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We had set ourselves a challenging mission to accomplish.

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Provide superfast broadband to one of the most remote-rural locations in England.

Spurn Point, located where land, river and sea meet (Yorkshire, Humber and North respectively), where RNLI Humber crew and their families are permanently based, is unsurprisingly an ADSL Notspot.

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Here is the speedtest.net result from the RNLI Crew Facilities using the NextGenUs NGA FiWi Connection

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Said Sean Royce, Commercial & Finance Director, Kingston Communications, on news of the service going live for RNLI Humber:

“Wow!

Those boys deserve that and KC are proud and delighted we could help.

Looks like it proves we can deliver Next Generation Access!

Hopefully more will benefit from our combined efforts.”

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Said Dave “Spanish” Steenvoorden, Cox RNLI Humber:

“It’s Brill!”

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“Together We Are The Network” is the ethos of the wider NextGenUs NGA Testbed of which the RNLI Humber deliverables of superfast broadband form an important part.

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Thanks once again to our partners and project co-sponsors, some anonymous and others named:

• Emtelle
• AFL Telecommunications, a Fujikura business
• Kell Systems
• Kingston Communications
• Steve Medcalf Ltd
• Pharos Films
• Yorkshire Wildlife Trust
• Screwfix
• AND the RNLI Humber Crew & kids!!

More news on the Testbed and other developments here at the NextGenUs blog.

Led by GUY JARVIS: NextGenUs UK CIC, Fibrestream Ltd., Neoeon Ltd.,
- with -
MARK PURDOM: Director, BroadSoft Ltd, Lane End Community Broadband, NGA UK,
TREFOR DAVIES: Co-founder and CTO of Timico Limited, member of Industrial Panel of Bangor University School Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, member of council of both the UK Internet Telephony Service Providers Association (ITSPA) and Internet Services Providers’ Association (ISPA),
NEIL BLAKE: C.Eng., Fellow of the British Computer Society ex Xerox,  Palo Alto, California,
CLIVE DAVENPORT: Policy Chairman – Trade and Industry, Federation of Small Businesses,
MILES MANDELSON: Chairman Great Asby Broadband Community Interest Company,
ROD MITCHELL: Director, Horsetiger Ltd, RM Consultants and Cardrona Community Broadband
DES HUGHES (RA to The Lord Corbett of CastleVale) ex Post Office Research Laboratories, Goonhilly Satelite Earth Station and British Telecom.

A number of us then had the pleasure of a meeting for 45 minutes The Lord Corbett of Castlevale, past Chairman of The Home Affairs Select Committee as previously an MP, who just happens to be the elected Chairman of Government Peers. He was very understanding and very concerned and we believe is very aware of evidence of past & current failures and future difficulties in the delivery of Broadband throughout the UK.

Worthy of note is the reference to BT ducting being blocked at some point for every one of the 31 route examples quoted!

A better way to assess the true situation re actual BT duct spare capacity availability is to perform a more representative and comprehensive study across various geo-types

- the NextGenUs hypothesis being that rural locations will have a significantly higher percentage of available BT ducting than the single metronode example given.

Put simply:

If there is no space left in ducts etc, then what is occupying the space and what useful work is it doing?

****************************************************************************************

Thank you for your emails of 27 October, 13 November and 16 November to Stephen Timms on above subject. I have been asked to reply, and I apologise for the delay in doing so.

On the specific issue of using BT’s poles and underground ductings, Ofcom have been looking at how duct and pole access could be part of the mix of options for delivering Next Generation Access (NGA) in the UK. They have been doing this through their duct surveys and by looking at what has been achieved in other countries, and this issue will be included in their Wholesale Local Access Review consultation which is due to begin in Jan 2010.

It is worth pointing out that duct and pole access on its own would not provide straightforward options to deliver NGA, and there are limitations which will need to be overcome before this option is achievable.  For example, in a survey carried out as part of Ofcom’s work on NGA, of 31 paths between the metro node and the exchange, Ofcom found that all had at least one section where there was very little unoccupied space.  This means that, even with duct access, communications providers would probably need to build new duct in at least some locations.  However, on the other hand, duct and pole access could reduce the cost of market entry, be deployed quickly and make good use of existing infrastructure, which is why Ofcom is currently assessing its viability.

