown at the recent BET announcement and apply it again to this. ADSL2+ is a similar investment in that old, Victorian copper plant. It's not new, it's not exciting. It's faster, sure, but in much the same way that a Skoda is faster than a horse - you still wouldn't want anyone to see you arriving at work in either, would you?
Let's be honest, BT cannot do the country. Ignore that 75% number: they will fail to deliver a genuine broadband service (by which I mean 100Meg symmetrical) to 99% of us. They will fail to deliver an adequate broadband service (40Meg up, 10Meg down such as their FTTC offerings) to 60% of us. If you are part of that 60% and would like to know how to get your community involved in building a true broadband future then let me know. Help is available!
No, no... put the cork back in... it's not something to celebrate. Why? Well, take all of that vitriol you have thrown at the recent BET announcement and apply it again to this. ADSL2+ is a similar investment in that old, Victorian copper plant. It's not new, it's not exciting. It's faster, sure, but in much the same way that a Skoda is faster than a horse - you still wouldn't want anyone to see you arriving at work in either, would you?
Let's be honest, BT cannot do the country. Ignore that 75% number: they will fail to deliver a genuine broadband service (by which I mean 100Meg symmetrical) to 99% of us. They will fail to deliver an adequate broadband service (40Meg up, 10Meg down such as their FTTC offerings) to 60% of us. If you are part of that 60% and would like to know how to get your community involved in building a true broadband future then let me know. Help is available!
£6 Tax To Go Ahead?
http://spedr.com/2a742
So, the news reaches us this morning that Mr. Timms is planning to present the £6 phone levy the the House of Commons in a finance bill following the end of Party Conference silly season. If it is ratified then we should be able to access it in 2010.
Great! Really... great!
Why? Well, because I want to take advantage of it. I want to apply for funding for my community broadband project and hope that I will be eligible for access to this fund (assuming BT don't get it all for the PR disaster that is BET!).
Perhaps this is the reason so many are against the 'tax'. When we pay a tax we want to see a return from it - that's why we are generally OK with our income tax and council tax and even VAT and why there is opposition to things like the stamp duty (what is that for anyway???). There will be a great many who will pay this levy but will not see a direct return on it - for example those who live in rural areas that will not benefit from the network upgrades from BT, Virgin or others.
So, if you are in that position should you oppose the bill? Should you lobby your MP and demand that it is not passed? Of course - if that is what you feel motivated to do but before you put furious pen to paper ask yourself one question - "Is there any way I could benefit from this tax?"
I would argue that the answer to that question is invariably "yes" but that also demands you take action - this time with far more positive results.
So, the news reaches us this morning that Mr. Timms is planning to present the £6 phone levy the the House of Commons in a finance bill following the end of Party Conference silly season. If it is ratified then we should be able to access it in 2010.
Great! Really... great!
Why? Well, because I want to take advantage of it. I want to apply for funding for my community broadband project and hope that I will be eligible for access to this fund (assuming BT don't get it all for the PR disaster that is BET!).
Perhaps this is the reason so many are against the 'tax'. When we pay a tax we want to see a return from it - that's why we are generally OK with our income tax and council tax and even VAT and why there is opposition to things like the stamp duty (what is that for anyway???). There will be a great many who will pay this levy but will not see a direct return on it - for example those who live in rural areas that will not benefit from the network upgrades from BT, Virgin or others.
So, if you are in that position should you oppose the bill? Should you lobby your MP and demand that it is not passed? Of course - if that is what you feel motivated to do but before you put furious pen to paper ask yourself one question - "Is there any way I could benefit from this tax?"
I would argue that the answer to that question is invariably "yes" but that also demands you take action - this time with far more positive results.
Wednesday 16 September 2009
How the Mighty Have Fallen
Is that the bell tolling for BT? Have we reached a point from which they can no longer recover?
Here is some background reading for you (you may well already have come across this in the past couple of days):
1. Ofcom deregulate's UK's retail telecom market (thereby allowing BT to provide bundled services): http://telecomengine.com/article.asp?HH_ID=AR_5653
2. BT Announces BET (extending the reach of DSL to about 12km): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8256678.stm
3. Benoit Felten's (Yankee Group Analyst) Blog on the changing role of the 'telco': http://www.fiberevolution.com/2009/09/the-role-of-telcos.html
The quote I will pick out from the first article is that "BT was judged [by Ofcom] to no longer have 'significant market power' in the majority of retail landline markets in the UK". So here we have a former monopoly who has large liabilities on its balance sheet (e.g. pension deficit) and is having to use advances on dated technology (BET) to squeeze even more cash out of its copper plant in a desperate move to win back some of the market power.
So, what of BET? On the one hand you have to say "Oh come on! Another update to the copper plant when all we want is fibre!" but to be honest if you put yourselves in the position of those in the broadband notspots perhaps something is better than nothing and given this technology is readily deployable (following the trials) it is at least progress. Sadly I fear it will mean BT will consider that box ticked and will once again forget about the former notspots who will then be stuck with a sub-standard 1MB connection.
But what now for BT? Well I have to say I am in total agreement with Benoit. Telcos must reinvent themselves and quickly. Both residential and business services are moving into the cloud (by which I mean they will be delivered from beyond your immediate vicinity) and the key requirement to use those services is a high speed pipe.
BT, you still have a role to play in building Digital Britain, just not the role you play today. Move fast or move over.
Here is some background reading for you (you may well already have come across this in the past couple of days):
1. Ofcom deregulate's UK's retail telecom market (thereby allowing BT to provide bundled services): http://telecomengine.com/article.asp?HH_ID=AR_5653
2. BT Announces BET (extending the reach of DSL to about 12km): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8256678.stm
3. Benoit Felten's (Yankee Group Analyst) Blog on the changing role of the 'telco': http://www.fiberevolution.com/2009/09/the-role-of-telcos.html
The quote I will pick out from the first article is that "BT was judged [by Ofcom] to no longer have 'significant market power' in the majority of retail landline markets in the UK". So here we have a former monopoly who has large liabilities on its balance sheet (e.g. pension deficit) and is having to use advances on dated technology (BET) to squeeze even more cash out of its copper plant in a desperate move to win back some of the market power.
So, what of BET? On the one hand you have to say "Oh come on! Another update to the copper plant when all we want is fibre!" but to be honest if you put yourselves in the position of those in the broadband notspots perhaps something is better than nothing and given this technology is readily deployable (following the trials) it is at least progress. Sadly I fear it will mean BT will consider that box ticked and will once again forget about the former notspots who will then be stuck with a sub-standard 1MB connection.
But what now for BT? Well I have to say I am in total agreement with Benoit. Telcos must reinvent themselves and quickly. Both residential and business services are moving into the cloud (by which I mean they will be delivered from beyond your immediate vicinity) and the key requirement to use those services is a high speed pipe.
BT, you still have a role to play in building Digital Britain, just not the role you play today. Move fast or move over.
Thursday 10 September 2009
Musicians hit out at Gov plans for file sharers #digitalbritain
One of the more significant factors driving traffic growth on the Internet today is file sharing. I've done it myself, although not to a great extent and I know of many others who also use it. That said I could not quite make up my mind about this whole file sharing debate until I read this article. Yes I thought the measures proposed were utterly draconian but I could not make up my mind whether something should be done.
You see I felt that through file sharing the musicians were losing out. I didn't care so much about the record companies but did not want those who are actually making the music to suffer as a result of our actions. Turns out I was wrong! Naturally I had never actually spoken to a musician to get their feedback so I am grateful to The Times for bridging that gap of ignorance for me!
If the artists themselves support file sharing, indeed encourage it (see the quote from Ed O'Brien) then the Government has no right to stop it.
