[ Date Index ] [ Thread Index ] [ <= Previous by date / thread ] [ Next by date / thread => ]
On 29/07/10 08:37, Henry Bremridge wrote:
These things tend to be full and require disconnecting current customers for long periods of time - that introduces statutory penaltiesOn Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 07:57:20AM +0100, tom wrote:On 28/07/10 21:25, Rob Beard wrote:.... Maybe, I guess 2 to 3 miles you're still going to get slower speeds. The other option Virgin were looking at was putting their own poles up, I presume putting a pole in, or re-using an existing telegraph pole is going to be cheaper than digging to lay cables.BT - who generally own the poles - would want some rent for that and they'd have to make a profit for their shareholders... Putting up your own poles is not cheap and then you generally have to pay rent to the landowners whose land you cross. When I worked for BT in the 1980's is was said that each phone connection to a house cost in the region of £2000 (2k).There is something about the telephone business that strikes me as "unreal". For example - Digging a ditch in the road - Laying cable / erecting poles - Installing nice cabinets - Laying more cable to a house in the middle of nowhere - Recovery the cost in one year Yes that is expensive - Updating an existing cabinet with newer technology in such a way as to encourage future competition and upgradeability. Particularly from small businesses.
so not cheap at all
heard the expression herding cats? Also these people know the value of the service so ask for enough to make it not such a good idea.- Striking a deal with eg the Water or the Gas or Electricity to share costs when they next dig up the entire road to lay fibre to all. With Government compulsion. Is it possible to pass fibre down the water pipe?
That seems good but that results in cherry picking and will leave BT with all the loss making lines - we can afford to pay what BT will pay in lobbying to achieve that.- Making it simpler for third parties to connect fibre to houses (obviously different rules would have to apply between the centre of Plymouth and the conurbation of Little Munching - or whereever)
Any funds given to BT would end up in the pockets of shareholders and mean they have less (???) incentive to upgrade anything in case of a handout.- Wait for a suitable recession, Government provides funds and recover costs over any use of telephone, internet, Smart Grid or whatever over the next 10 years.
You have to realise that when BT was privatised it was done so in such away as to make it attractive - this basically involved making it a de-facto monopoly. Any attempts to break that monopoly will be so costly and time consuming legally (about 5 visits back to the European courts once its quietened down here) that by the time the first line was installed you'd be in cryogenics waiting for it to happen. The only realistic way to break this thing is probably to invest in a network of high level balloons and wifi ISP's and hope that the recent medical info on gigahertz band wireless doesnt get worse. Well unless you want to become inverted luddites and destroy bt's infrastructure so it has to be replaced because wish all you want its there and in the way of almost everything you can think of.That does not strike me as expensive for three reasons: - In a recession unemployment goes up so the cost is the differential between social welfare payments and wages. I am not advocating work for benefits per se, but in effect paying companies not to fire people. - If done to allow future competition, then infrastructure is improved at a lower cost, making it easier for the Country to compete.<shudder>Video calls etc <\shudder> - If amortised over all users and over say 10 years then cost should not be extortionate. If the Smart Grid cuts electricity supply then energy companies would also have to pay part of the installation costs. Obviously as soon as the cost is recovered then bills are cut.
Tom te tom te tom -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq