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On Tue, 4 Aug 2009, Rob Beard wrote: > Hi folks, > > I found this linked from the ThinkBroadband.com site which I thought was > interesting. > > Basically FibreStream are laying fibre in parts of Hull (just one estate > at the moment from what I understand) so content providers can provide > TV, Internet etc via fibre. > > Now they are saying that they may bring fibre to other parts of the > country IF local communities can show that they really want a fibre > based service. Doesn't say how much it is, but it might be a hope for > some communities who pull together to lobby for such a service. > > Anyway, if anyone is interested, you can find more here: > http://www.fibrestream.co.uk/2009/07/11/helping-us-to-help-you/ Hull's a bit of a special case - Kingston (or KComm) have the monopoly on providing phone and Internet service there - Not even BT has an exchange there, so the poor residents are basically stuffed with regard to choice... I am aware of a couple of private projects to bring fibre to a few areas - one might even be next door to Devon, the other Yorkshire (and this isn't via the sewers either!) Biggest hassle is that BT own all the good ducts, and no-one has any real money to dig up the roads anymore. (And people in Cornwall for example are fed-up with the roads being dug-up which is why, 7 years ago I was part of a project to Wi-Fi the lands-end peninsula - which we achieved more or less) BT is trialling a few areas of FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet), but it'll be some time before that is rolled out nationally - Not many exchanges even have ADSL2+ yet... FTTP (To the Premises/Home) would be nice, but it's a huge amount of work, and BT's greedy shareholders don't want to spend the money on it... There are alternatives - Wireless mesh technologies exist, but what it boils down to for everyone is cost. Personally I think what we have is fast enough for most, but more effort needs put into people who're really far away - so <something> to the cabinet (or pole) to shorten the "last mile" and then the backhaul (BT Wholesale) network improving (although it's pretty good now), and then the ISPs actually spending money on their own networks rather than have them grossly oversubscribed, as some are. Gordon -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html