Wednesday 9 September 2009
Ignore the League Tables
Over the last two days I have seen a number of articles & blogs about the new league table for FTTH published by the FTTH Council Europe. The articles from the FTTH Council is here: http://www.ftthcouncil.eu/documents/press_release/PR_EU_rankings_Final.pdf
Here are some examples of the reactions:
http://spedr.com/3b02g
http://spedr.com/2chsa
http://spedr.com/15euv
Now... some perspective please folks. Firstly these rankings are presented in terms of penetration - in other words the number of houses who have FTTH as a proportion of the total households in the country. A league table on this basis is very misleading - no disrespect to Andorra or Iceland but in real terms they have connected less households than in France, just more in percentage terms.
Next to the view that FTTH has somehow survived the economic downturn. Really? So why were so many projects put on hold in 2009? Why have none of the major European economies entered this league table? Where are the major FTTH projects - I mean the ones that will move us from <10% penetration to >25% penetration?
For the purposes of balance let's compare the 2008 results with 2009, taken from the FTTH Council's announcement:
Really all this shows is a couple of new projects in Andorra, Lithuania and Latvia and the others connecting a few more households to their existing networks. For me it highlights the problem throughout Europe that we are just not thinking progressively enough in our efforts to deliver Next Generation Access.
But now to my favorite post: http://spedr.com/4bnim from the Digital Britain team.
I'm not sure what the thought process was behind this post. "Show them we still care"? "We're bad but not as bad as they all think"? "Get your excuses in early before it gets worse"? Possibly all of the above!
I will agree on one point, however - I also dislike the 'Korea syndrome'. It is totally irrelevant to compare any European country to either South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong or Singapore. Both Japan and Korea have built FTTB networks (to the Building) as most people live in cities in high-rise tower blocks and that was the easiest way to deliver any broadband service to them, regardless of speed. As a point of comparison read this annecdote from Benoit Felten (@fiberguy) on this subject: http://spedr.com/2mkg1 Their competitive landscape was built on providers trying to outdo each other on the headline speed which just resulted in a commoditisation of the network way earlier than it should have done. They are not in such a comfortable position either as they desperately try to recoup their investments.
But, it really is time to stop the excuses and start to put the momentum behind Digital Britain. I want to read about how & where projects are starting; how the DB team is enabling them; how we can apply for grants to support our efforts. Lame excuses are a waste of time for all concerned.
Here are some examples of the reactions:
http://spedr.com/3b02g
http://spedr.com/2chsa
http://spedr.com/15euv
Now... some perspective please folks. Firstly these rankings are presented in terms of penetration - in other words the number of houses who have FTTH as a proportion of the total households in the country. A league table on this basis is very misleading - no disrespect to Andorra or Iceland but in real terms they have connected less households than in France, just more in percentage terms.
Next to the view that FTTH has somehow survived the economic downturn. Really? So why were so many projects put on hold in 2009? Why have none of the major European economies entered this league table? Where are the major FTTH projects - I mean the ones that will move us from <10% penetration to >25% penetration?
For the purposes of balance let's compare the 2008 results with 2009, taken from the FTTH Council's announcement:
Really all this shows is a couple of new projects in Andorra, Lithuania and Latvia and the others connecting a few more households to their existing networks. For me it highlights the problem throughout Europe that we are just not thinking progressively enough in our efforts to deliver Next Generation Access.
But now to my favorite post: http://spedr.com/4bnim from the Digital Britain team.
I'm not sure what the thought process was behind this post. "Show them we still care"? "We're bad but not as bad as they all think"? "Get your excuses in early before it gets worse"? Possibly all of the above!
I will agree on one point, however - I also dislike the 'Korea syndrome'. It is totally irrelevant to compare any European country to either South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong or Singapore. Both Japan and Korea have built FTTB networks (to the Building) as most people live in cities in high-rise tower blocks and that was the easiest way to deliver any broadband service to them, regardless of speed. As a point of comparison read this annecdote from Benoit Felten (@fiberguy) on this subject: http://spedr.com/2mkg1 Their competitive landscape was built on providers trying to outdo each other on the headline speed which just resulted in a commoditisation of the network way earlier than it should have done. They are not in such a comfortable position either as they desperately try to recoup their investments.
But, it really is time to stop the excuses and start to put the momentum behind Digital Britain. I want to read about how & where projects are starting; how the DB team is enabling them; how we can apply for grants to support our efforts. Lame excuses are a waste of time for all concerned.
Tuesday 8 September 2009
JFDI - Engaging the Community
Since my return from Hull I have thrown a little more time & effort into my own JFDI project here in rural Buckinghamshire. I have started to do what I had always believed would be the most tricky part of the initial work - engaging the community. You see while I say rural, I actually live in a community that represents 5 separate villages with some 3,800 residents. Now I know my neighbours well enough but I was very uncertain as to how to actually get the word out to the broad community.
So, I started by putting together a web site - www.nga-uk.com if you are interested. This site tries to 'dumb-down' the technology and increase people's awareness of the benefits leading them to register their interest.
OK, but how to pull people in to the site? SEO will do the trick for those actually searching for a broadband solution in my area but I cannot really rely on that! So, I have put up notices in pubs (which we do seem to have more than enough of!), the post office even the local butcher asking people to visit the site. That has had some success and will, hopefully, start the word of mouth process.
But I needed to do more than that... I need to get across my own enthusiasm (which I know you will share with me) for this and to do that I need to actually speak to people. So last night I went to the Parish Council meeting. There were only a small number of people there (perhaps 40) but in the 10 minutes I spoke there were many questions and a great deal of interest expressed. The Parish Council have also committed to get involved which should drive the news even further afield. Indeed this morning I received a call from the leader of the local business association asking me to come and speak at their next meeting.
Next Monday I have a meeting with our County Council who have a concern that Bucks is not included in any of BT's expansion plans and I hope to be able to discuss a real alternative for them if we can get more communities engaged.
So, why have I posted this? Because I hope it may provide some impetus if you were thinking of a similar JFDI project in your area. It is amazing the momentum that can be gained very quickly from a few simple actions and I would encourage any reader to do the same.
If you are concerned that you just don't know enough about this area to make a difference don't let that stop you. There are many of us who can help - I met a number of people in Hull last week who would love to see these projects getting off the ground and will offer their help and support.
Of course you could always use my other website Next Generation Access if you want to learn more ;-)
Spread the word - JFDI will really make a difference!
So, I started by putting together a web site - www.nga-uk.com if you are interested. This site tries to 'dumb-down' the technology and increase people's awareness of the benefits leading them to register their interest.
OK, but how to pull people in to the site? SEO will do the trick for those actually searching for a broadband solution in my area but I cannot really rely on that! So, I have put up notices in pubs (which we do seem to have more than enough of!), the post office even the local butcher asking people to visit the site. That has had some success and will, hopefully, start the word of mouth process.
But I needed to do more than that... I need to get across my own enthusiasm (which I know you will share with me) for this and to do that I need to actually speak to people. So last night I went to the Parish Council meeting. There were only a small number of people there (perhaps 40) but in the 10 minutes I spoke there were many questions and a great deal of interest expressed. The Parish Council have also committed to get involved which should drive the news even further afield. Indeed this morning I received a call from the leader of the local business association asking me to come and speak at their next meeting.
Next Monday I have a meeting with our County Council who have a concern that Bucks is not included in any of BT's expansion plans and I hope to be able to discuss a real alternative for them if we can get more communities engaged.
So, why have I posted this? Because I hope it may provide some impetus if you were thinking of a similar JFDI project in your area. It is amazing the momentum that can be gained very quickly from a few simple actions and I would encourage any reader to do the same.
If you are concerned that you just don't know enough about this area to make a difference don't let that stop you. There are many of us who can help - I met a number of people in Hull last week who would love to see these projects getting off the ground and will offer their help and support.
Of course you could always use my other website Next Generation Access if you want to learn more ;-)
Spread the word - JFDI will really make a difference!
Thursday 3 September 2009
INCA & JON
On a more positive note from the afternoon meeting we did hear from Steve at CBN about the INCA project and the potential for JON (Joint Operating Network). INCA is taking more shape and could well be a good voice for the community networks into broader groups such as BSG & COTS. CBN are continuing their funding discussions for INCA and good luck to them on that front.
