Just an update- no more rants for today!
A couple of weeks ago BT announced some more locations for the FTTC rollout, said to be available towards the end of 2010. They have been added to my map should you wish to see how close you may be to an exchange to be upgraded: http://www.nextgenerationaccess.com/How/BTFTTC/btfttc.html.
You may also be interested to know that BT has announced pricing for the service, to be branded Infinity (note: perhaps they should consult a dictionary before coming up with these names): http://www.btplc.com/News/Articles/Showarticle.cfm?ArticleID=F9F6F1AD-C4F6-442D-BF7E-FFCC7847631C. £20 a month for up to 40 meg? I would if I could!
BT has even launched an Infinity website now if you want any more info: http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumerProducts/displayTopic.do?topicId=28987&s_cid=con_FURL_infinity
Sunday 24 January 2010
Britain's Madness
I've just been reading and commenting on this post on the Fibrevolution blog: http://spedr.com/5ube9 and it has prompted me to write a little more.
There are many challenges in trying to establish a community broadband project - not least of them convincing the community that such high speeds are something they will greatly benefit from. But let's assume I had got over that hurdle (I haven't BTW but let's assume nonetheless) what would my next steps be? Well I would need to start to consider the network topology, the services, the prices and I would need to source the funding. Simple really. Or at least it would be if everyone I had to engage with were committed to helping build a Digital Britain rather than cover their own asses and become the biggest roadblock they can be. But they are not and I have to keep asking myself why not? Are they ignorant and unwilling to learn or just arrogant and unwilling to help?
I have tried to educate, I have tried to inform, I have tried to understand what motivates these people (no names but Councils, Government departments and large industry can generally consider yourselves covered) but to no avail. It would seem that other than a very select few of us there is little desire to bring a pervasive broadband network to the UK.
This is Britain's Madness. There are so many benefits to the people, the communities, the businesses and the economy that not doing it is negligent.
Right now I am at a loss. We are governed by people who have little insight into what will allow this country to take its position at the forefront of the growing digital economy and I believe this must change. I have even got to the point where I am prepared to give BT credit for expanding and accelerating its FTTC rollout and to Virin Media for upgrading its cable networks as at least this means a significant number of people across the UK will have access to a high-speed network. However there is still a very large percentage (40% or so I believe) who will remain stuck with little hope of getting any improvement.
Which actually raises another question I am struggling with, based on my experience of dealing with my own community: of this 40% or so who will not have access to high speed broadband, how many would actually want it? I don't have the answer but suspect it is a lower number than you may think.
The Digital Britain Report established for us that Broadband is a right (why else would you implement a 2MBit/s USO?), in which case surely high-speed broadband must be a right? I don't get less electricity than the city dwellers just because I choose to live in the country and I don't want less from my broadband. In fact I could present a convincing argument that I (and many others in rural areas) would actually do more with my broadband as I work at home and therefore use it all day long.
I did have a point to this rant but it's got lost in there somewhere! Essentially I want us to tear down these artificial barriers that bureaucrats have errected. I want people to embrace the cause and create some genuine momentum because at the moment I feel like there are just too few of us to really make a difference.
Please spread the word... broadband is a very important issue, perhaps not for you but then you didn't grow up with the Internet, did you? The Internet is growing in its uses and applications every day and our children will find even more innovations to deliver digitally. If we give them the tools to do it with, that is.
There are many challenges in trying to establish a community broadband project - not least of them convincing the community that such high speeds are something they will greatly benefit from. But let's assume I had got over that hurdle (I haven't BTW but let's assume nonetheless) what would my next steps be? Well I would need to start to consider the network topology, the services, the prices and I would need to source the funding. Simple really. Or at least it would be if everyone I had to engage with were committed to helping build a Digital Britain rather than cover their own asses and become the biggest roadblock they can be. But they are not and I have to keep asking myself why not? Are they ignorant and unwilling to learn or just arrogant and unwilling to help?
I have tried to educate, I have tried to inform, I have tried to understand what motivates these people (no names but Councils, Government departments and large industry can generally consider yourselves covered) but to no avail. It would seem that other than a very select few of us there is little desire to bring a pervasive broadband network to the UK.
This is Britain's Madness. There are so many benefits to the people, the communities, the businesses and the economy that not doing it is negligent.
Right now I am at a loss. We are governed by people who have little insight into what will allow this country to take its position at the forefront of the growing digital economy and I believe this must change. I have even got to the point where I am prepared to give BT credit for expanding and accelerating its FTTC rollout and to Virin Media for upgrading its cable networks as at least this means a significant number of people across the UK will have access to a high-speed network. However there is still a very large percentage (40% or so I believe) who will remain stuck with little hope of getting any improvement.
Which actually raises another question I am struggling with, based on my experience of dealing with my own community: of this 40% or so who will not have access to high speed broadband, how many would actually want it? I don't have the answer but suspect it is a lower number than you may think.
The Digital Britain Report established for us that Broadband is a right (why else would you implement a 2MBit/s USO?), in which case surely high-speed broadband must be a right? I don't get less electricity than the city dwellers just because I choose to live in the country and I don't want less from my broadband. In fact I could present a convincing argument that I (and many others in rural areas) would actually do more with my broadband as I work at home and therefore use it all day long.
I did have a point to this rant but it's got lost in there somewhere! Essentially I want us to tear down these artificial barriers that bureaucrats have errected. I want people to embrace the cause and create some genuine momentum because at the moment I feel like there are just too few of us to really make a difference.
Please spread the word... broadband is a very important issue, perhaps not for you but then you didn't grow up with the Internet, did you? The Internet is growing in its uses and applications every day and our children will find even more innovations to deliver digitally. If we give them the tools to do it with, that is.
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