Here's the website:
http://b4rn.org.uk/
BBC News report(s):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21455795
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-20529651
Livestreams & videos:
http://bambuser.com/channel/Fibrethedog
One of their FAQs (How does this service differ from that offered by BT, Virgin Media or any of the other ISPs?): "There is currently no company in the UK offering a 1Gb service to residential properties. The service is symmetrical meaning that you can download and upload at the same speed and it will belong to you, the local shareholders."
About B4RN (Broadband for the Rural North):
The purpose of the project is to take a new approach to the ownership, financial and deployment models used traditionally, and still proposed by, telecommunications companies. These models invariably leave rural areas outside of the scope of economic viability for the telecoms companies, and have helped to create the Digital Divide between rural and urban Britain. Check the maps of the phases to see if you live in the area we are working in, there are already quite a few properties included in the design just outside the mapping area, so do keep checking.
A new approach is required
There is a firm belief in the business plan’s projections, which show that a world class, Gigabit, future-proofed, reliable, communications network to every property, without exception, can be profitable in deeply rural areas if approached in a non-traditional and less expensive manner. This is the driving force behind B4RN.
See our business plan for all the details
“What Happen$ in the Community $tay$ in the Community” Larry Baumgart
The aim is to build a community-owned gigabit Fibre To The Home (FTTH) network in the scarcely populated, deeply rural uplands of Lancashire in the north west of England utilising the skills, time, energy and ingenuity of the local residents and businesses.
This project is backed with a share issue for a not-for-profit company registered with the Financial Services Authority under the Industrial and Provident Societies Act 1965 using the community benefit option.
Expert Design for the Future
The detailed design and business plan shows that the first phase, including the core network which will also serve Phases 2 and 3, will cost £1.86 million. This includes the costs associated with:
B4RN is a community fibre network offering fibre to every home providing 1000 megabit (1 gigabit) futureproof connection for £30 a month. You do not have to buy shares to get a connection, but the more people who invest in this network the faster it will be built with the available funds.
There is no hope for many of us in this area to get ‘superfast’ broadband so we are doing it ourselves. This is not a big company from ‘outside’ doing it, it is us, the rural people of Lancashire.
Services:
The service we provide is a 1000 megabit symmetrical per second (same upload as download speeds) connection for £30 month. There will be a £150 connection fee. If you wish to take a service please fill in the registration form, today.
B4RN needs your support to succeed. With 50% take up of the B4RN service, the project can go ahead. 65+% of the local houses are already connected to the Internet so this is not a difficult target, and for a far better service.
Below, we explain the benefits of a 1Gbps fibre optic connection as opposed to what is currently available, and what is likely to become available over the next 5-10 years in this area.
B4RN does not entertain small improvements still on asymmetric services, it is a giant step forward to expandable symmetric services to provide e.g. two way video without freezing. The nation requires this type of service instead of continual expensive minor improvements.
This job needs doing correctly once only and we are ideally placed to be one of the leaders without the commercial hindrance using a unique business model unavailable in urban areas.
Your agreement to take a service from B4RN means that this project can commence and put our area of Lancashire ”light years” ahead of other UK areas as well as rural communities around the world.
Who does the installation?
The duct installation can either be carried out by the landowner, by B4RN volunteers or by local B4RN contractors. Payment is defined in a “piece work table” (see overleaf) which is converted into an equivalent number of B4RN shares. As well as reducing the amount of cash we need to raise this allows members of the community to become actively involved with the project and to take a long term interest as stakeholders. Where duct has to pass under roads or rivers specialist contractors will be employed.
Note: Work equivalent to £1500 entitles the recipient to free connection and to free B4RN broadband for one year.
What is installed?
Our plan is to use a standard industry practice of burying plastic (HDPE) ducting and then passing the multi-core fibre optic cable through it. The cable is blown through the ducting, using compressed air. The main trunk routes house between 1 and 6 ducts, with each duct being 16mm in diameter, links to properties use 7mm ducting. The ducting can be installed either by using a mole plough or by burying in a narrow trench. Typically the duct depth will be 500mm, but it can be less provided there is sufficient protection. Recessed access chambers will be located where the trunk cable has to be broken out for local distribution. These chambers contain up to four stackable units each 150mm deep, plus a 50mm deep lid, their total dimension being 915mm x 445mm by 650mm deep.
Speedtest(s) of the "B4RN Fibre Network" wired and wireless:
http://bambuser.com/v/3371573
http://bambuser.com/v/3371654
Imagine gaining host on this type of connection. No limitations. To be honest it is enough to almost burn your HDD out downloading on this connection.
