Aspirations from one side of the line

The Northants Newsletter sets out their vision as:-

Our vision is for Northamptonshire to be at the leading edge of the global digital economy.  This means that a minimum two-thirds of premises should have access to broadband speeds in excess of 10mb/s by 2014 and at least 9 out of 10 premises should have this by 2015.  By 2015 all premises should have access to the broadband at the national minimum speed of 2mb/s.  By 2017 all premises should be able to access superfast broadband up to 100 mb/s products with a range of download and upload speeds available to meet requirements.

Be interesting to see what Peterborough City and Cambridgeshire aspire towards.

Northamptonshire Newsletter

Northants County Council have produced a newsletter in support of their broadband activities. Download it from here (pdf file, 280 kBytes).

Northamptonshire Broadband Survey

Northants County Council are preparing a bid to BDUK for funds to enhance broadband provision. They have an online survey to record speedtest results and your views on price and service along with what you might be able to do with a faster connection.

Comments can also be made direct to Ross Griffin Telephone: 01604 236641

So Yarwell and Nassington residents connected to the Wansford telephone exchange can make an input. As both villages are cabinet fed there is at least a modest cost technical option for increasing speeds.

I also sent in an email with comments to bigidea@northamptonshire.gov.uk , reproduced below :-

I thought I would send in some comments beyond what the broadband survey form permits.

I live in Yarwell (PE8 6PS) at the top right hand corner of the county, we are fed from the Wansford telephone exchange which lives in Peterborough City (unitary authority) / Cambridgeshire.

My business is doing computer support / repairs / broadband installations.

Yarwell village is largely capable of getting the full 8M service available from the exchange ie speedtest results of over 6M subject to congestion etc. Some cheaper service providers deliver much lower throughput at busy times but this isn't a function of the infrastructure - I can record a speedtest of 400-600 kbits/s at the pub (PE8 6PR) which is closer to the exchange than my house, but if I take the same laptop home and run the same speed test I get 4500 - 6000 kbits/s ie 10 times faster on a more expensive service provider (the pub uses Tesco).

Nassington village (PE8 6QB) is further away and sees speeds from 1.5 - 5M as you move along the distance / speed curve from the exchange.

Wansford exchange is a "Market 1" exchange with only BT Wholesale broadband services on their 20th Century network and hence 8M maximum speeds. If it had been upgraded to 21CN then Yarwell would benefit from speeds over 8M (maybe 12 - 16M at the points nearest the exchange). Nassington would only benefit slightly if at all. We would also get faster upload speeds that currently are only available on more expensive business products (832k vs 448k).

As a Market 1 exchange we have a price penalty and less competition. Talk Talk have told me they don't intend to install equipment at Wansford which would have offered faster speeds and reduced prices.

Both Yarwell and Nassington have BT street cabinets (one each) feeding the majority if not all properties. We could therefore receive "up to 40M" services if a fibre optic feed were laid to the cabinets and an additional cabinet with electronics installed - so called FTTC with services like BT Infinity. We are unlikely to be attractive targets for BT to provide commercially, and as yet I haven't had any success getting interest from alternative providers like Rutland Telecom who also do FTTC.

So we have a degree of market failure here at the edge of the county where we are limited to 8M maximum broadband, have lower upload speeds, less competition and no prospect of Next Generation Access through commercial provision - we are in The Final Third. Nassington has additional penalties through being located further away from the telephone exchange.