Broadbannned
As more and more people consume more and more bandwidth to do what they choose to, (Youtube etc), watch the shutters come down on the usage.
Whether it is GB (gigabits) per month, or exceeding the fair use policy, or unfair charges for 'overuse', more and more people are finding thesmeves locked down by traffic shaping morons or over charged.
Broadband is slowly becoming broadbanned. Whilst the telcos work out how they make ever yet more money out of users. And high capacity users are right now NOT wanted.
But the truth is that data costs are ever approaching zero. And so, the costs that are being levied on users are, in many cases, fictional.
They do not apply to the cost of the network currently supplying the connection.
In many cases, the costs are irrelevant to the costs of maintaining the network, especially where that network is already obsolete ie copper. The money is going into a pot to upgrade that network BIG STYLE ie to fibre next generation - the real thing. (Has anyone asked Coca Cola about sporing the upgrades?!)
There are two next gen fibre networks. NGA and NGN
Next Generation Acceess - that's to us poxy consumers
Next Generation Network - that's middle mile, between exchanges, cities etc
And that is enough for today.
Why we will finally see fibre closer to home in 2007.
Let's just remind ourselves, when was the review of rateable value of fibre due to kick in so it was based on far more reasonable rates than when the rates were set during the telecom boom? Oh, that'll be 2007......
Wonder about timetables set by incumbents etc? They are caused, more often than not, by outdated policy that has no chance of keeping up with the changes in the world. If you looked into similar policies about environmental credits etc, you would find exactly the same. There's no regulating on your feet going on, just olde worlde bloody slow grind that doesn't keep up with the necessary changes.
This is why small and innovative will win out in achieving GOOD things. They might not make as much profit, but they don't fall as hard when they can't keep up either.
Reading: Richard Branson's autobigraphy - difficult not to like the man. Even if I'm not sure what his latest project is for!
Desilting the ducts
Seems that the problem of crud in the ducts that hold the copper is a growing problem nationwide. BT engineer told me tonight they pressurise the ducts to try and clear the water out 'cos it's not just degraded, and fullocrap, but waterlogged too.
Heard from the M25 bunch that this silt has been a major issue when BT just laid a 12core fibre to the single lucky guy who now has real broadband in their community - paid for by The Guardian and BT (almost jointly as the cost of works nearly doubled 'cos of the desilting!). Must be someone else with a story to tell today about desilting as that is only 2 and these things come in threes, like the three 'That's not bloody broadband' problems today! (BT tech support guy was horrified at seeing 400kbps connection on an ADSL Max line on a live test with remote desktop running - "That's not broadband is it?" "Errrr, no, we start at 512kbps".)
Mind is still boggling that no-one can make BT connect others to a 12 core fibre from the street cab (node) when there are 50 potential customers sitting within spitting distance of this editor from the Grauniad. Or that even BT engineers don't know that many of us think 400kbps is a bloody miracle (Here's a glass raised to rate adaptive that has got us beyond 200kbps). Time to write to Ofcom again? Or just send them a link.....
Best bit was though: the canny halfway useful BT engineer, along with the four people before him on the call who couldn't solve the problem, had NEVER heard of Firefox!!
Yet more connectivity problems locally. Friend is going off to work on a cruise ship for 9 months. Parents want to be able to email and Skype her both on the boat and when she goes ashore if possible. They ask for help setting up an Internet connection and computer. Put their landline number into BT availability checker, get the usual VERY UNLIKELY we can provide a broadband connection but we will take your order and your money and then probably still be unable to connect you stuff.
Odd, methinks. There are others higher up the village, further from the exchange, who have broadband - weedy but connected. So, dig out phone numbers for others around them and start phoning around to see 1) the state of their connections ("Can't even get 1/2Mbps and it's been dropping recently - is that the weather?") and 2) whether perchance they would mind sharing the (crap) connections they have wirelessly for now.
Second person I phone who may have line of sight says, "Hang on a minute, I'm trying to run a business here - what if it affects my connection? Isn't this BT's problem? Shouldn't they just have to find a way of delivering broadband to these folk?" Try to explain there is no Universal Service Obligation on broadband as there is on voice, and if there were BT (with SMP - significant market power) would use it as an excuse to further lock in customers to their monopoly. Also, that BT sees no need in the near future to upgrade the copper, and we'll be the last to see the effects of 21CN and FTT cabinet and VDSL if they ever even get that far.
This on a day when Ofcom's CEO asks one of his team to email me asking if we would be interested in feeding in some grassroots facts about disconnectivity problems in rural areas. This within less than a week of a DTI senior policy advisor telling me that the DTI has no hard evidence of the problems in rural areas, could we provide it for the Minister, and me explaining that unless they pay us for the info, those with that info will have to get on with running our own businesses - which, interestingly have nothing to do with broadband.
