Over at the NextGenUs blog, recent coverage of the subject by BBC Look North with a focus on Lincolnshire and Dig Your Own Fibre!

Some excellent coverage on several initiatives here by Chris Benfield at the Yorkshire Post and a couple of quotes:

“Hull-born Guy Jarvis came back from Australia in 2001 and could not believe that Brits within shouting
distance of towns had less broadband than some customers in the proper Outback.

His company – previously Fibrestream, now morphing into NextGenUs – follows a business model, enabled in 2006, called a community interest company, which means it must re-invest most of its profits for public benefit. It has just launched a
demonstration project giving the Humber Lifeboat station a full two-way connection, enabling it to stream film
of operations to other agencies, such as coastguard and media, as well as downloading at top speed to “the
remotest spot in England” – Spurn Point, at the end of the finger of sand which steers the Humber into the
North Sea.

When we first reported the project, it looked as if the answer was to squeeze more out of existing wires from
the BT exchange, at Easington. But that would not have been fast enough. Another possibility was to run new
fibre-optic cable over the five miles – but the cable itself costs £10 a metre and the cost of digging and ducting
can easily make that £110. A cheaper option was to wrap new cable around the old BT wires, strung on poles
between Easington and Spurn Point. But BT’s charging rules made even that too expensive.

Satellite connections are costly and cause signal delays which are awkward for some applications. The
eventual solution, at about £6,000, was a superfast 1,000 megs-per-sec cable up a tower block in the heart of
Hull, to a transmitter-receiver array exchanging radio signals of 100 mps capacity with Spurn Point, 22 miles
away, over a series of relays. Actual initial test speeds were 40mps “down” and 20 mps “up” and they can be
tweaked up. The lifeboat crew and another thousand customers in Hull and Holderness will get a similar
service for about £20 a month for typical household needs, on a pay-by-use basis. A lot of city customers pay
more for less.

Mr Jarvis says: “We call it fi-wi – a mixture of fibre-optics and wireless. And it is probably the future for
thousands of communities. My advice to anyone feeling left out is: talk to your neighbours. On your own, you
are not going to get anywhere.”

“… the retiring chief executive of North Yorkshire Council, John Marsden, saw a chance to showcase how the council’s NYNET services might be expanded. He fixed £25,000 of funding and Mr Jarvis’s company put in a similar investment to set up a wireless relay, to Newton and on to Stape, from a NYNET connection at Lady Lumley School in Pickering, 14 miles away. About 50 customers pay up to £50 month for up to 10 mps with low contention. On the basic service, they get an actual four to five mps for £20 a month plus VAT.”

Friday 11th June 2010 saw a major milestone successfully completed.

The project requires several busy road crossings and thanks go to the agility and professionalism of SCD, a leading civil engineering, utility and cabling contractor, to step up and deliver the required quality carrier-grade duct work.

Also a note of appreciation to Tarmac PLC and Lincolnshire Council Council Highways for some impressive joined-up action too.

More to follow.

Today’s Parliamentary Questions regarding INCA, CBN and BIS – The Noble Lord, Lord Laird continues to progress the Taxpayers Interest.

Lord Laird to ask Her Majesty’s Government to which departments or agencies applications for funding have been made by Community Broadband Network Ltd (CBN Ltd); how much those applications requested; and whether they will place in the Library of the House copies of the business cases, business plans and cash flow projections submitted by CBN Ltd to support applications.
HL309

Lord Laird to ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will investigate why on 17 December 2009 a grant offer was issued by the Director, Communications and Content Industries Directorate, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, to Independent Networks Co-operative Association (INCA Ltd) addressed to Mr Malcom Corbett, their chief executive; and why a payment of £32,750 was made on 15 March, while the terms of reference of the Scrutiny and Liaison Committee were in draft form. HL310

Lord Laird to ask Her Majesty’s Government how the Technology Strategy Board ensures that those who assess requests for funding for advice and projects on broadband and next generation access are impartial and have the appropriate qualifications, knowledge and experience. HL311

Lord Laird to ask Her Majesty’s Government who were the independent assessors who (a) have been assessing, and (b) will assess, the delivery of advice given on broadband and next generation access by Independent Networks Co-operative Association Ltd and Community Broadband Network Ltd; and what were or are their qualifications and experience. HL312

Lord Laird to ask Her Majesty’s Government what measures are in place for evaluating the benefits of advice given by, and any deployment of broadband and next generation access by, Independent Networks Co-operative Association Ltd and Community Broadband Network Ltd. HL313

Here is a cool video of our partners at AFL Telecommunications at the close of last Thursday’s Village Hall meeting, where we formally announced the project is going forwards this summer.

