Roll your own fibre?
The BBC News site recently discussed the concept of communities left out of plans for “superfast broadband” to take the initiative and set up their own infrastructure.
A potential scheme in Cumbria will build on the wireless Cybermoor project and is looking to install a fibre based system with help from the Community Broadband Network - probably modelled on a Dutch community FTTH scheme at Nuenen which is described on Roger Darlington’s blog.
The Nuenen concept is to build a community owned FTTH network with a fixed installation and monthly fee and then allow allcomers to offer services over the large bandwidth available. Cybermoor are looking at localised services like e-medicine to get best value out of the investment.
The architecture at Nuenen is different to that proposed by BT for Ebbsfleet or used by Verizon FIOS in the US in that individual fibres are connected from each property back to the local data centre rather than sharing bandwidth of a single fibre between multiple homes with PON (passive optical network) technology. The individual fibres are blown down plastic tubes similar to drinking straws, a technology supplied by British company Emtelle.
Community ownership and involvement at Nuenen is very high, with a 97% takeup rate that was no doubt greatly assisted by a Government subsidy to give free connections and free 12 months rental. By running an open architecture the “State Aid” rules can be met and in principle any ISP is able to offer services to residents over the community fibre system.
It remains to be seen if a viable model along these lines can be put together in the UK. The high penetration is a prerequisite for cost effective fibre deployment but it may have required the initial subsidy to achieve that. If we were to have such subsidies available here then a sustainable business could be built and continue post-subsidy on a commercial basis, providing the economics stack up and the user takeup is good and retained. Many of the original UK community wireless networks that preceded ADSL in some areas have folded as their role came to an end when a commercial alternative was available, others survive and compete side by side with commercial ADSL. As with any business it is a case of meeting customer needs in a cost effective way.
A community fibre initiative should certainly capture the market with high speed and reliability. It would also deter any subsequent investment by more mainstream providers and therefore it needs to be a proper medium to long term solution offering a quality service with a viable business model that can maintain itself and not be dependent on volunteers or favours from local businesses.
As an insight into possible cost savings, a water utility will charge upwards of £60/m to trench in a water pipe but a local builder or farmer with an excavator can dig in 50m for the same £60. If this sort of innovative approach can be harnessed then viability may be possible.
The other hurdle facing a community network would be weaning users off their ADSL or dialup account where they rely on ISP provided email addresses and are reluctant to change provider if it means losing that address. This is an area where education or perhaps regulation could help improve market efficiency by removing the artificial tie to a provider by an email address.
