Rural broadband - a cry from the wilderness!

[#1]

Great news about the 100 MB/s trial - hope it goes well ... but please can I put in a genuine and heartfelt plea for those of us struggling in rural areas on 1MB/s or less or even none in the case of some of my isolated neighbours!!! We need help too and just getting 'not spot' areas up to a modest but steady 2MB/s would give rural areas a huge boost.
We don't expect the giddy heights of 10MB/s never mind 100, but 2 would be fabulous.
Please don't lose sight of your rural customers. Yes we could all move to cities, but it's not always practical - our work and our schools are here.
Why doesn't Plusnet be the first ISP to really look after its rural customers, cos no-one else is!!

[#2]

We use BT Wholesale equipment and have no say over which exchanges or cabinets are upgraded I'm afraid.

[#3]

It's not really down to Plusnet as far as I understand. The fitting of fibre lines is dealt with by BT and/or contractors to BT, Plusnet dont have a say in where improvements to exchanges, new lines are fitted etc so I think the appeal will fall on deaf ears. I've been reading up on the 'final third', hard to say what's going to happen with the promises that have been made.

[#4]

Just found this on the subject under discussion here -

Broadband target postponed in the UK
15 Jul 2010 | 13.35 Europe/London
The new coalition Conservative-Liberal Democrat government in the UK has postponed 2012’s deadline for all households to receive a minimum 2Mbp/s connection. The target has been pushed back to ‘within the lifetime of the current parliament’, which could mean 2015.
The revised Universal Service Commitment (USC) was a central part of the Digital Britain initiative unveiled by the previous Labour administration. The new coalition government, which came to power in May, has been analysing the country’s finances and has warned an austerity package of cuts will be required to cut the country’s debts.
Broadband funding gap
Hence, today, Jeremy Hunt, the Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport, revealed he has looked at government finances there is insufficient resources to fund the 2Mb USC. As he admitted in today’s speech, it goes against what he was reaffirming only last month.
“Last month, I announced that we were supporting a universal service level of 2 Meg as the very minimum that should be available,” he said.
“I have looked at the provision the Government had made to achieve this by 2012. And I’m afraid that I am not convinced that there is sufficient funding in place.
“So, while we will keep working towards that date, we have set ourselves a more realistic target of achieving universal 2 Mbps access within the lifetime of this Parliament.”
Broadband feedback
Despite acknowledging broadband’s contribution to the economy and that one in five adults are not able to access broadband services, Hunt believes the broadband commitment will have to be delayed by up to three years.
However, he has asked the broadband industry to come back to him views and suggestions in what would make investing in broadband more attractive. Based on this feedback he is vowing to outline potential legislative changes to boost private investment in broadband services.
Interestingly the Universal Service Obligation, the minimal service BT was obliged to provide, became dubbed the Universal Service Commitment when the previous labour Government decided to upgrade it and set a goal of 2Mb. The term is now being further downgraded, by Hunt, who refers to its as the Universal Service Level - a term which omits both 'obligation' and any reference to a 'commitment' goal.

[#5]

Never Mind Sarah you cant live in a Beautiful place near to an old Methodist Chapel and get fast broadband.
How did you get on with the disappeared Server owner

[#6]

Quote from: Ben

We use BT Wholesale equipment and have no say over which exchanges or cabinets are upgraded I'm afraid.

OK, so charge rural customers for the speed available on their line, instead of the bandwidth in your adverts.  I guess you'll soon be charging for 'up to 100Megs' instead of 'up to 8Megs' or 'up to 16 megs' or whatever it is, but those of us on poor line speeds will still be receiving half a meg.
How many other industries charge for  a product then only deliver a fraction of it?
Yes it's BT's fault - so put some pressure on BT.

[#7]

We get charged exactly the same by BT Wholesale and have no avenues to put pressure on them I'm afraid.
In addition, Ofcom enforce minimum pricing.

[#8]

There was somebody, who suggested that the money from Digtal Switchover would likely get focussed on rural areas as BT are focussing on the more urban areas with larger exchanges anyway.

[#9]

Hi,
Definitely with you on this, fibre may help for some but for others their areas may not be viable or cost effective to do. Certainly not in the short to medium term. We are looking at alternative technologies that can help, one is called BET (broadband enabling technology) which could potentially offer either 1 or 2Mbps on lines that can't get broadband or get less than 512kbps say. I'll let you know when we know more.

[#10]

I read a bit about BET when it was announced by Openreach last Spetember.  They basically said they would be able to provide up to 1Mbps per copper pair, up to 12km from the exchange (and bond multiple lines together to reach the 2Mbps 'target' that the gov't has set)
From what I remember, it required a powered NTE, and some exchange equipment.  Not sure on the actual signalling or protocols used, but could be an interesting trial.
B.

[#11]

Will they be able to bond multiple lines? I would have thought that BT will not be awash with spare pairs in rural areas and none would become free as VirginMedia is not normally present. So would BT run more copper 

[#12]

How about the Scottish Highland method, Microwave links to each village?
A Company in Coggeshall Essex is currently pushing a similar method - rural enable or something, has been bulling the local BBC the last couple of weeks

[#13]

Quote from: itsme

I would have thought that BT will not be awash with spare pairs in rural areas ...

Oh there you go, you spot the obvious flaw in the whole plan. Indeed in those small exchanges with long lines, there is likely to be no cabinets and few if any spare pairs to bond, those that are left are probably the best of the worst that are left.
At one time the plan was to bond the good pairs together to get some way from the exchange and terminate them in a WiMAX acces point, this could provide good high speed coverage for many people. Everything has gone quiet on this plan.

[#14]

Microwave seems to very popular in rural west of Ireland. My daughter in Co Galway uses Airwire, who reckon to cover a radius of about 15-20 km from each base. http://www.airwire.ie/index.php/products
The prices aren't bad, when the other choices are satellite or nothing, and it appears to be genuinely unlimited usage.
I'm just surmising - that the not-spots are generally larger than in the UK, so making it more viable over there than here.

[#15]

the ones I have seen on the west coast of Scotland are small local exchanges, with normal connection to the local homes and a Microwave dish on the roof,  I stayed in two places last year and got resonable Wifi from Local places - about 4M from memory.