Hullo,
I'm in a small village (c.350 houses) which is on the same exchange as 2
others of similar size, plus a few much smaller outlying settlements.
Current registered interest for the entire exchange is 115 users, but I
guess we could raise that a bit if we had reason to. But BT has no plans
to set an ADSL trigger ("It is unlikely there will be enough demand to
cover the cost of upgrading your exchange..."). All is not lost as our
District Council has been granted funding to expedite provision of
broadband in this (rural) area,[1] and the Parish Councils are
interested as well. We seem to have several options, especially if we
join forces with the 2 adjacent villages; I'd be grateful for
comments/advice on the best way(s) forward. Although I daresay the
majority of users will be domestic, there are a significant number of
small businesses in the villages, some of whom will occasionally need to
send/receive files in the 10s of Mbs. Some of the outlying settlements
are a long way from the exchange, but all are within 5km and almost all
are within 4km.
I caught a BT engineer at the local green box yesterday, who assures me
the exchange *is* ADSLable (it's not a local concentrator, for example).
I note that BT is trialling 'Exchange Activate', under which it will
guarantee to ADSL any exchange and provide free service to the first 30
users for 3 years if someone throws enough money at them (45k-ish, next
30 users cost 30k, and we've still more who want it). It seems a lot,
but if the 60 users paid the standard rate for their 'free' 3 years,
that's c. 60k towards the 75k costs, which isn't so bad. Would BT ADSL
be the best option in terms of overall quality of service if we could
raise the money or otherwise persuade them to act? I also note that
"such pilots and trials do not always lead directly to robust and
commercially viable products..."
I gather satellite is a waste of time/money/energy if anything else is
possible.
One large local firm almost certainly has ADSL/ISDN provided by their
own leased line, but if I were them I'd certainly see no reason to
associate with the rest of the parish.
Multi-line bonded ISDN (say 512k) split into ADSL provision was one of
the stand-alone solutions proposed for this village. From reading the
archives of this group I gather we're likely to have difficulty finding
an ISP that supports this, and the speed is not worth the cost/minute of
keeping the lines up 24/7 by comparison with ADSL obtained some other
way. Presumably we'd also have to factor in the cost of hiring
someone/thing to troubleshoot and maintain such a thing -- I'd be
grateful for ballpark estimates of the costs, if anyone knows.
Cable TV provision ends where the gas mains finish, in a village just
over a mile away, and no one seems to plan to extend either into this
area in the foreseeable future. Laying our own cable or putting in some
other form of link to the nearest main exchange seems OTT under the
circumstances, and would have the associated maintenance costs for the
installation at either end, unless we engaged a contractor to do the
whole thing.
An independent company is slowly rolling out wireless ADSL in the area;
in theory, if the District and Parishes make it worth their while, this
firm could bring ADSL into our villages. Some householders will have to
volunteer to be basestations, but that's not a problem. It's been
suggested that wireless is the best solution as it's more easily
expanded/upgraded. What does the panel think? Does anyone have
experience of commercial wireless ADSL provision?
regards
sarah
[1] While there is no commitment to any particular mode of supply,
detailed information on haw the monies will be used is not yet
available.
--
Think of it as evolution in action.