JON could be very valuable to us. National hubs that will aggregate community networks, potentially offering the backhaul service to the hub and the onward connection to the Internet and other CPs or SPs. There is a lot of benefit to be found in this model and while there is the argument that there are commercial groups out there who can already do this I would counter that JON should utilise their infrastructure while operating under its own model.
JON could be very valuable to us. National hubs that will aggregate community networks, potentially offering the backhaul service to the hub and the onward connection to the Internet and other CPs or SPs. There is a lot of benefit to be found in this model and while there is the argument that there are commercial groups out there who can already do this I would counter that JON should utilise their infrastructure while operating under its own model.
COTS 2 - The Journey North
After the pleasure of my trip to Hull today I thought it would be useful to get my thoughts down straight away.
Firstly a thank-you to Guy Jarvis and the Fibrestream team and to Lindsey Annison for pulling the day's events together and for getting us southern softies to venture above the Watford Gap!
The FTTH Colloquium was great - we had a huge diversity of people in the room from vendors to consumers to council members. In fact as was pointed out to me we had every single step of the fibre journey represented from the diamond saw to precision cut the roads through the physical ducts and fibre through the network equipment through the cloud-based services through the providers (both existing and new) through the backhaul to the consumer. Fantastic!
Unfortunately in such a short space of time and with such a wide audience we could only scratch the surface of the subject at hand but I felt, and all those I spoke to shared my opinion, that it was great to be able to speak with like minded people who share our common frustrations.
It was also suggested that I look to put together something to follow up on it in a more southerly location. I'd be more than willing to do that if there is the interest. Drop me a line and let me know. (BTW, it would not be London-based but probably Bucks or Berks somewhere and will almost certainly not happen until early 2010)
So to COTS... and let's be honest it was a downbeat meeting with little meaningful outcome for the majority of us there. My frank assertion is that for me, in my attempts to put together a community broadband network for my area, COTS holds no relevance. For two reasons: it assumes that I will want to interface to the major providers and leverage their services and it will (at least initially) not be enforced.
To the first point I am growing in the conviction that (for consumer services) there is no need to involve the existing communications providers (note I do not refer to them as service providers). Everything I want is online - whether it's gmail, iPlayer, iTunes, Twitter, Skype or just browsing I actually don't use my broadband line for anything else. So what I really want is a big fat pipe to the Internet. I'll pay for the content I want to the individual content providers.
This may change in the near future as premium content is delivered (for example HD TV) and the delivery mechanism may evolve in which case COTS will once again become relevant but here and now for us small community groups desperately trying not to get digitally excluded don't worry about it... JFDI!
Firstly a thank-you to Guy Jarvis and the Fibrestream team and to Lindsey Annison for pulling the day's events together and for getting us southern softies to venture above the Watford Gap!
The FTTH Colloquium was great - we had a huge diversity of people in the room from vendors to consumers to council members. In fact as was pointed out to me we had every single step of the fibre journey represented from the diamond saw to precision cut the roads through the physical ducts and fibre through the network equipment through the cloud-based services through the providers (both existing and new) through the backhaul to the consumer. Fantastic!
Unfortunately in such a short space of time and with such a wide audience we could only scratch the surface of the subject at hand but I felt, and all those I spoke to shared my opinion, that it was great to be able to speak with like minded people who share our common frustrations.
It was also suggested that I look to put together something to follow up on it in a more southerly location. I'd be more than willing to do that if there is the interest. Drop me a line and let me know. (BTW, it would not be London-based but probably Bucks or Berks somewhere and will almost certainly not happen until early 2010)
So to COTS... and let's be honest it was a downbeat meeting with little meaningful outcome for the majority of us there. My frank assertion is that for me, in my attempts to put together a community broadband network for my area, COTS holds no relevance. For two reasons: it assumes that I will want to interface to the major providers and leverage their services and it will (at least initially) not be enforced.
To the first point I am growing in the conviction that (for consumer services) there is no need to involve the existing communications providers (note I do not refer to them as service providers). Everything I want is online - whether it's gmail, iPlayer, iTunes, Twitter, Skype or just browsing I actually don't use my broadband line for anything else. So what I really want is a big fat pipe to the Internet. I'll pay for the content I want to the individual content providers.
This may change in the near future as premium content is delivered (for example HD TV) and the delivery mechanism may evolve in which case COTS will once again become relevant but here and now for us small community groups desperately trying not to get digitally excluded don't worry about it... JFDI!
Wednesday 2 September 2009
Feasibility Studies for #digitalbritain - or just a beauty contest?
http://spedr.com/2b2i
Do you have an idea for a service or application that could revolutionise Digital Britain? Do you need some seed capital to help investigate the potential for your idea? If so get your fingers poised and ready to write the application letter by Oct 1 for entry into the Digital Britain competition. The total 'prize fund' for the competition is £2M with up to £25k being awarded per project which must be no more than 75% of the project cost.
According to the guidance the competition winners will be well placed to "seek investment to develop their ideas" and to enter in further competitions from the Technology Strategy Board.
So, do we applaud the impetus that this may provide or decry the fact that Digital Britain has been turned into a lottery? I think both... on the one hand it is good to see that some startup money is being made available on the other perhaps it is not such a good idea to make it sound like a beauty contest. Ideas for DB should not have to compete against each other in this way but should be assessed up front on their own merits.
Do you have an idea for a service or application that could revolutionise Digital Britain? Do you need some seed capital to help investigate the potential for your idea? If so get your fingers poised and ready to write the application letter by Oct 1 for entry into the Digital Britain competition. The total 'prize fund' for the competition is £2M with up to £25k being awarded per project which must be no more than 75% of the project cost.
According to the guidance the competition winners will be well placed to "seek investment to develop their ideas" and to enter in further competitions from the Technology Strategy Board.
So, do we applaud the impetus that this may provide or decry the fact that Digital Britain has been turned into a lottery? I think both... on the one hand it is good to see that some startup money is being made available on the other perhaps it is not such a good idea to make it sound like a beauty contest. Ideas for DB should not have to compete against each other in this way but should be assessed up front on their own merits.
Friday 28 August 2009
Broadband speeds, global test. It doesn't get any better for the UK
via speedtest.net
It is worth spending a little time on this site (if you are interested) just to see how other nations are performing in the broadband stakes. However, if you are a UK resident be prepared for more bad news...
Despite Europe having the highest average download speed of the 6 inhabited continents the UK is 40th in the table with an average of 5.10 MBit/s (that is actually higher than I would have expected but must be skewed by some of the inner city rates offered by BT & Virgin). In the upload stakes the UK is 61st (just 0.68 MBit/s).
That is dismal (although the US fares little better) but when married to the news I posted last night from the Heavy Reading report (that the UK is falling further behind in the NGA stakes) should give cause for very serious concern.
If we can't do it for ourselves at least do it for the next generation who will suffer even more than us. I need say no more.
Thursday 27 August 2009
Heavy Reading predicts gloomy outlook for UK
A recent report published by Heavy Reading entitled "FTTH Review & Five Year Forecast: The Road to Next-Gen PON" does indeed make heavy reading for us UK residents.
http://spedr.com/2dkz8
The report shows significant growth in FTTH connections globally with a predicted 129.2 million FTTH connected households on 2013 compared with 35.98 million in 2008.
In the Executive Summary the report concludes that "Mass-market FTTH is inevitable". Certainly good news for those of us extolling its virtues. However don't get too comfortable... in the UK we are potentially ten years behind other countries who have embraced the Fibre Generation and could fall even further behind.
As the above chart shows the UK is forecasted to remain the LAST of the major economies
in terms of total connected households and close to the bottom in terms of percentage penetration.
Frankly this is shameful. How can one of the leading economies not keep pace with development? How can we pour money into failed industries where many of the recipients are not even UK companies (I'm thinking of the motor industry) and fail so drastically to build an infrastructure that will allow us to remain a global economy of the future.
