In Suffolk the priority was supposed to be not spots and slow spots. in practice of course BT are prioritising infill around existing fibre enabled areas.

Which at least keeps those complaining that nothing is happening slightly quiet as something is happening...

Please one sector but annoy another is the real world alas.

If the not/slow spots are likely to be served with FTTC/P then the larger exchanges will be used to host the fibre handovers, so those need to be built first usually. So for example in Cornwall the Falmouth exchange is the fibre centre for 8 exchange areas.

They could enable the core exchanges, run the fibre to the most remote cabinets first though, but I suspect given the pressure to hit as close to 90% nationally in 2015, getting the larger areas done first makes some sense, unless you are not in one of those areas.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Questions that the satellite providers who are lobbying for inclusion in the final hard to reach areas should answer really.

In theory new satellites or beams could be refocused from other areas of Europe, though some of the current problems may not be spot beam related but the way that the backhaul from the earth station is being handled.

For all we know we might have a new Government in 2015 and they could spend more on broadband, or less or just leave things alone - impossible to project really.

Certainly refocussing some of the beams providing Broadband to the fish in the North Sea, the Channel and the Atlantic could do to be looked at.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Before or after contract signing?

My understanding is that BT does some preliminary modelling before signing.
After signing council input on intervention areas, which will get FTTP as a priority, or which hard to reach areas MUST be superfast as opposed to just 2 Mbps to 24 Mbps.
Then BT replans and we get the basic maps and BT starts the next phase of with surveying/planning on the actual cabinets, e.g. calculate locations/power costs

My arguement is that the plans showing what it is proposed that everyone will get should be published at this stage in sufficient detail for everyone to know what ill happen in their case.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Then BT starts the getting quotes for power and lodges road works applications and starts the work.

The last two parts appear to be done in phases, rather than every cabinet planned to the n'th degree.

The worry people have really I suspect is that BT can walk away from the project and ignore the USC areas if they splurge all the money on cabinets in the early phases.

Both BT and the government may well fail to make adequate provision for the difficult areas and since they are likely to be last the budgets may well be exhausted.

I am all for simple lists that are searchable, so people can identify their postcode and know whether they are in the USC type area, but planning exactly what tech they will receive at this stage becomes a lot more fun.

Or to put it another way, BET would be the openreach choice if push come to shove for USC, but in 12 months there may be more options for 4G, fixed wireless and maybe it is holding out too much hope that projects may go under budget like Cornwall and use this saving to boost coverage further.

That they have had this technology out for several years and it has gone nowhere suggests BET is a flop.

My understanding is the BET fails on 3 counts:

1. It cannot guarantee 2mb
2. It has no upgrade path
3. On BTs costings it is nearly as expensive to deploy as fibre

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

I am all for simple lists that are searchable, so people can identify their postcode and know whether they are in the USC type area, but planning exactly what tech they will receive at this stage becomes a lot more fun.

Or to put it another way, BET would be the openreach choice if push come to shove for USC, but in 12 months there may be more options for 4G, fixed wireless and maybe it is holding out too much hope that projects may go under budget like Cornwall and use this saving to boost coverage further.

But if I know it may well be BET it makes it easier for me to decide whether subscribing to the local altnet project would be a good idea. If I was told that I was likely to get FTTP (at FTTC type speeds and prices) it would be a much harder decision.

1. Possibly
2. A problem yes
3. But if serving properties very geographically dispersed it might still be cheaper than FTTC/P

I don't like BET but its one of the solutions out there, and if someone has no broadband then it might seem brilliant to them. For someone who already has 800-900 Kbps obviously it seems like hardly worth the bother.

There in lies the gotcha.

BT and councils are wanting to play the - if we can roll-out cheaply elsewhere we will expand and use up the money rather than hand it back.

As things stand nothing stopping altnets deploying, only becomes difficult if they are seeking public money or feel that if there is competition they will not get enough customers to make it viable.

In theory if an altnet deploys and informs the county it meets the criteria for inclusion as a supplier of superfast then a change control can be started and the area avoided. There are some complaints that the OMR side is not working, but difficult to assess as not seen the submissions to see if the boxes are clearly ticked and the council is wilfully ignoring.

Well I know new cabs have been deployed in Cornwall for things like very long EO line clusters, whether other counties will do the same is down to the size of their budget.

There was also a 48 line rugged DSLAM (ECI I believe) looked at in Cornwall but don't think it has been deployed.

Other single line amplifiers (not BET) have been looked at, but don't have a handy link for more detail on them. Idea being you can place it midway down a very long rural line and rebroadband the ADSL signal, almost doubling the reach. BET uses a box at both ends of the cable run.

They have also done comparisons with white space and fixed 4G.

So while some may say I am dazzled I prefer to look at the variety of options and hope that others will do the same, otherwise we might as well give up, turn the lights off and spend the BDUK money down the pub.