That's if the server you're downloading from supports very high download and upload speeds/connections.
Where does B4RN cover?
The phase one plan (right) is to create five village nodes, with the core node in Quernmore connected by 10Gbps links to Over Wyresdale, Wray with Botton, Melling with Wrayton, and Arkholme with Cawood, and a total of 40 routes radiating out from these nodes to cover every premises. This will cover parts of Lancashire with some of the worst broadband in the county: 1,452 premises in Over Wyresdale, Quernmore, Roeburndale, Wray with Botton, Tatham, Wennington, Melling with Wrayton, Arkhome with Cawood, Littledale, and Hornby. B4RN expects to complete phase one by the end of 2012, and to add up to 3,000 properties per year with new fundraising, to reach around 15,000 properties in 2019. The map below shows the seven phases of the rollout (colour key below map), with each phase expected to take a year.
(Phase 1 in pale green, phase 2 in pink, phase 3 in blue, phase 4 in orange, phase 5 in purple, phase 6 in yellow, and phase 7 in light green)
What services does B4RN provide?
B4RN will provide both broadband and phone services to start, with further services in the future. Each home will have a battery backup so telephony over the fibre means landline connections are no longer required.
Some businesses are expected to require high-reliability leased lines at up to 10Gbps, while rural security services using CCTV are expected to find a high level of demand from farmers.
How much does B4RN cost?
A 1Gbps symmetrical connection costs £30/month, with a £150 connection fee.
Ownership of B4RN shares starts from £100, with 30 per cent tax refunds available to anyone investing between £500 and £20,000, but shares must be held for at least three years, and cannot be traded.
A £1500 investment ensures a Foundation Membership with additional bonuses, such as a free connection and one year's free subscription to the gigabit service.
Individual supporters can sponsor the duct as it’s laid in the ground, starting from £5 per metre.
One of their FAQs: "There is currently no company in the UK offering a 1Gb service to residential properties. The service is symmetrical meaning that you can download and upload at the same speed and it will belong to you, the local shareholders."
Preview/pics of the equipment/installation they do and use (Samples):
What will the installation look like?
We haven't got photos of the kit we are going to use yet, Lins found a company who supply kit with 4x gigabit ports, 2 telephone ports and 300Mbps 'N' WiFi, no final decision made yet, but here are samples of similar size stuff:
Sample of client premise equipment, a small box the size of a double plug socket.
Inside the box
More client premise equipment
Inside the box below
Q: Will other providers be able to use the network?
Well, we could offer other ISPs access via the B4RN network in the same way that BT Openreach does. However, we would not want to put into place such complex systems as BT uses as the costs are very high. Standards are emerging that use VLAN technology to link customers to providers over networks like ours. We would be happy to go along with this. However we would still have to charge them the same as we are charging the end user as that is what we need to be sustainable. So your ISP would have to add his overheads to our charges and bill you more than we would but what extra would you gain?
Q: Are there any security concerns with the free email services such as Hotmail and Gmail?
Being realistic, the Internet leaks like a sieve and the number of instances of accounts getting hacked seem to be as high with government departments and banks as it does with services like GMAIL. If you are concerned about security, you should use encryption methods such as PGP (Pretty Good Privacy). One interesting model that can be adopted is for the customer to opt into one of the high security service providers by using a VPN across the internet into their network. Depending on who logs onto your computer you could use VPN technology to put them inside a cloud with suitable locks and security depending on who they are. We hope that a local company may take up the challenge of offering simple online security advice to domestic and SME users, which is sadly lacking in the UK.
Q: Is Cloud computing secure?
Is your house?! Is your existing internet connection? If you have confidential data, then you should seriously consider encryption. Nothing unencrypted that goes on the Internet is ever 100% safe because it needs to pass through multiple servers to reach a destination, and each represents a potential security weakness without encryption.
2) Telco Registration
Q: There are various references to registering as a Telco, applying to OFCOM for Code Powers and various other legalistic hurdles carrying a budget of £30K. Are there any doubts that any of this can halt or delay the project or run away with wildly greater charges?
No, the process is well understood. There is a two stage process, firstly applying for a CUPID code which effectively identifies B4RN as a communications provider (CP). Once B4RN is registered as a CP, BT and other CPs have to deal with B4RN on an equal footing and B4RN can access regulated services such as PIA and LLU. To get a CUPID code, there must be a credible business plan showing the intention to run a PECN (Public Electronic Communications Network) and there is a one page form from Ofcom to complete. There is no cost associated with the process.