At this rate Britain will become a second world country within the next 10 years. Are you prepared to live with that? I'm not. Many others like me are unwilling to put up with this any longer and are looking to take control of their own broadband destinies. Many of these folks will be at the FTTH Colloquium and BSG COTS meeting in Hull next week. Register to attend, or follow the event online - details at www.fibrevolution.com
Work together to build The Fibre Generation.
http://spedr.com/2dkz8
The report shows significant growth in FTTH connections globally with a predicted 129.2 million FTTH connected households on 2013 compared with 35.98 million in 2008.
In the Executive Summary the report concludes that "Mass-market FTTH is inevitable". Certainly good news for those of us extolling its virtues. However don't get too comfortable... in the UK we are potentially ten years behind other countries who have embraced the Fibre Generation and could fall even further behind.
As the above chart shows the UK is forecasted to remain the LAST of the major economies
in terms of total connected households and close to the bottom in terms of percentage penetration.
Frankly this is shameful. How can one of the leading economies not keep pace with development? How can we pour money into failed industries where many of the recipients are not even UK companies (I'm thinking of the motor industry) and fail so drastically to build an infrastructure that will allow us to remain a global economy of the future.
At this rate Britain will become a second world country within the next 10 years. Are you prepared to live with that? I'm not. Many others like me are unwilling to put up with this any longer and are looking to take control of their own broadband destinies. Many of these folks will be at the FTTH Colloquium and BSG COTS meeting in Hull next week. Register to attend, or follow the event online - details at www.fibrevolution.com
Work together to build The Fibre Generation.
Tuesday 25 August 2009
Ofcom survey shows we can't live without our Internet access
The following survey result is taken from the Ofcom front page: www.ofcom.org.uk
Ofcom asks
Which communication service could you not live without?
Internet (62.0%, 147 Votes)
Mobile phone (19.0%, 46 Votes)
Radio (15.0%, 35 Votes)
Digital TV (5.0%, 11 Votes)
Total Voters: 239
Not really a representative survey if you consider just 239 respondents all of whom had to be online to respond however perhaps this is a genuine indicator of the evolving public perception of the Internet from toy to tool, from useful to utility. This should also be something that those involved in delivering Digital Britain should take notice of.
They are alienating the public by focusing on illegal P2P file sharing. Not because we feel it should go unpunished (not all of us anyway!) but because it is getting far too much attention and focus from the powers that be who seem intent on digitally disabling a minority of transgressors some while failing to digitally enable those who really require it.
So come on Mr. Timms... let's refocus your attempts to drag this country into the new age of communications. Your first priority must be the infrastructure, after all, if that is failing, or in the worst cases does not exist at all, then the rest of your efforts are wasted. Work with us to help build the Fibre Generation!
Ofcom asks
Which communication service could you not live without?
Internet (62.0%, 147 Votes)
Mobile phone (19.0%, 46 Votes)
Radio (15.0%, 35 Votes)
Digital TV (5.0%, 11 Votes)
Total Voters: 239
Not really a representative survey if you consider just 239 respondents all of whom had to be online to respond however perhaps this is a genuine indicator of the evolving public perception of the Internet from toy to tool, from useful to utility. This should also be something that those involved in delivering Digital Britain should take notice of.
They are alienating the public by focusing on illegal P2P file sharing. Not because we feel it should go unpunished (not all of us anyway!) but because it is getting far too much attention and focus from the powers that be who seem intent on digitally disabling a minority of transgressors some while failing to digitally enable those who really require it.
So come on Mr. Timms... let's refocus your attempts to drag this country into the new age of communications. Your first priority must be the infrastructure, after all, if that is failing, or in the worst cases does not exist at all, then the rest of your efforts are wasted. Work with us to help build the Fibre Generation!
Monday 24 August 2009
Driver for #FTTH: Hulu UK launch delayed until 2010 - Telegraph
Published: 6:02PM BST 24 Aug 2009
Hulu is a US-based web-TV service, which has been focussed on entering the UK market over the last six months.Originally expected to launch by September 2009, by broadcasters and media agencies alike, the UK roll-out of the free web TV service backed by News Corp, NBC Universal and Disney, is not expected until the early part of 2010.
The Daily Telegraph understands that it is closest to signing a semi-exclusive deal with ITV, in exchange for equity in the company. However, it has yet to get any other content partners on board, despite nearly six months of discussions with BBC Worldwide, ITV and Channel 4, since the Competition Commission blocked Project Kangaroo, the three companies’ joint video-on-demand service in February 2009.
“Once ITV is on board, Hulu only needs one more UK broadcaster’s content for launch. It will probably go after a deal with BBC Worldwide, which is not signing exclusive arrangements with anyone and then secure some content from its parent companies. This will give it enough material to launch and probably take three to four months after its first deal with ITV.
“So you’re hopefully looking at a January 2010 launch,” said a source close to the US company.
Hulu, a free advertising-supported service, has also not yet rolled out its product to the major media agencies.
“We haven’t heard anything yet and we are one of the biggest groups responsible for planning and trading adverts in the digital space. To my knowledge Hulu has no presence in the marketplace or a dedicated UK sales team in place,” said Alex Randall, group trading director for Isobar, the digital arm of the Aegis group.
“It will need to present to the media agencies at least two months in advance of launch, in order to get on our clients’ schedules. Plus it may be a big success story in the US, but it’s not a working brand here and will need to sell hard,” he added.
Hulu was unavailable to comment.
via telegraph.co.uk
Shame. This is a great service and a further key driver for higher broadband speeds. I hope we will see it alongside iPlayer and others in the near future.
Tuesday 18 August 2009
Get it done quick or the world will overtake you...
I love this movie - it has a great way of putting the fear of the future into a perspective that says, "If you start running now you might just keep up".
Run Forrest, Run!!!
Run Forrest, Run!!!
Broadband Tax Dies on the Vine?
So news over the last few days that the so called Broadband Tax will be scrapped before it has even been implemented. This is the 50p per month on phones lines that would be charged as a levy to provide a stimulus to those areas who will not get adequate coverage from the new broadband offerings from the likes of BT & Virgin. More details are available here: http://bit.ly/Flvqh
Views on the tax have been divided from those utterly against paying any more tax to those wishing it could be levied on mobile phones as well to raise further funding for what is a highly costly issue. Personally I was OK with paying the tax as long as I would benefit from it. Of course, therein lies the problem. Unless I get off my ass and do something then there is litle chance for me to improve my own broadband connection or those in the community around me. There is no chance whatsoever of me seeing FTTC, let alone FTTH from either BT or Virgin, so JFDI is really my only option.
I have been exploring this for some time now and was good to go with an autumn push on the community, the councillors & the various other pieces of the machine however all of this was done on the assumption that while we would be able to raise some funding within the community as a co-operative group we would be able to tap into this broadband fund to deliver a large part of the investment needed.
But now, as the politicians worry about whether or not they will be elected in 9 months time, that option appears to have been removed. Which leaves a rather large void... OK, it may be possible to fill it within the community, it may be possible to get investment from other sources and I will certainly try these routes but the net result of this will be a further widening of the digital divide.
BT and Virgin will continue to serve the inner city areas where population densities are high enough to guarantee their return and the rural and semi-urban areas will continue to have to make do with whatever poor excuse for broadband is offered in their area.
Like the tax or not without it, or another means of capital injection, Digital Britain will fail.
Views on the tax have been divided from those utterly against paying any more tax to those wishing it could be levied on mobile phones as well to raise further funding for what is a highly costly issue. Personally I was OK with paying the tax as long as I would benefit from it. Of course, therein lies the problem. Unless I get off my ass and do something then there is litle chance for me to improve my own broadband connection or those in the community around me. There is no chance whatsoever of me seeing FTTC, let alone FTTH from either BT or Virgin, so JFDI is really my only option.
