New hope for rural broadband
With the ever increasing prevalence of e-commerce in the UK, is it time for villages to take rural broadband into their own hands, and prove there is a future for connectivity in the countryside?
Living in rural England offers huge benefits, but for the privilege of living the ‘Escape to the Country’ lifestyle that city folk dream of, we inhabitants of rural England pay the price in limited services such as mobile connectivity and broadband access. Despite government assurance that 90% of the country can expect next generation (20Mbps) broadband by 2017, there are still around 1000 villages across the UK with no broadband access at all. Even in the commuter belt of Kent only a small percentage of the population receives a good level of access – compared to 8mb in the Amazon rainforest.
For many communities, managing on unfeasibly low speeds makes it impossible to shop on e-bay or utilise on-line banking let alone bolstering local economy by running a business or other forms of home working that could offer a financial lifeline in rural areas.
As business and government bodies attempt to streamline traditional form filling and shopping, everything - from taxing a car to registering your child for school is encouraged to be completed virtually. In villages where a weekly shop involves a 52 mile round trip to a supermarket compared to what would once have been a walk to a thriving community store, there would be both financial and environmental benefits to being able to shop online.
Farming communities in particular are finding it increasingly difficult to balance what is an already demanding work schedule with the ‘e-red tape’ surrounding everyday activities, with fears that the amount of administration that has to be done online will continue to increase. Dairy farmers for example can no longer order medication for their stock over the phone, it all has to be paper-trailed on-line, and having to take time out of a busy day to travel to a library just to perform the same task that used to take a 5 minute phone call is something that every busy farmer could do without.
With the virtual world taking over so much of real life, rural communities are starting to suffer from serious financial and social constraints. House prices are falling and younger families are moving out of the villages they have lived in for generations to keep up to speed with the pace of modern on-line living. There is no denying, that the world has become a much smaller, faster and more demanding place to live, with so much being available immediately online. The UK’s social divides that were once based on geography and industry seem to be shifting more to the availability of fibre cabling.
The very fact that the government is now levying an annual 50p per household landline tax to roll out next generation services over the next seven years, shows just how serious the situation is for rural England; but, does it have to be that way?
Gloucestershire telecoms specialist Horsebridge Network systems and residents of rural idyll, Northlew in Devon, have already proven otherwise.
Being left in the ‘dark ages’ in a time of e-commerce and home entertainment, was killing the village on the outskirts of Okehampton along with its once thriving community. More and more everyday tasks were being moved from local post offices and businesses and replaced with on-line alternatives to which they had no access, so in a bid to resolve the situation before village life totally collapsed, residents and the parish council took it upon themselves to find a solution.
In 2008, local businessman Chris Marson established the Northlew Community Broadband Project (CIC ); “The Government wants every household in Britain to receive a 2Mbps broadband service by 2012,” explains Chris “but currently up to 20% of broadband lines in the South West receive less than 2Mbps.We decided to find out exactly how difficult it would be to service the village and contacted the directorate of a number of suppliers and operators, including BT Chief Executive, Ian Livingstone, to try and implement a viable solution”
Like most UK villages in mobile and internet ‘Dead Zones’, the costs and logistics for large telecoms operators of providing fibre optic cables were simply not viable. Finally BT suggested the possibility of installing a point-to-point microwave link from a local exchange to boost the backhaul signal into the village, but as to how this signal could then be redistributed to end users remained unknown.
Chris took it upon himself to research various options that may solve this ‘last mile’ issue which causes the most difficulty in the majority of cases. His investigations brought him to a range of wireless, broadband products used mainly in the US but already offered by UK solutions specialist Horsebridge, to a variety of customers ranging from Vodafone to the MoD; providing wireless backhaul and broadband access in even the most remote of locations, from the highlands of Scotland to military deployments worldwide.
The network architects at Horsebridge relished the challenge of bringing a fast, reliable broadband network to Northlew and began formulating solutions that would be both workable and financially viable.
By utilising a combination of products, Horsebridge was able to design a multi-point, outdoor radio system, radiating from the spire of the village church and offering the community an expandable broadband capacity of up 2mb per user. Residents could then sign up to the service and receive the wireless signal via a reception plate attached to the side of their property, transforming the lives of local subscribers by giving them access, not only to on-line entertainment and communications, but also to business opportunities that had previously been unavailable.
“My son and his family live in New Zealand” explains one elderly Northlewian “When I first saw his face on my computer, talking and smiling, it was like a dream, I never thought I would ever see that again in my lifetime”
This link to the wider business community is essential for rural communities – particularly in areas where employment is low or based on seasonally fluctuating factors such as tourism and farming. “A fast internet connection is absolutely essential for rural businesses and communities” says Councillor William Mumford of Devon County Council “and it’s vital for the future of our local economy.”
From this initial project, which has broken new ground in terms of rural connectivity the Northlew Community Broadband Project in consultation with Horsebridge Network Systems has formed ‘Westcoast Broadband’. “Broadband is now an essential part of living in today’s modern society” says Craig Newton, Head of Sales and Marketing for Horsebridge “and there are solutions available. We are committed to ensuring that no area of the country is made second class because of its lack of connectivity.”
As an internet service provider (ISP), Westcoast specialises in bringing broadband to both rural communities and inaccessible areas such as holiday parks, golf clubs and UK military bases. Not only does Westcoast offer state-of-the-art technical solutions, it can also guide communities through the process of gaining funding and planning permission whilst liaising with network service providers through its links within the industry.
“For those who have good broadband access it’s hard to appreciate just how difficult life would be without it.” Says Chris Marson, now Westcoast MD “It’s become such a part of our everyday existence and many businesses assume that everyone is on –line when in reality many communities have been left behind. Adverts and letter-heading no longer direct us to addresses or telephone numbers, but to websites and email, we have become reliant upon it as a tool in the same way we can no longer envisage a world without electricity.”
The possibilities for this radio system, now commonly known as ‘the Horsebridge Link’ are not limited to villages, it can be utilised anywhere that needs an extra boost in mobile or broadband services; from college campuses to oil rigs, golf clubs to remote hotels and even for temporary access for events such as Glastonbury festival and the Cheltenham Gold Cup festival.
For more information on rural connectivity visit westcoastbroadband.net to find out about customised solutions for your network go to horsebridge.net.