Convergence Conversation

For those who thought my silent B in the headline of the last post was confusing and/or that it referred to the BT ad where consumers choose an ending, due to be aired on Wednesday 18th August 2010....

This blog post can be read at 5tth.blogspot.com

I think the news story you are looking for is this one.....BT ad viewers choose ending for TV advert

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(with a silent B) No, I really am confused and more than a tad. What exactly are BT OpenRetch doing in rural areas like mine?

This blog post can be read at 5tth.blogspot.com

Left the farm this morning to take sprog to dentist - a mere 90 mile round trip for those of you who live in towns and struggle to understand our annual mileage (20k without doing anything beyond normal daily tasks). Parked in the single track road outside was a BT cherry picker, plus 2 vans, engines running and 3 BT bods, wandering around. Time: 10.30, they had been there since around 9am, with engines running.

Purpose (seemingly): More...

Having taken a couple of days to calm down at the sheer idiocy of the coalition, it is time to ponder the failure to review the fibre tax.

This blog post can be read at 5tth.blogspot.com

There are multiple previous posts on the fibre tax on this blog, all bewailing the fact that the Government (previous ones) had failed to comprehend:

• the distortion caused by the current system towards the incumbent and against new entrants


• the cost to the UK economy of failing to address the problem by severely limiting fibre deployment


• the lunacy of not adopting a system which favours the brave with the UK well-being at heart rather than the "corporate canny" with their own shareholder interests

Aidan Paul, Vtesse Networks, at our colloquium in Newark showed in simple graphs what the current fibre rating system means for BT. More...

As FCC people wend their way towards our European shores next month for the conference season, let's not lose sight of what is happening elsewhere. It is a particular failing of this isle to filter out events elsewhere in the mistaken belief "we know best".

This blog post can be read at 5tth.blogspot.com

Michael Copps, FCC Commissioner, has put out a one paragraph statement that bears several readings. The issue, Net neutrality, is not one which we can avoid either. Nor is his statement so simplistic that we cannot also apply it to our own regulatory environment.

“Some will claim this announcement moves the discussion forward.

More...

It's been a long time coming. And it's still not actually here because Ofcom, whose mandate is consumer protection and representation, are too busy being courted by the telcos, media companies and so on, to actually fulfill the mandate. (Or put me right, guys)

This blog post can be read at 5tth.blogspot.com

This time a complaint has been upheld by the ASA against BT, which is a novelty because they failed to uphold Virgin's 'creative' claims previously about their fibre optic network. But you have to ask how this sort of practice got past Ofcom and into ASA territory anyway......

ThinkBroadband actually put the reality of BT's claims really neatly in their write-up of the case and it's worth reading, as well as the previous link. More...

This blog post can be read at 5tth.blogspot.com

However, one thing that has become clear is that in order to deliver many of this community's dreams and aspirations, we need decent comms infrastructure to overcome our remote location, distance from services, distance from each other etc. More...

Really? Might that be because in the 3 years ish this "experiment" has been running, our requests for the special routers to be placed in rural areas rather than purely urban areas have managed to achieve the grand total of 5 being sent out. One I know blew up as it was plugged into my house when we were hit by lightning, the other 4 are on varying degrees of rural connections which on occasion fail entirely to actually connect to the outside world.

This blog post can be read at 5tth.blogspot.com

If you, Ofcom and Samknows, are going to claim the average speed of British connections is increasing, then please define by location (urban vs rural) exactly where these routers are. More...

I can't share any more right now but I've been waiting for this particular solution to be scaled down for nigh on a year (read: 15yrs).

This blog post can be read at http://5tth.blogspot.com

At the beginning of this year, I went out to the States to see various different rural FTTH solutions and meet their initiators after lengthy email, Skype etc discussions. It was quite a trip!! And I would recommend it to anyone. If you need a guide and intros, please, just ask.

I've just had an email saying that due to RUS etc, (and hopefully meeting me!) one particular group have worked on scaling down their FTTH solution so that it would seem to be financially viable AND sustainable in low density populations. More...

Interesting last couple of weeks. My patch/manor got nominated as one of the 4 vanguard communities for the Big Society. Life went a little hectic....autumn broadband conference announced... etcThis blog post can be read at http://5tth.blogspot.com

So, done a little thinking.

How do you engage your community?

Speak clearly - As my sproglet has quite clearly iterated, speak in English not geek.

Think clearly - Think out of the box - if you think broadband is for x, find out all the y, z, a, b,c,d, uses and promote them

Listen carefully - Learn about those around you. Listen once, twice and thrice. More...

I started my broadband crusade before my kids could crawl. Now, they are about to leave home. One of them has asked to have her input before she leaves ....

This blog post can be read at http://5tth.blogspot.com

I've been brought up around broadband this ... broadband that ... so I know a little more than the average teenager but to be honest, broadband is boring!

Most people my age hear the word broadband and think "geek time!" ... most people know that it's to do with the intenet and how fast things are, but not many people know a MB from a Mb or even the upload speed from the download speed. So even when people like BT are offering up 20MB or whatever, it's just geek speak. More...