I have been exploring this for some time now and was good to go with an autumn push on the community, the councillors & the various other pieces of the machine however all of this was done on the assumption that while we would be able to raise some funding within the community as a co-operative group we would be able to tap into this broadband fund to deliver a large part of the investment needed.
But now, as the politicians worry about whether or not they will be elected in 9 months time, that option appears to have been removed. Which leaves a rather large void... OK, it may be possible to fill it within the community, it may be possible to get investment from other sources and I will certainly try these routes but the net result of this will be a further widening of the digital divide.
BT and Virgin will continue to serve the inner city areas where population densities are high enough to guarantee their return and the rural and semi-urban areas will continue to have to make do with whatever poor excuse for broadband is offered in their area.
Like the tax or not without it, or another means of capital injection, Digital Britain will fail.
Thursday 13 August 2009
Why FTTC is a step in the right direction
If you have any interest in broadband in Britain you will know that BT have announced they will deliver FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet) rather than FTTP (Fibre to the Premises which includes FTTH - Fibre to the Home). They will start this roll out in 98 exchanges around the UK in the major metropolitan areas (see here for a map of the locations). No details are available about future exchanges that will be enabled with this but it is a sure bet that it will only cover those areas with a high population density. The technology is essentially to run fibre from the exchange to the street cabinets and to upgrade these cabinets to offer VDSL (Very High Speed DSL) to the customer using the existing copper lines. In fact it is very similar to the topology used by Virgin Media to deliver their high speed services, although those are also only available in urban areas. So, what are your reactions to this? Are you happy that at least some of the country will be getting an improved broadband service (by improved I mean speed-wise, customer service is likely to be as bad as ever!)? Are you unhappy because you live in a rural area and will probably never benefit from BT's upgrades? If you live outside of these locations (or those covered by Virgin) let me tell you why you should be pissed off. You will have to pay a levy on your phone line of 50p per month to support broadband projects in the UK and at this time you are almost certainly not going to benefit from that. Paying tax is one thing because at least you get tangible benefits from it (schools, health care, police, fire etc. etc.) but paying a 'tax' and receiving no benefit is wrong. Now let me tell you why you should embrace FTTC and take advantage of the fund the levy will create. FTTC is a very useful interim step to the ultimate goal of FTTH - it will deliver much higher bandwidth (potentially 4 times although likely less as speed decreases the further you are from the cabinet) and at a fraction of the cost of FTTH. The implementation for FTTH is so costly to be almost prohibitive and the returns are over a long period of time (likely more than 15 years rather than the 3 to 5 that most investors will want to see) but FTTC can be implemented at a 1/3 to a 1/4 of the cost of FTTH while providing reusable infrastructure when the time is right to upgrade the ageing copper lines. FTTC can also be used in many rural or semi-rural areas (not all, of course but many can benefit from this). This has been proven by the work Rutland Telecom have done in Lymmington. These are also the kind of projects that the fund from the £6 levy has been set up to address and we are told by BIS (The Department for Business, Innovation & Skills who will administer the fund) that it will be available from early 2010. So if, like me, you are in a rural area that will never see the benefits of the upgrades BT are doing and will never know the speeds Virgin Media can offer, FTTC brings a very useful and cost effective way forward. There is also no reason it could not be combined with wireless technology to reach those ultra rural areas or notspots. By all means be critical of BT or Virgin Media but don't just sit and stew - there is a way forward you just need to get up & explore a little!
Saturday 8 August 2009
Either someone in Gov doesn't like Mr Timms or they don't care about #digitalbritain
Consider what we have learned: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8187884.stm
Mr. Timms will remain as financial secretary while picking up the remit for Digital Britain. Was he not busy enough trying to balance the countries books? How can one man take on such diverse and large remits? If that were not enough there will be a general election looming within the next 10 months which leads me to question how any difference can be made to Digital Britain. I am afraid that all this tells me is that the government are not serious about Digital Britain. It is not that I believe Mr. Timms is the wrong person - he appears to have a better grounding in this area than most in Whitehall, however he is not being given any opportunity to make a difference. The future of Digital Britain is in our hands. We cannot afford to rely on Government to make a difference - the digital future of this country is up to us.That said... Good Luck, Mr. Timms!
Mr. Timms will remain as financial secretary while picking up the remit for Digital Britain. Was he not busy enough trying to balance the countries books? How can one man take on such diverse and large remits? If that were not enough there will be a general election looming within the next 10 months which leads me to question how any difference can be made to Digital Britain. I am afraid that all this tells me is that the government are not serious about Digital Britain. It is not that I believe Mr. Timms is the wrong person - he appears to have a better grounding in this area than most in Whitehall, however he is not being given any opportunity to make a difference. The future of Digital Britain is in our hands. We cannot afford to rely on Government to make a difference - the digital future of this country is up to us.That said... Good Luck, Mr. Timms!
Photos: BT FTTC Cabinets
via e.gg
If you wondered what they looked like here are some pics. Not sure what the fuss is about? Me too!
New Wi-Fi Standard Promises Blazing Fast Data Speeds | Gadget Lab
via wired.com
Excellent! No more worries about a bottleneck in the home... once you have FTTH, of course.
Friday 7 August 2009
The Pressure Fibre Brings to the Internet Exchanges
So this week I have been in Frankfurt hence my relative silence. I was there to see DE-CIX (they pronounce it dee kicks) or the German Internet Exchange - one of the three largest in Europe after Amsterdam (the largest) and London. You may not be aware of these groups. They are largely invisible to the Internet consumer but without their presence your connection into the world wide web would be impossible. Essentially they are the hub through which all Internet bound traffic is routed. In the UK your ISP will have a connection to the London Internet Exchange, or LINX (https://www.linx.net/). I was chatting with the CTO and the network engineers at DE-CIX about their planning cycles and expansion plans and the impact fibre build-out will have on that. For those of you who don't know, the German telecom market differs to that of the UK in the number of large regional operators that exist - often spin outs from the utility companies who also operate in a regional manner. The BT equivalent in Germany is DT (Deutsche Telekom) and they seem to have a similar view to FTTH as BT. In other words nice to have, too expensive to justify but let's start with FTTC to a few carefully selected cabinets. Meanwhile there are some of the other operators in Germany (such as Net Cologne, Hansenet or Wilhelmtel) who are taking a more proactive stance and are rolling out FTTH services in their local urban areas. All of which, of course, will have a massive impact on DE-CIX. Today they offer ISPs two basic services (or pipes if you prefer) - 1 Gig or 10Gig. The 1Gig is more popular although they can see demand starting to ramp up for 10G pretty quickly. At the moment traffic growth is linear rather than exponential, which is good for them and makes capacity planning a little easier but it is expected to change as FTTH roll out gathers pace. At that point demand could easily outstrip capacity. Not because of any technical reason, after all 100Gig ports are quickly becoming available on network equipment and DWDM (or dense wave division multiplexing - essentially using individual wavelengths in a light beam to carry separate data streams thereby vastly increasing the capacity of an individual fibre) gives them virtually unlimited capacity upstream. Not because of any reluctance to do so, after all high speed services come with a higher tariff and resulting in higher revenues. The issue is twofold - firstly it is virtually impossible to predict the demand and therefore the requirements within their networks and secondly because upgrading their networks is not a trivial task. It takes a lot of time to test, certify and implement new technology in these networks and all of this must be done with no impact to their existing customers. In addition they have strict operational procedures (for example to upgrade a customer from a 1G service to a 10G service) and new technology means new procedures all of which adds to the time to implement. The challenges faced by DE-CIX are very similar to other operators as well in terms of capacity planning (remember the Internet exchange is a fairly basic service when compared with the vast array of voice and data services offered by many) and it is worth remembering that there are many companies involved in the transit of your Internet requests all of whom are battling to keep their heads above the rising bandwidth tide as we demand and consume ever higher bandwidth in the access networks. I'm not telling you this to generate sympathy for these groups - after all what business would not want to have such high demand for its products? I am saying we should accelerate the demand, increase the pressure! NGA must continue at pace, in fact it must accelerate! Remember NGN (Next Generation Networks) has been around for more than 10 years whereby operators are upgrading their core networks to cope with the massive surge in data traffic. We are told that the NGN brings virtually unlimited bandwidth (actually limited by the equipment on either end of the fibre and technology to deliver ever higher port speeds or wavelength capacities moves at a great pace) so let's do everything we can to fill those pipes. Let's be more creative with methods to deliver NGA. FTTH is the end-game without any doubt but let's look at more cost-effective ways we can utilise to stage our development towards the end-game. Also, and perhaps most importantly, let's not let bureaucracy stand in our way (something I am currently facing!). Let's work to educate everyone to the benefits of NGA, let's ensure politicians understand how it will help them to help us and also how they can help remove the barriers that make it so difficult (for example property tax on fibre). Let's work together to build The Fibre Generation!