A key point to make here is that this pioneering NextGenUs Final Third First project involves not one penny of Taxpayers Money and is a private and community sector partnership.

Thanks to Andy Halliwell and the NWDA team for facilitating a most useful NGA Consultation Workshop at the Rheged Centre in Penrith, Cumbria on 28^th May 2010

More coverage shortly over at the Final Third First Campaign

This exercise brought together 50 or more stakeholders to debate and explore the issue of making World-Class NGA happen in Cumbria and the North West and is directly relevant nationally across the Final Third of the population.

There follows the combined FibreStream/NextGenUs consultation response:

A potential vision for next-generation access (NGA) in the region is summarised below.

The Northwest should have ubiquitous access to NGA as soon as possible, with 90% coverage being exceeded by 2015, and 100% coverage achieved by 2020. NGA will be provided by a range of retail providers in a competitive market to ensure that low prices and service innovation continue. The technology used to deliver NGA must be capable of delivering the connectivity required to support world-class applications to which businesses and consumers need access. The region will be globally competitive in the widespread use of NGA by all sectors of society.

This is an initial iteration and should be debated and evolved so that it is ambitious and achievable.

Q1. Do you agree with the vision? If not, what alternatives or changes would you make, and why?

A1. Yes in so far as no changes are required to what is stated as the vision.

Additional elements should be included that recognise the window of opportunity that NGA represents for local communities, namely the choice and chance to rebalance the terms of trade in favour of the community interest, on the basis that regardless of our day-jobs we are all 4^th Utility customers

– perhaps in the words “Any public sector intervention must act on the guiding principle of Putting People First, in recognition of both the once-in-a-century opportunity that NGA deployment represents and also the real risk of entrenching shareholder-value-driven local access network monopolies through inaction and thereby limiting the latent demand that NGA will otherwise fulfil for the betterment of current and future generations”

What is NGA?

For the purpose of the regional NGA strategy, the term ‘next-generation access’ refers to super-fast broadband that is enabled by replacing copper phone lines with fibre-optic cable (fibre) . There are three distinct types of NGA, as outlined below:

• Fibre to the premises (FTTP) where fibre is laid all the way from the telephone exchange to the customer premises, enabling symmetrical broadband services, typically of 100Mbit/s.

• Fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) where fibre is laid from the telephone exchange to street cabinets, enabling faster speeds over the short distance of copper wire that remains (this option is less expensive than FTTP, but performance is slower, particularly for upload speeds).

• Cable broadband using DOCSIS3.0, which has the potential to provide download speeds of up to 200Mbit/s. This technology is used by Virgin Media to provide its 50Mbit/s service.

However, it is worth noting that this network is not open access (i.e. no competitors have access to it) and it could be difficult to implement open access on a cable network.

Q2. Do you agree with the definition of NGA? If not, what alternatives or changes would you make, and why?

A2. Agree that FTTP and DOCSIS3.0 are credible NGA delivery types, FTTC, as recognised above, lacks the upload capability and remains cable-distance-dependent, both factors which do not make FTTC more than an intermediate stepping stone to NGA – this reality is recognised already in the statement above that:

“For the purpose of the regional NGA strategy, the term ‘next-generation access’ refers to super-fast broadband that is enabled by replacing copper phone lines with fibre-optic cable (fibre)”

It is good to see that BT’s BET is rejected as being fit for purpose, as per http://www.trefor.net/2010/04/20/isps-plunge-knife-into-bet-technology-digitalbritain-finalthirdfirst/ and http://www.fibrestream.co.uk/2009/09/23/bad-bet/

More seriously, the omission of wireless technologies, particularly as relevant to deeply-rural Final Third locations must be addressed – wireless has had and will continue to offer a vital bridging function to enable communities and businesses to benefit from effective connectivity until such time as Fibre can be built out to reach to the more remote areas.

– the suggested addition to the NGA definitions is “FiWi, the combination of ensuring Fibre Optic service delivery to within at least striking distance of a community, with Wireless delivery in the First Mile is a valid and useful means to deliver NGA services at low CAPEX cost, as a stepping stone to the 4^th Utility eNdGAme of end to end Fibre for future proofed fixed access”

NGA needs to be dynamically benchmarked against global standards of service delivery to customers i.e. maintained and upgraded as necessary to ensure fitness for purpose in global competition terms – it is vital not to become bogged down with specific speeds, particularly of the “upto” variety.

Strategic priorities

Following on from the vision for NGA, we believe that the single most important strategic objective should be:

The effective use of NGA by all, to participate and compete in the global economy.