In terms of funding, the Digital Britain Report, published in June, set out the Government’s plans for a Universal Service Commitment for broadband of 2Mbps for homes across the country by 2012.  The Government has committed £200m of public funds to help deliver this, with the remainder of the costs being met from the private sector through in-kind contributions, competitive commercial pricing through tender contract and design, and contributions from other public sector organisations.  The Government is currently discussing with stakeholders the technical specification of the USC and how the procurement might be structured.  We expect that the procurement process itself is likely to start next Spring and all stakeholders will have the opportunity to submit their proposals for evaluation in due course.

What is worth noting is the rising tide of interest in and support from Public Sector for NGA initiatives.

And cached here – letter-CBN-June09

There follows an open letter to one of the original project promoters regarding how best to ensure that INCA delivers Digital Britain.

Shaun,

Several key points and actions came out of the INCA ad-hoc pre-board meeting in Leeds on Monday that you very kindly invited myself and Saul Marchant to attend on behalf of the wider Third Sector and Community constituencies, alongside private sector suppliers of NGA build, carriers and operational services e.g. Red-M, LN Comms, FibreStream, Beeline BB with Andy Carter and the team at BIS.

Having discussed that meeting and the teleconference at length with other stakeholders, we have summarised the situation as we understand it as follows:

See here also http://www.fibrevolution.com/index.php/topic,72.msg220.html#msg220

1 – BIS is considering funding INCA

2 – CBN has expressed its desire to separate from INCA at the earliest opportunity

For clarity, we believe that this should be extended to exclude CBN Directors from the steerage of INCA (including the Initial Board) for an appropriate period until INCA is formally and legally established. Thereafter, we would hope that the membership criteria decided upon by the Interim Board would see CBN’s re-involvement in the organisation through democratic process or simply as members. With a suitably balanced interim board there may be advantage in having a single CBN member, based on their experience in setting up INCA so far.

2a. The responsibilities of the Interim Board (which require clear and transparent definition and discussion) would also include drawing up an initial business plan to ensure sustainability for INCA beyond the seed funding from BIS. It was stated on Monday by CBN that a figure of £40,000 had been “spent” by CBN during the preliminary work to establish INCA.

It is only reasonable that CBN is given the opportunity to present to the Interim Board any receipts for costs incurred. The Interim Board, Scrutiny Panel, Formal Board and BIS should all consider whether any or all of these costs are reimbursable or could be considered speculative risk, or even a generous donation. (It should be noted that £40,000 would be greater than 25% of the initial round of funding and payment of such a sum would restrict INCA’s activities from the outset.)

Allowing CBN to submit accounts for its costs to be considered for repayment would therefore reiterate the need to separate CBN Directors from due process in the setting up of INCA. This will then permit the Interim Board and BIS to make a fair and just decision without vested interest.

3 – JON is a CBN proposal that is not funded by BIS and is separate from INCA

4 – LDS is a CBN proposal that is not funded by BIS and is separate from INCA

5 – INCA needs to direct its attention as a matter of urgency upon membership types and fees, respective criteria, exclusion policy and reasoning for such.

5a – The membership fee structure depends on defining the value proposition that INCA is to offer potential members, whilst demonstrating credible sustainability modelling. We understand this is currently missing/undeveloped from the INCA model/business plan

6. An Interim Board is to be formed as soon as possible from the wider forum of interested parties. A minimum of 6-7 persons has been envisaged.

6a. It has been recommended that the model for this is taken from BSG COTS (the Peter Shearman Plan). An Interim Board of a minimum of 10 self-elected members, across all stakeholder groups would seem admirable.

7. The Interim Board will complete all set up tasks to lay the foundations for the democratic election of the First Board and the launch of a legally established co-operative. This must include as an utmost priority the recruitment of members to the INCA co-op (or expressions of interest until the paperwork is completed) through marketing, widespread communications amongst the stakeholders, media and so on.

8. To ensure the right methods and vehicles are used, an independent scrutiny panel (not members of the Interim Board) should be established to monitor the actions of the IB on behalf of all stakeholders. The Interim Board must report in full to the Independent Scrutiny Panel all decisions proposed and/or taken.

The Independent Scrutiny Panel then continues to provide comfort and assurance to BIS that best value for Public Funding is maintained throughout its grant-enabled early life until INCA becomes fully self-sustaining from membership fees, revenue etc.