Friday 31 July 2009
Business rates stifle investment in broadband infrastructure | 31 Jul 2009
Check out this website I found at computerweekly.com
The article deals largely with fibre build out in core networks, however the rateable value of fibre is even more important in NGA. Many more operators than are named here are hoping to build significant fibre infrastructure and cannot afford to be crippled by the VOA.
One point is clear - this is a political issue and one that you can help with. Raise it with your politican, ask them to include it in the manifesto for the next election.
Is it time to reinvent the wheel?
The wheel in this case being the global financial markets. It has been reported today by the IMF that (so far) governments have spent more than $10 trillion on bailing out the financial sector during the current financial crisis. To put that into figures that is $10,000,000,000,000!This begs so many questions but the two that keep nagging at me are:
1. What would have happened if government had not provided this massive capital injection?
2. Could that money have been better spent elsewhere?So, to the first question - I'm no expert on financial markets but I wonder what would happen if we started again. Wiped the slate clean (so to speak, clearly it is far from that simple) and put in place a new system based on open market principles and full transparency. Clearly it could not happen overnight but there must be a way to put in place a phased plan (over 10 years or more) that could remove the curse of the financial markets.But to the second question (you know where this is going!) - could the money be better spent. Obviously every industry sector would wish for some financial input but, recognising the principles of an open market whereby businesses should succeed or fail on their own merits, clearly few should feel entitled to any. Within each of those sectors and companies there are key principles and utilities upon which they all rely. Without these things their business could simply not be done - things like provision of water, electricity a transport infrastructure and, increasingly so, telecommunications, the Internet and broadband.If we consider what areas could bring tangible benefit to the world as we move beyond our generations towards the next century perhaps there are two that stand out: a high speed communications infrastructure and widespread use of green technologies. There is also one solution that plays in both of these areas - fibre. It brings unlimited bandwidth to allow use to really innovate with our communications and it requires significantly less power to operate thereby meeting the green targets as well.So I'm spending my Friday morning hypothesising about areas which are unlikely to change but may be it is at least some good food for thought!
1. What would have happened if government had not provided this massive capital injection?
2. Could that money have been better spent elsewhere?So, to the first question - I'm no expert on financial markets but I wonder what would happen if we started again. Wiped the slate clean (so to speak, clearly it is far from that simple) and put in place a new system based on open market principles and full transparency. Clearly it could not happen overnight but there must be a way to put in place a phased plan (over 10 years or more) that could remove the curse of the financial markets.But to the second question (you know where this is going!) - could the money be better spent. Obviously every industry sector would wish for some financial input but, recognising the principles of an open market whereby businesses should succeed or fail on their own merits, clearly few should feel entitled to any. Within each of those sectors and companies there are key principles and utilities upon which they all rely. Without these things their business could simply not be done - things like provision of water, electricity a transport infrastructure and, increasingly so, telecommunications, the Internet and broadband.If we consider what areas could bring tangible benefit to the world as we move beyond our generations towards the next century perhaps there are two that stand out: a high speed communications infrastructure and widespread use of green technologies. There is also one solution that plays in both of these areas - fibre. It brings unlimited bandwidth to allow use to really innovate with our communications and it requires significantly less power to operate thereby meeting the green targets as well.So I'm spending my Friday morning hypothesising about areas which are unlikely to change but may be it is at least some good food for thought!
Wednesday 29 July 2009
Samknows adds clarity to Ofcom report on BB speeds
http://spedr.com/17d4pWell worth a read if you are up in arms about the broadband service you are on. Thank you to Samknows for adding some clarity to what has become an emotional response. Does that make the situation any better - no! We are still dramatically underserved by our current broadband infrastructure and undersold by our ISPs who choose to hide behind technicalities of 'up to' and 'rate-adaptive' rather than delivering a guaranteed service. Build The Fibre Generation! Act Now! It Won't Build Itself!
Thoughts from the BSG COTS meeting (#cots)
So this is what happens when you get so many different people from different companies with different perspectives into the same room!Essentially the meeting today was to kick off discussions around the COTS Project (that's Commercial, Operational and Technical Standards) for Independent Local Access Networks. In other words how to ensure all these disparate groups work to common standards to interact with the major players and others wanting involvement. A complex area in itself often highjacked by other areas of discussion, such as funding for NGA, which are no less important but not what the meeting was for. We heard from a number of 'stakeholders' from the BSG and BIS (The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills or DTI as we used to know them), to Ofcom promoting their work on ALA (Active Line Access see here for more detail), to INCA (Independent Networks Co-operative Association) and their initial work on the JON concept (Joined Up Network), to IFNL describing their requirements for their ongoing FTTH project and finally a seasoned UK telecom professional reflecting that we have done all this before and can reuse what has already been achieved (not IMO but that doesn't mean we can't at least learn from it). All very interesting, if disparate points of view but perhaps this is also the major challenge we face - not just for the COTS discussion, but for any consensus on NGA in general: there are just too damn many stakeholders! Everyone from the farmers on the Dales to the network architects in existing operators to the civil servants in Ofcom has their point of view and there is not a chance that they are all going to agree very often. Perhaps we need to consider the challenges separately with a body that can join up the thinking (the BSG?). Take those groups who wish to cover the 2/3 of the addressable markets in urban areas on the one hand and then the final 1/3 on the other. Two very disparate groups who don't like to talk together but can both provide very useful input into these processes. Anyway, what was the net result of our 3 hours in London today? Errr... hold on, we must have achieved something... no, nothing that springs to mind. Bugger. Well, we didn't disagree with the BSG statement on COTS, although feedback is due to them so perhaps that will change and there will be a steering committee formed to which we are all invited. At some point. Perhaps in September. Let's be positive, there is a lot of interest in this area and a lot of desire to put in place a framework that will make the NGA patchwork quilt work. There is even a desire to do it now given the projects already ongoing. There were in excess of 60 people attending the meeting in London today, all of whom wish to see a common framework for content providers, ISPs, large operators, municipal networks and community networks to interact. Fantastic! Now let's be pragmatic. There was no vocal representation from any of the large operators other than Sky, who were clearly delighted to be the largest group prepared to admit their presence. This is an area the group (I will not put undue pressure on BSG here as the facilitator, although they must take heed) must focus on. Without direct and meaningful input from BT, Virgin Media, C&W, KCom et al. the work that will be achieved will be meaningless. Frameworks are only as strong as the parties who sign up to them, therefore this must be entirely inclusive. There also seems to be an inherent distrust of work taking place outside of that sphere. The 'not invented here' syndrome. From where I sit (and I will gladly admit I do not have an all encompassing view) the work that INCA have started and their JON concept is pretty much what is needed but there did not seem to be a desire to put the weight of the BSG behind it. Perhaps this will come once the initial posturing has finished, we can but hope. BSG think we can put all of this in place in 9 to 12 months. It's going to take some strong leadership to achieve that!