Code Powers - once again, a business plan is required and a payment of £10,000 to cover Ofcom's costs. A bond which relates to the amount of duct on public land is also paid to Ofcom so that in the event of any telecommunications provider going bankrupt, any repairs to ducting etc can be covered. Less than 1% of B4RN's ducting is intended to be laid on public land so the bond will be relatively low.
3) Other questions
"Do I get a fixed public IP address, or a block of IP addresses"
By default we will issue 1 static IP address per premises. We expect many users to install a gateway/router/firewall/WiFi hub on the end of the line and that will handle additional internal address allocations and use NAT to share the single address.
If the user is taking VoIP services connected directly to our CPE switch then an additional IP address will be allocated for that. However we have no problem with allocating additional addresses or blocks of addresses if required so long as the end user knows what to do with them and makes a case to us. We have to justify our address blocks to RIPE who will want to see the case for assigning them. Given the shortage of IPv4 addresses we might be forced towards IPv6 numbering if a user wants to take a block but the B4RN network will support both protocol stacks.
___________________________________________
In my thoughts. People will be curious to make their own Networks despite VM's, BT's and other Networks. Now I understand the meaning of envy, lol.
10Gb/s a second for the future prospects? WOW
At the minute they're giving 1Gb/s down & 1Gb/s up. I wonder about the traffic management though. Will it be unlimited or capped after certain speeds are reached/downloads are acquired. I also wonder if they throttle customer's connections. I'm still researching on this to see the service and how fast (& unlimited it is).
I live in a town within Lancashire with Virgin Media enabled (from early 2000's I think; I am not sure about the enable of VM's cable in Lancashire), but not BT FTTC. Although, speeds are starting to become a very big implication and problem for some and VM is massively over subscribed where I live in the town (within Lancashire).
I am supposed to have FTTC enabled by 2015 at least; it is stated on BT's wesbite and "Samknows Exchange Checker".
I wonder if they'll spread it across Lancashire for customers in towns.
http://b4rn.org.uk/
BBC News report(s):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21455795
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-20529651
Livestreams & videos:
http://bambuser.com/channel/Fibrethedog
One of their FAQs (How does this service differ from that offered by BT, Virgin Media or any of the other ISPs?): "There is currently no company in the UK offering a 1Gb service to residential properties. The service is symmetrical meaning that you can download and upload at the same speed and it will belong to you, the local shareholders."
About B4RN (Broadband for the Rural North):
The purpose of the project is to take a new approach to the ownership, financial and deployment models used traditionally, and still proposed by, telecommunications companies. These models invariably leave rural areas outside of the scope of economic viability for the telecoms companies, and have helped to create the Digital Divide between rural and urban Britain. Check the maps of the phases to see if you live in the area we are working in, there are already quite a few properties included in the design just outside the mapping area, so do keep checking.
A new approach is required
There is a firm belief in the business plan’s projections, which show that a world class, Gigabit, future-proofed, reliable, communications network to every property, without exception, can be profitable in deeply rural areas if approached in a non-traditional and less expensive manner. This is the driving force behind B4RN.
See our business plan for all the details
“What Happen$ in the Community $tay$ in the Community” Larry Baumgart
The aim is to build a community-owned gigabit Fibre To The Home (FTTH) network in the scarcely populated, deeply rural uplands of Lancashire in the north west of England utilising the skills, time, energy and ingenuity of the local residents and businesses.
This project is backed with a share issue for a not-for-profit company registered with the Financial Services Authority under the Industrial and Provident Societies Act 1965 using the community benefit option.
Expert Design for the Future
The detailed design and business plan shows that the first phase, including the core network which will also serve Phases 2 and 3, will cost £1.86 million. This includes the costs associated with:
- setting up the company as a telecommunications provider
- buying the necessary equipment
- training members of the community in fibre installation and fusion splicing (a high tech, in demand skill)
- building the network
- setting up the necessary administrative and support structures
B4RN is a community fibre network offering fibre to every home providing 1000 megabit (1 gigabit) futureproof connection for £30 a month. You do not have to buy shares to get a connection, but the more people who invest in this network the faster it will be built with the available funds.
There is no hope for many of us in this area to get ‘superfast’ broadband so we are doing it ourselves. This is not a big company from ‘outside’ doing it, it is us, the rural people of Lancashire.