9. To date, there is open acceptance that INCA has failed in communicating clearly and comprehensively to stakeholders its purpose, agenda, structure and so on. This needs to be rectified, again using the Peter Shearman COTS model, by immediately making public the specific documents that Lindsey Annison requested from CBN prior to this week’s conference, namely:

a) List of current steering group members

b) Proposed Foundation Board members

c) List of INCA key objectives and funding milestones

d) Pre-Christmas meeting dates for steering group as the now wider INCA Forum

e) Minutes (or Powerpoints) from previous INCA steering group meetings

To this end, and acknowledging both CBN and INCA’s financial circumstances, a public area has been created at http://www.fibrevolution.com/index.php/topic,72.0.html for the upload of and access to the documents (see above section 9) required to move INCA forward.

In conclusion, the wider constituency polled feels that INCA has a useful role to play, dove-tailed into the BSG COTS process already underway, in helping to realise the BIS policy objectives of delivering upon the Digital Britain Report in the National Interest.

In order to achieve its aims, INCA needs to be established on an effective set of principles, scope and deliverables. It is hoped and intended that this can be achieved through the two safeguards of:

1. The Interim Board
2. The Independent Scrutiny Panel

Shaun, perhaps you would be so good as to circulate this message to the other participants from the Monday meeting in Leeds or alternatively provide their email addresses.

Kind Regards and Approved by:

G Jarvis

W Garrett

S Davison

S Marchant

M Purdom

L Annison

N Hall

A Waters

G Rewston

G Garrett

C Knowles

M Boswell

Something that was apparent as regards NGA is that we can see emerging a bipolarity between open access infrastructure with clear separation between access and services on the one hand and closed access infrastructure on the other hand, whereby the NGA proposition is delivered in a monolithic vertically integrated fashion.

Examples of the latter include satellite delivery eg. Avanti, mobile broadband via 3G and cable eg. Virgin Media in on-net areas.

An interesting question to pose is whether there is any particular technical reason why consumers should be obliged to take ISP services from their access provider at all.

Or put another way, why should consumers not be able to select their preferred ISP using cable, 3G or satellite connectivity as a dumb fat pipe, in the same way as is available for copper-based xDSL service today and via the work of COTS and NICC will be consistently available for ALA in the NGA near-term?

Certainly there are commercial and to some degree historical conventions at play here, however, fundamentally there seems to be no reason why, in a truly technology-neutral sense, consumers should have to take any further applications or content service from their baseline access connectivity provider.

The issue is important to consider in the context of possible public funding particularly for so-called White Areas aka NotSpots which are mostly found in the First Third of the UK, those mainly rural areas that are presently so poorly served for broadband and where arguably the need for reliable and capable connectivity exceeds that of urban areas.

If the consumer is to be assured of the maximum choice and best value proposition from NGA, regardless of where they live and by whatever means their connectivity is delivered then Open Access is surely a must.

What is particularly important about HRH Prince Charles’ intervention is the focus it gives to the particular issues faced by rural communities.

Unfortunately referred to in some less enlightened (sic) quarters as the Last Third, here at FibreStream we champion the cause of the First Third -

First in terms of current need due to poor to non-existent connectivity today.

First due to lack of services and amenities in rural areas, people living outside the cities have to incur much higher costs for travel in terms of cash for fuel and time wasted.

At a CVON-interim meeting I was kindly invited to speak at last week - at the  the invite of Richard Hull – there was a great example of a core team of community champions and ambassodors who get the key fact about NGA connectivity  – the opportunity to reshape the terms of trade  in the interests of their local community putting people first over telco profits by becoming their own telco 2.0 (or telco 3.0 perhaps…)

In cooperation and with approval of CVON-Interim, some excellent open source consultancy is available at Fibrevolution.com

And again in the Times today, more interesting direction from Nick Appleyard and the TSB team - here’s my comment reposted:

Through the work that FibreStream and NextGenUs do in the NGA space, I know of enough communities in England, Scotland and Wales already underway with NGA to fulfil Nick’s requirement several times over.

Maybe just maybe the UK will be amongst the world NGA leaders by 2012 – and that means 1Gbps (1000 Mbps) both ways to the Home

In these recessionary times, with unemployment rising, money tight and Christmas looming on the horizon, FibreStream is giving you the opportunity to become your own Telco and offer line rental and calls.

You can set whatever retail prices you choose – We will sell you local/national calls from 1p per minute and calls to mobiles from 9p per minute with zero call setup charges (excluding VAT)

Perhaps you want to club together to save or to earn some extra income – the choice is yours.