And this on the day that I hear that the Australian Government has accepted the problems and now offers any business eg farmers who cannot get connected by the incumbent the equivalent of £3000 and told to find a way to connect themselves. After all, realistically, if you spent that on a satellite dish you would start to see the money coming back through savings to the business' bottom line pretty fast (and hence presumably a rise in profitability and tax paid to the Govt) if you could do far more online and didn't have to drive miles to do it. The environmental effects of broadband have yet to be even discussed in this country, but other nations seem to be realising that it is easier to let the incumbent try and if they fail, just intervene. Long term we all know it makes sense.
Meanwhile, it's time to rake through the office and dig out some antennas, bridges etc and see in daylight whether there is any way to share a crap connection over wireless to ensure that this lass and her parents can stay in touch over the coming months. And post to the Blog this year more frequently so others can see what goes on with those of us trying to help others, whilst others in Govt, BT et al earn money not doing it. Bleurgh!
Long live the http://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
Nice book review today for
JFDI Community Broadband book from http://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
Oxford Media Convention - January 18th 2007
My abiding memories of this conference will have to be the failure by the press to keep to matters of import ie broadband and broadcasting in the future and away from Jade goody and Big Brother, the storms that prevented me from getting home for well over 24 hours.
Oh yes, and the failure once again for an organisation to save money on posh hotels and actually pay me for attending, instead of expecting my small business to fund their profitable conference. £130 for a hotel room? Why oh why couldn't I be permitted to stay somewhere cheaper and take the difference to cover MY time and MY expenses to be there as one of their speakers? Attending this event cost me 3 lost days of work, and near as dammit £200 of my own money in out of pocket expenses. Yet they were happy enough to give their money to Richard's train comany and a hotel chain, but not to the person they needed to contribute to their panel.
GRRRRRR!
However, there were some very interesting issues raised at the event, although it did once again reinforce the notion that far too many people who live and work in London need to get out more. These people in organisations such as DTI, Ofcom, and even amongst roving journalists firstly couldn't even point to Cumbria on a map, let alone comprehend the massive problems we have in rural areas getting a basic broadband connection, and hence the effect this has on our daily working lives, and our kids' existence.
Considering ofcom's large attendance and the purpose of the event, there was a distinct lack to actually allow citizens and consumers representation at the event. There was an overwhelming number of journos, govt org and industry reps, but very very few from the consumer space. And at £400 throw a ticket, how many consumers could even afford to go? Bring back the ABC events with fair pricing for all I say.
There was too much focus on broadcast rather than community/consumer content being created at local level by the people, but then that was hardly surprising considering the voices chosen to contribute and the audience. BBC are about the only one, as well as a few of the community type broadcasters, who have worked out the value of consumer content, and tieing it up with good quality production units and skills that the broadcast industry have. But then I couldn't go to some of the pensl as of course they did triple streaming which means you invariably miss contributions and presentations from people who would interest you. Luckily, with any luck, much of this will be online shortly, though possibly only for those who attended. We'll wait and see.
As ever, I suggested that carbon footprints could have been reduced if some videoconferencing had been used, and the audience could have been massively extended with backchannels, webcasting etc, but of course these guys have never seen that stuff at work in a live conference cos the technology always flops out at the big events trying it. Now they tend to run scared of it, instead of keeping going trying till it works seamlessly.
There were approx 300 delegates in Ed Richards keynote at the beginning and I counted 10 laptops. Pah! Where on earth are the technosavvy delegates in the world of new meejah???
The best contact made was purely because the 100mph storms stopped all trains and buses north of Birmingham and having managed to find somewhere to kip for the night (for free cos I was paying) I met a very very nice lady in charge of dark fibre services for a major telco who seemed more than just a little interested in some of teh ideas that other telcos have failed to grasp. Oh and the guy from the DTI who never got to finish his lunch for talking to this unhungry broadband obsessive!
Go again? Not unless someone else is paying.
How fast is a fibre connection?
Try
Utopia's demo to see ....
2007 and no sign as yet of true, ubiquitous, affordable broadband in the UK. In fact, for many, it seems the problems are worsening as the digital divide widens. Last week, 50 businesses within a mile of the M25 wrote to say that despite high-level talks with BT, they are still no closer to getting connected. This includes a Guardian Editor, three Defra farms, a Royal Horticultural place, and many small farms and home businesses.
When it rains, the copper connections grind to a halt in many parts of the UK. We see copper overlay still occurring where fibre connectivity could actually be used. We see growing problems on the horizon for the Digital dividend as it will take at least 2 years to actually auction off the spectrum and make some use of it, which is likely to be commercial only as what community group can afford a national licence for wireless?
2Mbps is still a dream for far too many people in the next decade let alone this one, as are symmetrical connections so we can upload our Youtube or Google videos in less time than it takes to roast a camel.