Services:
The service we provide is a 1000 megabit symmetrical per second (same upload as download speeds) connection for £30 month. There will be a £150 connection fee. If you wish to take a service please fill in the registration form, today.
B4RN needs your support to succeed. With 50% take up of the B4RN service, the project can go ahead. 65+% of the local houses are already connected to the Internet so this is not a difficult target, and for a far better service.
Below, we explain the benefits of a 1Gbps fibre optic connection as opposed to what is currently available, and what is likely to become available over the next 5-10 years in this area.
B4RN does not entertain small improvements still on asymmetric services, it is a giant step forward to expandable symmetric services to provide e.g. two way video without freezing. The nation requires this type of service instead of continual expensive minor improvements.
This job needs doing correctly once only and we are ideally placed to be one of the leaders without the commercial hindrance using a unique business model unavailable in urban areas.
Your agreement to take a service from B4RN means that this project can commence and put our area of Lancashire ”light years” ahead of other UK areas as well as rural communities around the world.
Who does the installation?
The duct installation can either be carried out by the landowner, by B4RN volunteers or by local B4RN contractors. Payment is defined in a “piece work table” (see overleaf) which is converted into an equivalent number of B4RN shares. As well as reducing the amount of cash we need to raise this allows members of the community to become actively involved with the project and to take a long term interest as stakeholders. Where duct has to pass under roads or rivers specialist contractors will be employed.
Note: Work equivalent to £1500 entitles the recipient to free connection and to free B4RN broadband for one year.
What is installed?
Our plan is to use a standard industry practice of burying plastic (HDPE) ducting and then passing the multi-core fibre optic cable through it. The cable is blown through the ducting, using compressed air. The main trunk routes house between 1 and 6 ducts, with each duct being 16mm in diameter, links to properties use 7mm ducting. The ducting can be installed either by using a mole plough or by burying in a narrow trench. Typically the duct depth will be 500mm, but it can be less provided there is sufficient protection. Recessed access chambers will be located where the trunk cable has to be broken out for local distribution. These chambers contain up to four stackable units each 150mm deep, plus a 50mm deep lid, their total dimension being 915mm x 445mm by 650mm deep.
Speedtest(s) of the "B4RN Fibre Network" wired and wireless:
http://bambuser.com/v/3371573
http://bambuser.com/v/3371654
Imagine gaining host on this type of connection. No limitations. To be honest it is enough to almost burn your HDD out downloading on this connection.
That's if the server you're downloading from supports very high download and upload speeds/connections.Where does B4RN cover?
The phase one plan (right) is to create five village nodes, with the core node in Quernmore connected by 10Gbps links to Over Wyresdale, Wray with Botton, Melling with Wrayton, and Arkholme with Cawood, and a total of 40 routes radiating out from these nodes to cover every premises. This will cover parts of Lancashire with some of the worst broadband in the county: 1,452 premises in Over Wyresdale, Quernmore, Roeburndale, Wray with Botton, Tatham, Wennington, Melling with Wrayton, Arkhome with Cawood, Littledale, and Hornby. B4RN expects to complete phase one by the end of 2012, and to add up to 3,000 properties per year with new fundraising, to reach around 15,000 properties in 2019. The map below shows the seven phases of the rollout (colour key below map), with each phase expected to take a year.
(Phase 1 in pale green, phase 2 in pink, phase 3 in blue, phase 4 in orange, phase 5 in purple, phase 6 in yellow, and phase 7 in light green)
What services does B4RN provide?
B4RN will provide both broadband and phone services to start, with further services in the future. Each home will have a battery backup so telephony over the fibre means landline connections are no longer required.
Some businesses are expected to require high-reliability leased lines at up to 10Gbps, while rural security services using CCTV are expected to find a high level of demand from farmers.
How much does B4RN cost?
A 1Gbps symmetrical connection costs £30/month, with a £150 connection fee.
Ownership of B4RN shares starts from £100, with 30 per cent tax refunds available to anyone investing between £500 and £20,000, but shares must be held for at least three years, and cannot be traded.
A £1500 investment ensures a Foundation Membership with additional bonuses, such as a free connection and one year's free subscription to the gigabit service.
Individual supporters can sponsor the duct as it’s laid in the ground, starting from £5 per metre.
One of their FAQs: "There is currently no company in the UK offering a 1Gb service to residential properties. The service is symmetrical meaning that you can download and upload at the same speed and it will belong to you, the local shareholders."
Preview/pics of the equipment/installation they do and use (Samples):
What will the installation look like?