Achieving this goal will then lead to the numerous economic and transformational benefits that are associated with NGA. This will put the Northwest in the strongest position to exploit the full benefits that NGA brings. The strategic aim is supported by four strategic priorities, as shown below:

Q3. Do you agree that ‘the effective use of NGA by all, to participate and compete in the global economy’ is the single most important strategic objective? If not, what alternatives or changes would you make, and why?

A3. There needs to be consideration beyond simply the narrow economic case, that extends to encompass both public Sector sevvice delivery and wider Quality of Life enhancement for each local community.

Suggested addition:

“and provide Quality of Life enhancement including for Public Sector Service delivery, including Healthcare, Education and eGovernment/tGovernment, that are fit for a developed 21^st Century Society”

Strategic aim and priorities [Source: Analysys Mason]

“The effective use of NGA by all, to participate and compete in the global economy”

Ubiquitous availability Range of competitive suppliers

Without ubiquitous availability the Having a wide range of suppliers in usage of NGA will be limited by the a competitive market will help to

proportion of citizens and drive innovation and lower costs to businesses that can access NGA end users

All of which maximises the

attractiveness of NGA

The highest levels of

adoption are key to

maximising the

economic and

transformational

benefits that NGA can unlock

World-class networks Attractive services

and applications

Networks need to be sufficiently Without attractive services and

advanced to support the applications for end users, the take-up

applications that deliver the of NGA will be limited

economic and transformational

benefits

Services need to be attractive to

both existing broadband users and

those who are currently digitally

excluded

The four strategic priorities help to support the widespread use of NGA in the region, which in

turn is the key driver for the benefits that are expected to arise from NGA. The activities that the

region takes should all be aimed at delivering these strategic priorities.

Q4. Do you agree with the four strategic priorities? If not, what alternatives or changes would you make, and why?

A4. Yes with the following additions:

Under Ubiquitous Availability, tie in the deliverable of “Unleash Latent Demand from local communities and businesses”

Under World-class networks, add the words “dynamically benchmarked to global best practice standards”

It is again vital to differentiate between the infrastructure that acts as the platform for NGA and the services, content and applications that run across that infrastructure;

The former is a natural monopoly in the first mile whereas the latter is naturally able to be open and competitive.

Therefore Structural Separation of the former, preferably with an ownership and governance model that puts the community interest first (e.g. externally regulated CICs) from the latter is both highly desirable and something that should be required wherever any Taxpayer funding intervention is being considered.

Activities to deliver the strategic priorities

We have looked in detail at the options for each of the four strategic priorities and have identified

activities that could be undertaken which are deliverable, practical, and will make a difference to

the region. These activities have then been grouped into five different areas as shown below.

Q5. Do you agree with the suggested activities? Are there other activities the region should consider, and why?

A5. Broadly yes – care needs to be taken to establish the true nature and extent of market failure by considering the market to be wider than the incumbent operators BT and Virgin Media.

A major cause of reluctance of new entrants into the 4^th Utility NGA market is the uncertainty regarding both where the Final Third is located (i.e. BT has announced they do not have a business case to privately invest themselves in the Final Third. Therefore the market requires certainty from BT as to which local communities this refers to so that investment decisions can be made for best use of capital).

Also it is important to establish that the plans the Public Sector, including NWDA, has to use taxpayers Money to address the Final Third issue will not end up distorting the market

• clarity and accuracy of plans and information are key.

Q6. What sectors should be the focus and priorities of the strategy activities? What is the rationale for your selection?

A6. Rural Depopulation is the key issue that NGA has the ability to effectively address therefore the focus must be on providing the 4^th Utility into those areas where businesses are materially disadvantaged by the current lack of fit for purpose connectivity – putting the Final Third First in fact, which will have an important stimulating effect on accelerating the rate of NGA roll-out in the areas containing the Two Thirds of the population that the incumbent operators have committed to invest into.

Q7. Where should intervention activities be prioritised (white, grey, or combinations thereof)? What is the rationale for your selection?

A7. Intervention activities should be focussed on those areas where true NGA is not going to be delivered by the incumbent operators.

It is important to recognise that these areas represent the majority of the land area of each affected county and region on a national basis and that therefore it is impractical (and in the current climate unfundable by the Taxpayer) to find the CAPEX required to simply overbuild NGA infrastructure.

Public Sector intervention needs to be SMART and several suggestions are as follows:

Reduce investment uncertainty by pinpointing the postcodes of Final Third communities in the region.

Public Sector has two main capability available to help:

1 – pay to build (and we have already identified that this is unrealistic on any comprehensive scale in the current and foreseeable economic climate)

2 – Commitment to pay to use – Public Sector has an important role to play in acting as an Anchor Tenant to support the overall Private Sector investment proposition in NGA;

Public Sector must guard itself carefully from being cherry-picked, a situation whereby tactical savings gained from aggregating Public Sector spend inadvertently lead to a strategic failure to realise the full benefits of NGA by hollowing-out the investment value proposition, to the enduring detriment of the wider community.