Tuesday 28 July 2009
Can you feel the Uprising Coming?
via ofcom.org.uk
Ofcom reveals UK’s real broadband speeds
Oh dear. So Sam Knows has published data to reveal what we already knew, although perhaps not just how bad the situation is. Let's put these statistics in another way (after all that is the beauty of statistics, anyone can use them to suit their own purpose): we are paying for a service at a headline rate of 8M and in the majority of cases (Virgin Media excepted) are struggling to get 50% of that. Frankly that is a disgrace and is further evidence that our copper infrastructure cannot possibly deliver the requirements of NGA.
So what is the solution. Well, accepting that FTTH is not just around the corner (as that is the only viable long term solution), we need to put pressure on both our ISPs and Ofcom to bring clarity to this mess. Firstly we must only pay for the speed we get. That in itself is a tricky area given the variances in speed according to the distance from the exchange and the amount of other traffic sharing your connection however it is not insurmountable. Sell the broadband package based on a guaranteed speed (which by definition will be the minimum speed available). For example I connect to an exchange that claims 'Up To' 8M. Given the distance I live from it BT suggest I will only get 'Up To' 5M. In reality I rarely get more than 2M and in the evenings it can dip well below that. So I want to pay for a 1M guaranteed service. If the service levels fall below that level then I will not pay for that period. My neighbours who live closer to the exchange can pay for a 2M service (prehaps a slight premium over mine) should they wish, but the point is it is guaranteed.
In addition Ofcom should step in and change the way broadband services are marketed. We live in a world of spin, or bullshit if you prefer to call a spade a spade, and are fed up with it. We want to know what we are getting for our money. Food producers have to describe exactly what we get in their packages, so should ISPs. Send your demands to #askofcom to make your voice heard.
And yes, the ISPs will battle against it because it means they will have to be more in control of their networks and more responsible for the services they deliver. It will also bring much more pressure to bear on Openreach as they are the ultimate 'owner' and maintainer of the copper infrastructure.
Friday 24 July 2009
The Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG) Site - BSG: COTS Project kick-off
Check out this website I found at broadbanduk.org
I have confirmed my attendance at this event. If anyone is unable to attend but would like to have their voice heard please let me know, I am more than happy to input as much as possible!
Rutland Telecom - Lyddington Next Generation Broadband project
If you put your mind to it anything can be achieved.
A fantastic example of a community project to deliver high-speed broadband services. Also an innovative solution through deploying their own street-side cabinet and utilising the existing copper infrastructure. And all this within a year of the initial meeting. Congratulations to Rutland Telecom!
BT FTTC: Is that it?
An apology first of all: late last night I sent out a tweet on this story from thinkbroadband http://bit.ly/13rzkA . I said it was a disappointing result and received a response from @thinkbroadband saying "I don't think FTTC installs are disappointing - It would be nice to have more of a push for FTTH of course as well.."
That's right. FTTC is to be applauded for while it is not FTTH (and I'll never get it) it is an improvement. So, lesson learned: if you cannot say what you want in 140 characters then best not to say it.
That's right. FTTC is to be applauded for while it is not FTTH (and I'll never get it) it is an improvement. So, lesson learned: if you cannot say what you want in 140 characters then best not to say it.
But... my disappointment stemmed from the speeds that are mentioned. I am sure the 40M download will grab the attention but the 1.7M upload is poor. Yes it should get better in the future but isn't it likely to get worse first? Remember this is the first customer to be connected to that cabinet, so no one else is contending for the upstream bandwidth. What happens when 100 customers are all online at the same time (both upstream and downstream)?
You may counter by telling me this is an 'engineering install' and therefore not indicative of the final product. Again, agreed but if so don't promote it until it has passed the initial trials and the headline speeds are closer to what we might expect.
Thursday 23 July 2009
Lightwave - FTTH deployments to grow more than 32% in 2009
Check out this website I found at lw.pennnet.com
But the UK still does not feature.... how long are we going to let this continue?
Wednesday 22 July 2009
Fibre to the home UK - Fibrevolution: Proposal to solve the property tax issue
Check out this website I found at 5tth.blogspot.com
Another excellent view on the taxation issues for fibre deployment. And a potentially good solution - tax the closed networks no tax for Open Access. Take that Virgin & BT!
BBC NEWS | Technology | Learning to live without the net
via news.bbc.co.uk
Some may empathise with this particularly those in the notspots. I think a key point is that you structure your day (even your life) around what is available to you, or at least what should be available. It is when you are let down due to technical failings (3G won't connect, WiFi not available etc.) that you are most affected.
De-Rating Fibre
http://bit.ly/GcAhm
Another aspect of Digital Britain that needs to be considered is the de-rating of fibre (i.e. not making businesses pay rates on their fibre assets). This is a good post presenting the reasons to do this.
BSG COTS Meeting
http://bit.ly/mrQPq
If you have an interest in the future broadband infrastructure of the UK this will be a good event to attend. There will also be a live feed & Twitter feed set up, details to follow.
Tuesday 21 July 2009
Drastic Policy Changes are Needed to Reverse National Debt
http://bit.ly/Zcw8T
Frightening isn't it? You can also read here: http://bit.ly/XQLWp that the tax income is drastically short greatly diminishing any hopes of being able to cut borrowing and reduce the national debt.
But how does this relate to NGA UK? Well, let's consider another position the government is taking on digital inclusion - start at the bottom. Get those 6 million people online who are either too poor to afford it or too old to care about it. Why? Apparantly because being online is now a right rather than a luxury and while I cannot argue with that, I can argue with their starting point given the other issues the country faces.
Are these 6 million digitally excluded the ones to drive innovation, to change the shape of our futures, to build new businesses, shape economies and change the future of this country?
No.
In no way, shape or form are they the group upon which we can rely to get the country out of this hole - similar indeed to the group that got us into the hole. But there are others out there, others who may not benefit from broadband access today, others who, given the opportunity and the tools, could shape the future. Innovation happens at a faster pace today than we have ever seen - why? Because of things like Moore's law and the exponential growth in the use of the Internet and broadband. And now we are going to choke our ability to keep up with these phenomena because our communications infrastructure is old and dying with little thought given as to how we can replace it. Put the tools in the hands of those who know how to use them and we can make this country great again.
Include those who can make a difference first. Perhaps even be innovative enough to deliver an infrastrucure that can serve both ends of the spectrum: http://bit.ly/2OcGl
Either way... Act Now!
Driving Digital Inclusion
http://bit.ly/RMs6c This is perhaps the best idea for digital inclusion I have come across so far.
It is an excellent idea and one that is worth following closely. It will be very interesting to see both how the offer of 'free' basic broadband services drives digital inclusion (remember just having access to broadband doesn't imply inclusion... usage of that service is inclusion) and how the higher speed services are taken. There must be a fear that everyone will take the free package so I would suggest that the higher speed packages should have some service bundles as well in order to drive uptake and therefore revenue.
This is also a concept we should think about for the UK. If it is the aim of the government to drive digital inclusion for all and to start that initiative at the poorer end of society then let's do so with projects that do not exclude others who want involvement. After all we have to consider how these services are best used - do we expect those who choose not to use the Internet today to suddenly become society's next entrepreneurs? Of course not but those who have some access to the Internet, perhaps at a lower speed than they would like as they wish to become more digitially productive, should not suffer because we are trying to ensure that everyone has basic access.
Can a network be built that offers the best of both worlds? May be the efforts in North France will show us, or perhaps we should take the initiative and roll the dice ourselves. Digital inclusion is an excellent concept as long as it does not disadvantage those who would best use it.
Join the Fibre Generation. Act Now! It Won't Build Itself
Saturday 18 July 2009
The New Communications Model
I received the following email this week in comment to my proposal for the new communications model. The points are absolutely valid and do highlight that it is likely that we will move forward with both the 'traditional' model but must also consider a new model (not necessarily the one I propose but something that will be able to meet the requirements of the small infrastructure projects that we are seeing). I will make some clarifications to my model but would love to hear some other comments as well.
