Village DIY FTTP

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21455795

I noticed that the BBC said that BARN was still £1.5 million short of getting their network finished.

Do we know if that funding gap is to be filled anytime soon or will some places lose out?

In reference to b4rn.org.uk/press-release-b4rn-connect-public-drop-in-day:

B4RN celebrates the first live connections in Arkholme with a public demonstration event day on February 14th at the Village Hall, Kirkby Lonsdale Road, Arkholme, LA6 1AU, starting at 1pm and ending at 8pm, 1:30pm opening presentation by Barry Forde with repeat presentations at 3.30 and 5.30.

B4RN has passed another major milestone this month. B4RN is now live in the second village (the first was Quernmore in October), with the first people connected very happy with the service.

In reference to www.b4rn.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/B4RN-Business-Plan-v4.1.pdf:

6. Funding

The first phase covers 1452 properties and will cost £1.723M to deliver and operate for the first year, January to December 2012. We therefore need to raise this amount during year 1 but it does not all have to be available on day 1. Some is needed up front to build the fibre network, some is needed as and when connection requests are received and some is the first year�s OPEX and will be required across the year.

The main fund raising mechanism is going to be through issuing shares to prospective investors. We see these as being mainly members of the local community. However if the financial side of the scheme can be made attractive there is the possibility of also securing external investors. We have had quite a number of out of area registrations on the web site who have indicated an interest in buying shares.

To give a funding margin we will look to issue £2M of shares. As well as income from shares we will receive payments from connection charges and the monthly £30 service charge. There are also a range of other types of service which we will look to receive income from such as telephony, security and leased line links to Manchester.

Edited by deleted (Thu 14-Feb-13 12:23:19)

They say that running through fields is cheaper - yes it is and BT would do that too, but farmers want to charge high rents for the way leaves which make the road option cheaper. They are also not factoring in the full cost of manpower as a lot is free - re-evaluate the project with the nominal costs for te time spent and it may not be much different to BTs.

I have been advising a small hamlet of about 10 houses. But getting fibre to a local is the expensive part - and even if BT could provide that the costs could be almost prohibitive.

Hello Bob

This was on bbc1 breakfast telly at 6.25ish thismorning, watched while having breakfast.

The presenter was there live in a village hall I guess and that is not on the video but just missed the start as they where doing a speedtest and caught the shot of the computer screen, noticed upload was 500 meg. Nice .

Lot of hard work for a locals but good stuff when done, makes our 40 - 10 bt offering look naff

This speedtest result is on the site I linked to http://b4rn.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Screen...

Edited by deleted (Thu 14-Feb-13 13:39:15)

I wonder how repeatable the model is. Nobody round here seems capable of using a shovel when the road needs salting and I've encountered several communities not willing to do much themselves beyond moan and lobby.

It can be, but you need a real community spirit and one or two to lead and organise. And everyone who wants to benefit needs to give something - access to land, loan of a JCB, procurement expertise, network expertise, driving the digger, manual labour, making tea ...

But you are right, the spirit is lacking in to many places.

The ones I am helping are all willing to do something - but they cannot afford the massive overhead.

am I seeing things or was he getting 500mbit/sec at home to his laptop

This does show that generally people are hoarding cash tho, they managed to fund this. It also shows that providers are easily undercharging as well. As I said a while back people in very bad adsl areas will willingly pay for faster connections.

to be fair tho BT do escalate their own costs.

eg. compare BT's cost per meter to lay fibre to say verizon's cost. Both commercial companies but the latter does it at much lower cost somehow eg. stringing across street posts instead of digging.

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

eg. compare BT's cost per meter to lay fibre to say verizon's cost. Both commercial companies but the latter does it at much lower cost somehow eg. stringing across street posts instead of digging.

Being in America helps too, but certainly overhead is a lot cheaper than digging.

They've also said they aren't going further in deployment unless they can get their costs down.

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

lAs I said a while back people in very bad adsl areas will willingly pay for faster connections.

About a year ago somebody came onto the BT forums and ranted on about how BT were not helping them.
It comes out that they lived in the small town of South Cave in the east ridings of Yorkshire It is part of the diffuse border between BT and Kingston and as Kingston was going to installl FTTC. BT wasn't going to bother.
They came on ranted and raved how they DESERVED both companies to install FTTC so they could choose the cheapest provider as KCC was "too dear"

This is the problem that companies have to put up with because until you see people sign on the dotted line all you have is words.

Can you imagine the uproar if more and more cables were strung overhead instead of being underground?

Have a look at some cities in the US and Japan and you will realise how unsightly it gets.

yes thats the problem with this country, people too obsessed with scenery.

I dont walk around staring upwards at cables. Plus if an area already has poles there wouldnt be a huge difference anyway.

Plus if an area already has poles there wouldnt be a huge difference anyway.

Verizon use poles where the copper line was on poles and underground where that was the existing setup.

A couple of villages nr me have nagged BT and/or the electric utility to underground their stuff and de-pole the place.

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

yes thats the problem with this country, people too obsessed with scenery.

I don't know, I have friends and family in the USA and in the areas with cables on poles almost everyone in that area has at least 5 days a year with ZERO service for phone, electricity, cable-TV and internet.

They have a lot of problems with surges when poles fall over and get spikes on the line (either faults or road accidents).

Underground is a lot nicer - and some housing estates (subdivisions) in the US are now being designed with underground services - costs more but means you don't have outages when the next ice storm or snow storm runs through.

fair point.

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

yes thats the problem with this country, people too obsessed with scenery.

I dont walk around staring upwards at cables. Plus if an area already has poles there wouldnt be a huge difference anyway.

The real problem is with the planning process and every objection is given the same weight no matter how stupid. The French have a phrase, "You don't ask the frogs if it is okay to drain the swamp"!

Need it, build it...job done.

DrT

In reply to a post by DrTeeth:

The French have a phrase, "You don't ask the frogs ...."!

ROFL