I am very interested in looking at getting fibre optic cabling installed to supply high speed broad band to our rural area (in Scotland). We just get coverage on the existing copper wire system although are about 7km from the exchange. I would be interested to hear from anyone who has had experience of trying to organise a community based fibre optic cable installation to serve a community of about 30 homes strung along about 4km of a main road into a rural area near a town. Who are the people to talk to, where can grants be sought if at all and what are the likely costs of getting such a thing done.
May be a non-starter but I think it would just involve replacing about 8km of phone line which is currently mainly just laid in ditch by the road with a few small branches off at intervals of about 1km to various farm communities. It should be possible to raise some funds locally too if enough people get on board and I am sure some people would be willing to sign reasonably long contracts in return for the very fast download speeds - I would It could transform business and life prospects in this area so I am very interested to hear of peoples' experiences and information.
