building a fibre broadband service for the countryside - any experts here?

bazaarboy

bazaarboy

bazaarboy

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Hi I would appreciate any advice on this

I live in a small village and the local authority is investing in a fibre network programme to get "superfast broadband" to at least 80% of the county.

Their only partner for this is BT / OpenReach.

Some areas are too remote, so may not be upgraded.
However, if an area can be shown to obtain no more than 2mbits using ordinary phonelines and ADSL then they have promised to use "supplementary technologies" to boost these areas (assuming of course that fibre can't brought there).

Our village is likely not to get fibre and our average speed is 0.75mbit :mad:

We have campaigned to speak to the programme director and one of the chief OpenReach engineers - and we have a meeting to speak to them soon.

I'd like to find out how hard it is to extend a fibre network (just half a mile away they already have fibre).
Terms like FTTC and FTTP are unclear to me, as well as this description of supplementary technologies.

Basically, the better informed we are before the meeting, the better chance we have for arguing our case and finally get a reasonable internet connection!!

Thanks
 
Half a mile away?

I'd go armed with the number of properties that would sign up to Infinity (don't go with an estimate, get signatures if possible), and if you know the land is owned privately, go speak to the farmers/land owners and ask if they'd agree to dig up routes to get the fibre laid.

Openreach will essentially want to blow the fibre, put up 1 or several cabinets and utilise the existing copper network for FTTC. Without the cost and planning permission attached, if possible.

If you can make this "easy" for them, and they can see there's a good number of properties that will take the service, they may do it. It's all cost / benefit analysis.

Alternatively, some areas have created their own networks, bypassing BT/Openreach entirely. Even achieving speeds up to 1GBps or 1000MBps!! :eek: (link)
 
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Thanks EVH
Does fibre have to be laid underground?
The copper phone cables are overhead - it seems it would be easier to add the fibre bundle along the telephone poles?
There are 88 houses in the village, and yes, over 90% would definitely take on the service.

I read about the B4RN project - it quite an achievement, though not sure where we'd begin to be honest...
 
I'm not 100% on this, but I believe fibre is to fragile to go via pole - a quick google tells me its possible, but my guess is that the increased maintenance costs (Especially in remote areas) would outweigh the initial saving. I stand to be corrected on that though.

Also, in case it helps:
FTTC - Fibre to the cabinet. The cabinet is the green box you see littered around the country. In old days, you had a copper line between you and the box, and then there was a (bigger) copper line between the box and the exchange. FTTC replaces the copper line between the box and the exchange, but you still use your old copper line between your house and the cabinet. Because the connection to the cabinet is always very short (100s of meters), the max speed is much higher.

FTTP - fibre to the premises. As above, but the copper between you and the cabinet is replaced with fibre. Maximizes the available speed. Plus, as advances in fibre tend to be in the transmitters and receivers rather than the fibre itself, you are better placed for 'the future™'.
 
Linkex said:
I'm not 100% on this, but I believe fibre is to fragile to go via pole - a quick google tells me its possible, but my guess is that the increased maintenance costs (Especially in remote areas) would outweigh the initial saving. I stand to be corrected on that though.

Also, in case it helps:
FTTC - Fibre to the cabinet. The cabinet is the green box you see littered around the country. In old days, you had a copper line between you and the box, and then there was a (bigger) copper line between the box and the exchange. FTTC replaces the copper line between the box and the exchange, but you still use your old copper line between your house and the cabinet. Because the connection to the cabinet is always very short (100s of meters), the max speed is much higher.

FTTP - fibre to the premises. As above, but the copper between you and the cabinet is replaced with fibre. Maximizes the available speed. Plus, as advances in fibre tend to be in the transmitters and receivers rather than the fibre itself, you are better placed for 'the future™'.
Click to expand...

Thanks Linkex

So if the appropriate conduit was in place, all that's needed is just to blow a roll of fibre and connect this to the cabinet &/or the properties directly?

It doesn't sound too hard... :)
 
ci_newman said:
And some of these projects have failed spectacularly :eek:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-23713493

Such a waste of EU / tax money!
Click to expand...

This was done on a massive scale and managed horribly. There are probably much smaller / localised examples where it's worked. Plus Digital Region was competing directly with BT FTTC whereas in areas like mentioned in the OP this competition wouldn't exist.

Agree though DR was a massive waste of money.
 
If the FTTC doesn't pan out, investigate the possibility of a wireless link? Half a mile isn't far as long as you have line of sight, and you could share a FTTC connection over a wireless link. Ubiquity makes some good cheap devices (£50-ish per side)
 
ci_newman said:
And some of these projects have failed spectacularly :eek:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-23713493

Such a waste of EU / tax money!
Click to expand...
That was government run :confused:

The B4RN project was run by the villagers and farmers so the take-up must have been almost 99%. You can't expect to whack FTTC/FTTP in the countryside and expect Average Joe to buy it. Doesn't suprise me that failed tbh.

@OP - I'd write to the local counsellor and see if there are any plans ongoing. It might be that they could get onboard and help generate the interest before you approach Openreach.

I know the village that my mum lives near did this, and pitched together to apply for a Welsh Assembly grant and they had a company come in and install Wireless Broadband at 40/40Mb symmetric or 20/20Mb for £15 a month. Pretty awesome result for them in the end.
 
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