Tag: rural Internet service

 Coalition will ‘wind clock back’ with NBN axing – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

My comments

I have observed other countries like the UK and France push on with next-generation broadband Internet developments and they have taken various initiatives to achieve this goal.

In some cases, most notably in the UK, local communities had set up localised next-generation broadband deployment for villages and other areas which wouldn’t be serviced by this kind of broadband, let alone any broadband service. As well, a lot of European towns are “wiring up” with some form of fibre-based next-generation broadband and there has been efforts in place to assure competitive service to the customer’s door.

Similarly, Finland took the bold step of having broadband Internet with a minimum speed of 2Mbps declared as a universal service in the same manner as a home telephone or mains electricity.

At the moment, we have situations where people in the country cannot get proper broadband service either through issues like distance to the exchange or very old telephone infrastructure; and we have a common situation where people have to count bandwidth used because of ridiculously expensive Internet-access tariffs and quotas. In some cases, we have situations where multimedia Internet like Internet radio or YouTube streaming video cannot be enjoyed especially during the late afternoon in a metropolitan area due to poor bandwidth allocation.

Is the Coalition intending to provide us with a lesser-standard next-generation broadband service or why are they simply doing this? If there is an alternative solution being proposed for an improved-technology broadband infrastructure, it needs to be cheap to maintain, including low failure rate; cheap to adapt to changing demainds as well as being cheap to establish. It also must be able to provide robust always-live broadband-class Internet service to rural and remote households as well as more dense communities. Finally, the service must see a decent increase in value for the amount the customers are willing to pay.

Whoever gains power in the Australian Federal Government should look at what the UK, France and Scandinavia are doing to assure their citizens of proper value for money as far as broadband Internet service is concerned.

Electoral Disclaimer

This comment is based on my observation and research of other countries concerning their provision of Internet access and service and is a viewpoint expressed independently of any political candidate or party contesting the current Australian Federal Election.

News article

thinkbroadband :: Fibre broadband is coming to Broughton, near Huntingdon

From the horse’s mouth

Vtesse web site

My comments

Previously, I have commented on Vtesse setting up a fibre-to-the-cabinet next-generation broadband Internet service servicing two villages in Hertfordshire. This was based on underground deployment of the necessary fibre-optic links to the cabinets and VDSL2 copper links via “sub-loop” unbundling between these cabinets and the customers’ premises.

Now Broughton, a small country hamlet located near Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire, has moved towards next-generation broadband with the help of the same company. This has been done with two differences – one using FTTH technology which may be known as “fibre-to-the-premises” technology. The other involves the use of overhead poles used for electricity distribution and telephone service in this area to support the fibre-optic cables.

Through the planning stages of this development, issues have been raised about ownership and control of infrastructure like poles or ducts used for providing electricity, telecommunications or other services and whether competing service providers should have access to this infrastructure if an established service provider set it up in the first place. Issues that could be raised include right of access by the competing service-provider’s technicians and whether a competing service provider’s technicians have access to the lead-in wiring on a customer’s private property up to the point of demarcation where the wiring becomes under customer control.

Another issue worth raising is whether an FTTH setup is more likely to suit larger country properties where the main house is set back further from the road and whether it will suit larger country estates that have many individual-customer households yet remain as a cost-effective next-generation broadband-delivery method.

At least what I am pleased about is that there is action being taken to bring rural Internet access out of the back-waters.

Article

thinkbroadband :: Two rural Lincolnshire villages to get fibre-to-the-home

My Comments

Another step has occurred in the right direction for providing homes and small businesses in two rural England villages with city-grade next-generation Internet service. Again, this initiative has been undertaken by a small operator and has allowed the village to be competitive with the city.

Here, Fibrestream are two-thirds of the way there with gaining interest from the potential users which will open doors to establishing the basic infrastructure and “lighting up” the villages. One of the bonuses that have been offered is that there is the option of helping with the installation to your premises as a way to defray provisioning costs.

They have also provided for a cheaper fixed-wireless-last-mile delivery option if they can’t raise enough money for the full fibre-to-the-premises option. Any monies saved from this option would be reinvested so they can establish the infrastructure for the full fibre-to-the-premises deal. This could still be factored in to villages with farms and similar large properties surrounding them so as to service these properties with high-speed Internet.

Like what has happened with other British villages like Lyddington in Leicestershire, this has become another way of bringing these rural villages in to the online age. Come on everyone who is in the country or underserved outer-urban and regional areas and work together to establish local-broadband initiatives.

News article

BBC News – Plans to regenerate four Carmarthenshire towns

My comments

I had been reviewing this BBC News article about plans to regenerate some Carmartheshire towns but had found scant information about improvements to broadband Internet service in those towns.

If there are plans to regenerate a country town, these plans should also include improvements to infrastructure that provide broadband Internet access. This could range from reassessing the telephony infrastructure so that ADSL2 broadband is capable of 2Mbps “at every door”, through improvements in wireless broadband coverage to provision of next-generation broadband in that town.

It could then allow for the town to become competitive as far as technology-driven businesses, such as R&D or universities, are concerned. As well, the town can also allow other small businesses that operate therein to “come on to the map” and be competitive on the world stage. It will also benefit the outlying properties and neighbouring villages / hamlets by exposing them to proper broadband service rather than just horrible old dial-up Internet.

