I just stumbled upon this!

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2016/05/northu...

Seems quite cool!

Whitehall

Same solutions keep reappearing just with bigger bandwidths. Back in 1995 (!) we used a double hop Radio link to provide PSTN service to a community in Mid Wales that was at or above the distance the telephone would work by a metallic path to the exchange. It carried 4 x 2Mb for just over 35 Customers so only used 50% of system capacity. Cost over £300k for the whole scheme but the phone worked consistently for the first time ever! I wonder if it has been upgraded to carry BB now.?

I would have thought so, can you remember exactly where it is? Look it up on the checker.

Icarus

On the map the whole valley bottom and half the hamlet shows as FTTP & FTTC , other half shows as FTTC but only around 20Mb, Wholesale checker shows the same all on the same cab. Rest of the postcode up the valley sides address matches but no ADSL iis found! Map shows as under 2Mb, I suspect no service. Some of the valley bottom shows FTTP but no FTTC still on same cab.

I suspect they have strung the Fibre on the old poles up the valley as upgrading the radio would have cost more due to two hops and they would reach more of the properties..

That is what you call "rural" when you can't even receive an ADSL service. I didn't know that was even a thing, still!

Some of them struggle to get a phone service they are so far from anywhere. If you are 8-10 miles from the exchange copper tech does not really work, fibre is actually better as distance is no object (below 60 Km that is). so Phone USO turns into BB USO . If you are not in a conservation area Mobile solves both issues at the cheapest cost as it can reach houses up two valleys from the top. Conservation areas basically you are 'stuffed' unless you are rich enough to pay for fibre in the £100k+ range.

In reply to a post by kitcat:

Some of them struggle to get a phone service they are so far from anywhere. If you are 8-10 miles from the exchange copper tech does not really work, fibre is actually better as distance is no object (below 60 Km that is).

That's a GPON limitation, proper fibre 120km optics are available off the shelf for next delivery.

In reply to a post by jabuzzard:

In reply to a post by kitcat:

Some of them struggle to get a phone service they are so far from anywhere. If you are 8-10 miles from the exchange copper tech does not really work, fibre is actually better as distance is no object (below 60 Km that is).

That's a GPON limitation, proper fibre 120km optics are available off the shelf for next delivery.

They could deploy a subtended OLT headend. The backhaul optics to which as you say can do 100km+, then maintain PON for the local village distribution