Convergence Conversation

Can't beat this. New Zealand now has an ubercool map of broadband coverage and suppliers.

And we in UK and EU have........? I can't even find out whose is the fibre going up the A road within 500yds from me, let alone anything useful like where the notspots are likely to be for next gen....

I should be promoting my own book but this new FTTH Community Guide may be of more interest to readers of this blog!

Although it is deeply Americanised, much of what is covered in this guide bears relevance to those looking to develop community FTTH in Europe. Obviously, the lack of a co-operative or mutual model within the case studies is a shame; however, each municipality seems to be seeing a ROI which undoubtedly has a positive effect on the communities' coffers.

ECFibernet is also worth keeping an eye on to see how the sustainability and profitability to rural areas pans out. Although the legal issues may be different in the US, the economics for rural areas in pretty much any area of the EU are similar. More...

I've just found a great new site which launched yesterday, and best of all, it's British! Internet Shout is one of what will likely be more than just the next gen of forums. It allows people to literally voice their opinions.

Now this may well work over most broadband connections, and the simplicity with which a new user can add a recording reminds me of when Youtube launched and the changes that made to sharing video. However, for many, Youtube is still a staggeringly frustrating experience. Imagine how awful it would be if you added video to Internet Shout for all those of us without a decent connection? And why wouldn't you add video? It's the next logical step in allowing people to communicate, have a voice, develop communities, and overcome literacy problems or handicaps which Internet Shout has begun to overcome. More...

I can only speak for myself, here in the UK, but it would be interesting to know how others feel elsewhere. I make no claims to be an economics expert - I am just an ordinary person trying to survive in a country which seems to be going, rather rapidly, to the wall. My problem at the moment is this financial bail out of private companies, viz the banks, which is being called 'nationalisation'.

This is MY money being spent as a taxpayer, and although figures differ substantially, if you take the lowest one of £37billion, it is still way more than the figures to give every single home and premises in the UK all singing, all dancing FTTH, just to bail out 3 companies - RBS, the HBOS Group, and Lloyds TSB. More...

Hooray! South Witham Broadband have won a medal in the e-inclusion awards for geographic inclusion for their fab community network in Lincolnshire.

Having represented them in Brussels, and followed their progress since the very early days (and written a book about them!), I would like to be the first to congratulate them on achieving such recognition at EU level.

This network has done more than just learn the lessons that should be taken on board by ANYONE planning a next gen network. It has also applied them so that it actually connects with its customers and the community it serves. SWBB is a first class example of best practice, of engaging your community, of sustainability, how to connect the 'ethnic minority' of the disconnecteds, and of how those who live and work within a community can create a co-operative solution to next generation communications. More...

Nice to see that municipal fibre is actually legal after all. Seems that the story we started following last month about a telco attempting to sue a town for puttingfibre into Monticello has reached a conclusion. Which is nice.......

Earlier this week, I was called to a house in the village having problems with their PC and internet. (Everyone is having problems here at the moment, due to a very shaky rural electricity supply playing havoc with IT kit - for which we pay exactly the same as anyone in an urban area, but I digress). I ran some speedtests.......




You can't argue at that, can you?! I nearly went and dug up their drive looking for the fibre in our village that has so far eluded me...

So, even though I know it is a 1/2Mbps service because of the poverty of the copper, distance from the exchange etc, I now have to explain to an average householder that this isn't the service she is actually receiving, nor ever likely to out here in the sticks. More...

The BSG report on the costs of fibre deployment has been published.

More light reading for the weekend!

Nokia Siemens Networks and Verizon have successfully managed to transmit 100Gbps on a single wavelength over 1000 km. This takes us all ever closer to commercial 100Gbps traffic, no more excuses!

It really is more than time to read it and weep. It is time for many of the informed consultants, ex-telco workers, whistle blowers, and informed grassroots folk to really bust some of the telco myths about costs of FTTH. If the Japanese telcos can provide 100Mbps symmetrical FTTH for £30/month, then why can't we?

We know opex costs for FTTH are way lower than for ADSL, for starters. We know that the ROI on FTTH infrastructure investment is down to less than a decade (where telco returns used to be 15-20 years), we know that the cost of data is now approaching zero, we know that once FTTH is enabled, customers flock to it out of choice over ADSL, we know that energy bills etc are substantially reduced. More...