"Hi – just read your model overview at http://nextgenerationaccess.com/How/Model/newmodel.html
"Hi – just read your model overview at http://nextgenerationaccess.com/How/Model/newmodel.html
Interesting direction, however elsewhere we are seeing examples for the network operator and access infrastructure provider being the SAME entity BUT not a telco or able to deliver services over the network thus neutral. (think fair and equitable access for all)...
These networks are 100% open access – however both actives and passives are owned by the ‘infrastructure owners’ i.e. also non-traditional telco entities ~ think councils, developers, landlords, co-ops etc.... and typically the design, delivery and operation are outsourced to a 3rd party ~ think IT integrator (due to lack of in-house skillsets or indeed interest from the new generation of infrastructure owners)....
This model then allows for large ‘footprint’ comms providers to deliver layer 2 types services into the network (and many others) via a single interconnect elsewhere and more, nimble, localised comms providers looking to innovate via layer 3 and even further up the stack.
As stated, a number of real world examples exist with the above model (and incidently Openreach/Ofcom ‘offer’ similar via ALA Ethernet.) and we think it’s the cleanest model.
The issue we’re presently battling with – and the most important/significant – is to do with the build out of ‘islands of fibres’ (inevitable unless govt writes BT a cheque) and the commercial realities of the larger comms providers connecting to them – hence the next step being for UK plc (via various gov bodies/agencies) now looking at the viability of a ‘central’ UK POP with all the Comms providers on one side and links to ‘islands of fibre’ on the other.....
There’s probably not one way to go – however our research and effort to date appears to show favour to the model we describe above....
A technical colleague has further commented - I don’t agree with this multiple network operator model – which is effectively an unbundled fibre network (Ofcom included both ‘active’ and ‘passive’ connection models as options for NGA and this would fall under the ‘passive’ model) If every operator is installing their own equipment and they have to compete with all the other operators the number of potential customers may not stack up to cover their costs. Operators will cherry-pick services that give higher returns and customers will be starved of niche services, i.e. smaller operators offering local or niche services will not be able to cover the cost of the equipment.
These issues are eradicated with the prescribed model we speak about and is totally non-discriminatory."
Thursday 16 July 2009
Yankee Group Article FTTH, Open Access & Tearing Down the Walls
http://www.knightcentercommunityconnection.org/put-aside-the-book-of-walled-gardens/#
Excellent article by Benoit. Indeed the network operators have been chasing services and applications for some time now with varying degrees of enthusiasm and success. What is described in this article is broadly similar to the new communications model proposed on my website: http://nextgenerationaccess.com/How/Model/newmodel.html
As we progress through NGN and NGA rollout it is my belief that network ownership will become the key revenue stream and will be largely separate from the services revenue. Users will want as broad a choice of services and applications as possible and will therefore shy away from limited service packages as we are used to today (take for example the Sky TV bundles) so they will have to pay for network access and separately for the services they use over that network.
As network ownership will derive its return on investment through useage of that network it makes absolute sense to allow other operators to offer their access services on a wholesale basis, therein increasing the take up and their revenues. Open access is the only sensible way to build these networks and investors should ensure that the network operator has this in their plans (assuming the regulator is not enforcing it) as this will make the investment profile look far more attractive.
Services are critical to the uptake of NGA but not to the ROI.
Wednesday 15 July 2009
Defra, UK - News - News releases 2009 - Dairy and rural broadband funding boost
Check out this website I found at defra.gov.uk
Should I go and buy some cows???
Google Wave Preview
via wave.google.com
IMO Google's biggest recent announcement. Think of the traffic a tool like this will generate indeed think of all the different ways we can put a tool like this to use. Shame we can't have it in time to work at home while we all have swine flu ;-)
Tuesday 14 July 2009
Map of Locations for BT's FTTC Rollout
Check out this website I found at nextgenerationaccess.com
Map now updated with the inital 29 exchanges announced on 23rd March
JFDI - Turning a Notspot into a Gotspot
This is a great story of how getting up off your ass and getting things done can work for you. Never assume someone else is going to get it done for you when the chances are you will do a much better job of it yourself.
The Fibre Generation is upon us - Act Now! It Won't Build Itself!
Monday 13 July 2009
The challenge of delivery | Digital Britain Forum
Check out this website I found at digitalbritainforum.org.uk
I do not have a lot of issues with Carter's DB report. Sure, I could pick through it and find many faults and areas I don't agree with but ultimately it raised the subject into the public eye and provoked much broader discussion.
It did also make a number of recommendations and I do wonder why Lord Carter is not willing to stick around to push these through. Who now has that responsibility? We await the announcement on that but probably not with baited breath. After all this is far too broad a subject to adequately address for a minister who thinks an apmersand is a green liquid you dip a spoon of burning sugar into before rapidly imbibing in the Commons bar at the end of a long day.
I wonder where our new 'Digital Champion' Ms. Lane Fox (@Marthalanefox) will feature?
I have read today comments about taking Britain back to the summit of innovation leadership (http://bit.ly/3b2im.), well this is the Government's chance. Back the private sector to deliver the promises of DB. Yes that includes BT but more importantly should focus on the real innovators who can deliver a truly digital future.
Will Digital Britain survive the next election? - 10 Jul 2009 - Computing
via computing.co.uk
So what is the role of Government in Digital Britain now? They are not going to fund it (yes they proposed the 50p levy but you can't really claim that is funding it), they are not going to adequately define it and (if this article is to be believed) the Tories are even thinking of not policing it (frankly that is laughable).
This is a matter for private industry to drive and deliver. Of course Government has a role but it is one that must be led by the private sector because, frankly, they have more chance of getting it right! It is up to us to take it out of the hands of politicians because if we do not we will suffer, our children will suffer more and our country will fall so far behind other global economies that it will be unrecoverable.
Kent Notspots
Indeed, on reading the Statement of Requirements it is indeed the case that these are notspots in Kent: http://www.kent.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/C169E494-3769-43BF-B681-570E831C5752/22060/StatementofRequirementforCommunityBroadband1.pdf
"KCC wishes to provide broadband access in at least some, ideally all, of the not-spots. However, funding is limited and the number of not-spots to be addressed will depend on the cost. KCC is therefore issuing this statement of requirement to obtain proposals for providing a reliable broadband service, at an agreed speed, to identified not-spots in Kent."
They have "no preference" to the solution but desire a minimum download speed of 1Mbit/s (2M target) and 256k upload. So, not NGA, not ambitious but trying to offload a problem to someone else.
I hope someone can step in to solve this problem for them and in so doing can define an architecture that can deliver viable broadband services to notspots together with a partner who will help with the additional backhaul, network & services requirements. The considerations are huge and to submit a proposal by August 7th will be one hell of a challenge!
"KCC wishes to provide broadband access in at least some, ideally all, of the not-spots. However, funding is limited and the number of not-spots to be addressed will depend on the cost. KCC is therefore issuing this statement of requirement to obtain proposals for providing a reliable broadband service, at an agreed speed, to identified not-spots in Kent."
They have "no preference" to the solution but desire a minimum download speed of 1Mbit/s (2M target) and 256k upload. So, not NGA, not ambitious but trying to offload a problem to someone else.
I hope someone can step in to solve this problem for them and in so doing can define an architecture that can deliver viable broadband services to notspots together with a partner who will help with the additional backhaul, network & services requirements. The considerations are huge and to submit a proposal by August 7th will be one hell of a challenge!
Community broadband service proposals
Check out this website I found at kent.gov.uk
So first of all let's applaud a council taking the proactive action. That is all too infrequent today.
But, why 2Mbit/s download target? Just because that is what the USC has been set at does not mean we should downgrade our aspirations to meet it. Also, let's be honest, if they are looking for a new broadband infrastructure then 2M is a laughable target.
Also what are their plans beyond those 3 locations? Are these just 3 notspots they are trying to get someone else to fix or are these trial locations for a greater aspiration of broadband delivery through the major towns and cities in Kent? Time will tell but I suspect the former.
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