We haven't got photos of the kit we are going to use yet, Lins found a company who supply kit with 4x gigabit ports, 2 telephone ports and 300Mbps 'N' WiFi, no final decision made yet, but here are samples of similar size stuff:
Sample of client premise equipment, a small box the size of a double plug socket.
Inside the box
More client premise equipment
Inside the box below
Q: Will other providers be able to use the network?
Well, we could offer other ISPs access via the B4RN network in the same way that BT Openreach does. However, we would not want to put into place such complex systems as BT uses as the costs are very high. Standards are emerging that use VLAN technology to link customers to providers over networks like ours. We would be happy to go along with this. However we would still have to charge them the same as we are charging the end user as that is what we need to be sustainable. So your ISP would have to add his overheads to our charges and bill you more than we would but what extra would you gain?
Q: Are there any security concerns with the free email services such as Hotmail and Gmail?
Being realistic, the Internet leaks like a sieve and the number of instances of accounts getting hacked seem to be as high with government departments and banks as it does with services like GMAIL. If you are concerned about security, you should use encryption methods such as PGP (Pretty Good Privacy). One interesting model that can be adopted is for the customer to opt into one of the high security service providers by using a VPN across the internet into their network. Depending on who logs onto your computer you could use VPN technology to put them inside a cloud with suitable locks and security depending on who they are. We hope that a local company may take up the challenge of offering simple online security advice to domestic and SME users, which is sadly lacking in the UK.
Q: Is Cloud computing secure?
Is your house?! Is your existing internet connection? If you have confidential data, then you should seriously consider encryption. Nothing unencrypted that goes on the Internet is ever 100% safe because it needs to pass through multiple servers to reach a destination, and each represents a potential security weakness without encryption.
2) Telco Registration
Q: There are various references to registering as a Telco, applying to OFCOM for Code Powers and various other legalistic hurdles carrying a budget of £30K. Are there any doubts that any of this can halt or delay the project or run away with wildly greater charges?
No, the process is well understood. There is a two stage process, firstly applying for a CUPID code which effectively identifies B4RN as a communications provider (CP). Once B4RN is registered as a CP, BT and other CPs have to deal with B4RN on an equal footing and B4RN can access regulated services such as PIA and LLU. To get a CUPID code, there must be a credible business plan showing the intention to run a PECN (Public Electronic Communications Network) and there is a one page form from Ofcom to complete. There is no cost associated with the process.
Code Powers - once again, a business plan is required and a payment of £10,000 to cover Ofcom's costs. A bond which relates to the amount of duct on public land is also paid to Ofcom so that in the event of any telecommunications provider going bankrupt, any repairs to ducting etc can be covered. Less than 1% of B4RN's ducting is intended to be laid on public land so the bond will be relatively low.
3) Other questions
"Do I get a fixed public IP address, or a block of IP addresses"
By default we will issue 1 static IP address per premises. We expect many users to install a gateway/router/firewall/WiFi hub on the end of the line and that will handle additional internal address allocations and use NAT to share the single address.
If the user is taking VoIP services connected directly to our CPE switch then an additional IP address will be allocated for that. However we have no problem with allocating additional addresses or blocks of addresses if required so long as the end user knows what to do with them and makes a case to us. We have to justify our address blocks to RIPE who will want to see the case for assigning them. Given the shortage of IPv4 addresses we might be forced towards IPv6 numbering if a user wants to take a block but the B4RN network will support both protocol stacks.
___________________________________________
In my thoughts. People will be curious to make their own Networks despite VM's, BT's and other Networks. Now I understand the meaning of envy, lol.
10Gb/s a second for the future prospects? WOW
At the minute they're giving 1Gb/s down & 1Gb/s up. I wonder about the traffic management though. Will it be unlimited or capped after certain speeds are reached/downloads are acquired. I also wonder if they throttle customer's connections. I'm still researching on this to see the service and how fast (& unlimited it is).I live in a town within Lancashire with Virgin Media enabled (from early 2000's I think; I am not sure about the enable of VM's cable in Lancashire), but not BT FTTC. Although, speeds are starting to become a very big implication and problem for some and VM is massively over subscribed where I live in the town (within Lancashire).
I am supposed to have FTTC enabled by 2015 at least; it is stated on BT's wesbite and "Samknows Exchange Checker".
I wonder if they'll spread it across Lancashire for customers in towns.
Last edited:
But waiting on VM to rollout the full upgrade before that happens. 
![Da[]San](/styles/overclockers/avatars/4.png){kind=avatar}