The work conducted by Devon County Council’s Economic Development Team is to be highly commended in terms of being an effective economic and GIS mapping correlation methodology and may act as a useful benchmark for other counties and regions nationally.

Finally, the application of pressure upon BT to open up as Points of Presence (PoPs) their existing and largely amortised fibre assets associated with the decade-old COLOSSUS network that reaches over 5000 active exchanges nationally, and thereby radically reduce the tyranny of distance that disadvantages unfairly rural areas due to distance based Middle Mile connectivity charging, is something to be encouraged across all levels in Government and community.

info@nextgenus.net

31 May 2010

Have a good listen to the following interview on BBC Radio ********

Lincsffth

Can you work out which local community in the Final Third is getting FttH this summer?

From a Final Third First perspective, the most interesting speaker was undoubtedly BT’s Simon Roberson who presented the following slide:

BT Confirm Final Third is Outside Planned Investment Envelope

What is clear (and highlighted in yellow above) is that 34%, the Final Third, is now confirmed as being beyond BT’s plans for NGA investment.

This is an important step towards providing the certainty that emerging independent networks, localised initiatives and new entrants into the NGA space require in order to commit their own funds towards delivering the Final Third First

Simon was asked at the event to go that simple step further – please identify the postcode areas where BT will not be investing in NGA.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, a ready answer was not forthcoming beyond some vague talk of each local area being assessed on its own merits on a case by case basis.

This issue needs a rapid solution, which in turn may require political input from Messrs Vaisey and Cable to steer OFCOM in the right direction, namely:

OFCOM must instruct BT to publish at the earliest opportunity either the list of postcodes for the 66% of the population where BT will be investing, or the Final Third postcodes where it will not, or preferably both.

That way, alternative non-incumbents First Mile NGA providers like NextGenUs UK CIC will have the opportunity to make derisked private sector investment decisions, safe in the knowledge that for some defined period, 5 years perhaps.

During this period, BT will be barred from selectively stepping into any such previously-identified non-commercial area which would risk chilling investment by damaging the local independent community interest CAPEX proposition before it has had chance to mature and become established.

This methodology will in turn have the added benefit of minimising the scale and nature of any residual Public Sector intervention requirement, very much in line with the Conservatives’ pre-election position re NGA

Thanks to Lindsey Annison’s pointer, here is an excellent blog post from Geoff Daily at App Rising on both the problem and solution for fixing fixed NGA for the UK

Well said Geoff! – you go right to the heart of both the UK NGA problem and point to a key part of the solution.

An option for SMART government intervention, maximum bank for buck, is to act as underwriter for that most local level of democracy and taxation, the Parish Council.

Parish Councils can levy precepts for the provision or upkeep of services in the common good.

A century ago, Parish Councils were instrumental in pioneering the provision of utility services we now take for granted e.g. piped water, electricity.

NGA is the 4th Utility, so it follows that there is a 21st Century role for the Parish Council Precept (PCP).

The challenge for local communities, across a patchwork of perhaps 15,000 localities spread across the UK in predominantly-rural areas, is how to make the significant CAPEX costs involved with FiWi deployment digestible for the local community.

By underwriting centrally, the Westminster Government could simply enable each Parish Council to spread this CAPEX over a decade or two, rather than a year or two.

County Councils are the obvious and natural choice as intermediaries in this process

- John Marsden, until recently Chief Executive of North Yorkshire County Council, acted to test the subsidiarity proposition that Parish Councils are best placed to determine (and also reinvigorated by) local solutions, which in turn resulted in the successful NextGenUs NandS NGA FiWi project in Newton & Stape in the North Yorkshire Moors.

The incoming Government, particularly Dr Vince Cable (BIS) and Mr Ed Vaisey (Broadband), has a golden opportunity here:

Combine this PCP funded approach with Government action in directing the £200M (perhaps still ring-fenced from the Digital Switchover fund?) available for the “2Mbps USC by 2012″ Digital Britain Report deliverable into making available Digital Village Pumps (Isenberg’s Dumb Fat Pipes) and achieving the Final Third First is now within reach.

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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.

The NextGenUs NGA Testbed is now officially live in Hull and Humber.

This NGA Testbed Trial supports 1000 Residential Subscribers on Phase One, serving a nationally-representative range of socio-demographics and locations from Inner City Urban to Remote Rural.

Heartfelt thanks must go to Councillor John “Digibobbins” Robinson and his trusty Knowledge Manager, Steve Fleming of Hull City Council.

Let the fun commence!