You can bill your customers (and we can help you get that set up) or alternatively we can handle that side of things for you.

Available UK wide, to get started you simply need to gather together interest from at least 30 of your friends, family, neighbours, businesses all of whom you trust (as you will be wearing the risk  if they don’t pay their bill!)

Then simply contact us WLR at fibrestream.co.uk and we can guide you through the process and help you sort it out.

Together We Are The Network

Video Intro:

FibreStream and a representative of the local legal community joined a private meeting with OFCOM on Friday 18th September 2009, at the instigation and invitation of Hull North MP, Diana Johnson.

OFCOM representatives, David and Helen, travelled up north to Hull to also face a public meeting of local residents and other local businesses to hear their concerns about the lack of choice for telecoms in Hull.

It was agreed that FibreStream, the regulator and the local MP will keep in close contact going forwards to help open up the market in Hull as quickly and directly as is possible, so that Hull and surrounding areas have the same level of choices as are available to comparable areas elsewhere in the UK without further unnecessary delay.

The matter at hand is the expedited solution of the nationally-recognised Hull Problem and FibreStream, on behalf of many local and national competitive service providers, is leading this initiative to deliver choice and competition into the local market.

The Hull Problem has been building for over a decade and for the national audience it is worth describing the situation in greater detail:

Unlike for the other 99% of the UK population, residents and businesses in Hull have a single provider for ADSL services;

There is no provider for SDSL;

WLR (Wholesale Line Rental) is unavailable;

CPS (Carrier Pre Selection) is unavailable;

LLU (Local Loop Unbundling) is unavailable;

SLU (Sub Loop Unbundling) is unavailable;

The comparative costs for wideband IP data services in Hull and surrounding areas are significantly higher than those available for similar sized cities elsewhere in the UK and this puts the city and wider community at a competitive disadvantage.

It is FibreStream’s hope that the process now going forwards in close coordination with OFCOM to resolve the Hull Problem will have value and relevance in helping to prevent similar issues from adversely affecting emerging Open Access NGA networks in the UK.

Managing the First Mile access network transition from “Now-Gen” Copper to Next-Gen Fibre and Wireless (FiWi) will be vital to ensure customer service continuity and FibreStream sees this initiative as a quick-win for Hull that has wider and longer term benefits in terms of innovation at scale on the UK national NGA level.

In order to maintain visibility as we progress towards solving the Hull Problem, FibreStream will take an Open Letter approach to all relevant correspondence with the incumbent KCOM in the interests of transparency, as FibreStream has no Commercial Confidentiality concerns and simply wants to see the market opened up for all competitors.

The following video clips show how an ADSL broadband feed can be extended some 3KM to provide service to a farm house that is beyond the range of ADSL.

If you do not feel entirely confident and competent at performing any of the following tasks – then please don’t DIY and rather seek professional advice and/or installation.

Step 1 – [31 seconds] Replacing an A2 junction box with an NTE5 ADSL filtered faceplate – The property from where the broadband service is to be sourced, itself is on the very limits of ADSL, hence we need to ensure the best signal quality. By fitting a modern master socket at the earliest point of ingress into the property and connecting the ADSL router at that point, we extract the best performance available.

Step 2 – [20 seconds] How the drop wires were originally fitted to A2 junction box

Step 3 – [24 seconds] Cleaning contacts to ensure good connection

Step 4 – [36 seconds] Internal Wiring Colour Coding

Step 5 – [17 seconds] Using the Push-Down Krone Tool

Step 6 – [36 seconds] Performing dog, aerial installers and overview of the purpose of the wireless connection

Step 7 – [48 seconds] Wireless Aerial Pole attachment and cable run

Step 8 – [22 seconds] Cable run to point of property ingress

Step 9 – [94 seconds] How to bring internal wiring into NTE5 junction box

Step 10 – [21 seconds] NTE5 Test Socket

Step 11 – [28 seconds] NTE5 with Filtered Faceplate, the end result

step 12 – [17 seconds] Drilling a hole (note from inside to outside)

Step 13 – [22 seconds] Using rod to insert CAT5 cable through the wall

Step 14 – [36 seconds] 11KV Powerlines – capable of carrying Fibre too…

Step 15 – [54 seconds] UG Box maintenance

Step 16 – [53 seconds] remote end aerial and cable run

Step 17 – [51 seconds] Final internal WiFi installation and job done