I have been covering articles the talk about the state of broadband access in country areas because of the fact that high-speed Internet is needed there just as it is needed in the urban or regional areas.

One common reality is that there are many farmers and small businesses, many of which this blog is targeted at, who need to be able to build their livelihoods up using this technology, such as to send media-rich emails or view / host media-rich Web pages as part of their business life. Eventually, IP-telephony technology will make voice and video communications much more affordable with these users thus putting them at a competitive level with city folk.

Similarly, there are people who live and work in the country either to keep these farms and small businesses going or to provide supporting services for the farmers and small-business owners out there. There is also the city folk who either own properties in the country that they use during holidays or just simply want to live in the country.

Here, these people need to be able to use the telecommunications abilities provided by high-speed Internet to maintain contact with people who live in their home city or elsewhere. Similarly, the high-speed Internet services will provide the ability to bring in entertainment without the people having to travel long distances to get that entertainment. As well, telemedicine will benefit from this technology by allowing specialised doctors and nurses placed in large towns to conduct observations on ill and convalescing patients who are located in rural areas, with only as much as low-skilled medical professionals like GPs or district nurses attending to the patient in these areas.

I have also lived for a while in the country and have experienced firsthand that people who live there often get second-rate treatment when it comes to utilities and telecommunications services. So that’s why I consider the issue of rural broadband access, especially as part of the universal broadband service, very important in this blog.

News articles (French-language only)

 Les Hautes-Pyrénées et le Finistère en haut et très haut débit – DegroupNews.com

From the horse’s mouth

Hautes-Pyrénées Conseil-Général

Press release

Brochure (PDF)

Finistère Conseil-Général

Press release

My Notes and Comments

Hautes-Pyrénées

In this mountainous département of France, there are plans to establish a fibre-optic backbone that will lead to an improvement in Internet service across this area.

The improvements will be in the form of improved ADSL service for more of the telephone exchanges, including “dégroupage” (local-loop unbundling) for competitive-service access as well as a fibre-optic uplink. It also includes “sub-loop access” where DSLAMs will be installed closer to customers’ premises for those customers that are far away from the exchanges, like farms or mountain properties. These improvements will allow the customers to have the same level of IPTV access as would be expected around France.

There will also be a WiMAX wireless broadband network with 58 stations that will be set up to cover areas that are not likely to have proper broadband service, with satellite coverage for the most difficult cases. This situation may be necessary for some of those properties that exist on the slopes of the Pyrenees.

The fibre-optic network will not just be for a backbone but will provide “next-generation broadband” for key areas such as public service, health, research and education as well as “communities of interest” for the département.

Finistère (Brittany)

This département. which covers the western-most tip of France, has a goal of achieving the minimum of 2Mbps throughout its area.

This will be achieved with a fibre optic backbone through that département. It will also mean that exchanges that service ADSL “dead-spots” can be lit up for ADSL. There is also the possibility of a 97-station WiMAX wireless-broadband network set up in this area.

Both areas

The “sub-loop access” effort that is being undertaken with the Hautes-Pyrénées project is impressive because it represents an effort to get the full-speed broadband to the customer’s front door. But I would also suggest that these efforts include checking for decaying wiring and other limitations that can impede ADSL performance.

Also, the fibre deployments should cover not just the key economic areas in the départements, but assure FTTH deployments in the cities where the key economic areas are, especially the residential parts of these cities. This can avoid the tendency to “redline” the towns when it comes to further investment in them. In the case of the Hautes-Pyrénées project, if a town is identified as being a ski resort, it should be looked at in the context of full fibre deployment so that the small businesses in that area which service the snowfield traffic can gain as much benefit as the big businesses in the cities.

 71 % des foyers suisses ont accès à Internet – DegroupNews.com (France – French language)

My comments about this article, including facts that I have translated from the article

This article appeared in DegroupNews (France’s home networking and IT portal) close to when Switzerland was announcing the rollout of their very-high-speed FTTH Internet service. This service is intended to start appearing through that country this year and is intended to be a multi-network setup where different provider groups can use their own fibre cluster like in France.

The article was stating that 71% of households in that country had the broadband “hot and cold running Internet” either through ADSL or cable technology. It also stated that most households were opting for “mid-tier” plans which would yield 2-10Mbps and that the market placed value on quality of service. There was also less likelihood for households to “jump ship” between the ISPs.

But there are some questions worth asking about this situation. One was whether the merger between Orange-Suisse and Sunrise was likely to have impact on the Swiss Internet market as in effect on prices or quality of service.

The other question that sorely needs to be answered is whether the rural neighbourhoods including those charming mountainside chalets are part of the 71% of households that have broadband Internet. This includes whether the rural services are being provided at the rated speeds that the customers agreed on. This rural-access issue has always been raised by me in this blog because it is too easy for an ISP or carrier to install a DSLAM in the rural telephone exchange and establish the Internet backbone yet forget to check on the quality of the telephone lines to the customers. This could lead to customers missing out on broadband Internet or receiving below-par service.

These facts can be easily skewed by the size of the country, its population and the size of that country’s urban areas compared to the size of a larger country like France, Germany, UK, the US or Australia. But it is worth noting what has happened in Switzerland which is a predominantly mountainous country, when factoring the provision of Internet service in to hilly areas.