More Doubts Cast on Swindon’s 4G Fixed Wireless Broadband Rollout

Local residents and the North Swindon MP have raised concerns about the general feasibility and size of masts being used as part of a £1.9m project with UKB Networks, which will push “superfast broadband” (24Mbps+) coverage to 99.4% of premises by 2016 via a fixed wireless 4G (LTE) network.

The project, which is funded by a mix of state aid from the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK scheme (Phase 2) and the Swindon Borough Council, was originally agreed in March 2015 (here) after BT allegedly showed no interest in expanding their fixed-line “fibre broadband” (FTTC) services out across the rest of the borough (UKBN were the only ones to table a formal bid).

But not everybody was pleased with the contract, with several cross-party councillors and local MPs raising concerns and questioning why a “fibre broadband” solution wasn’t adopted (here). The opposition Labour Party also put forward a motion that attempted to halt the deal, although this was ultimately dismissed.

The contract’s proponents have said that it would be cheaper and quicker to deploy, not least because there would be significantly less need to dig up streets and pavements. However UKBN would still need to install 16 new masts across the borough and the original plan suggested that this would begin during the summer.

However in a repeat of earlier this year the North Swindon MP, Justin Tomlinson, has once again spoken out against the deal and warned that, “No one has asked for 4G broadband, an outdated and expensive scheme that will simply fail, resulting in hard-working tax-payers’ money being wasted” (here).

On top of that local residents have also highlighted their concerns about the planning sites for some of the new masts, which in some cases will be built only a few metres away from their homes (e.g. one is planned for the outskirts of Swindon on Torun Way, which is quite a dense urban area).

Pete Taylor, Local Doctor (Torun Way), said:

“There is a strong feeling from a lot of people here about this. We do not want this mast near us. There are still health concerns about these masts and it detracts from the whole area. One of the reasons I, and many others, moved here was because of the green space.

We thought they would not build one here and then without any public consultation we’re told the masts are going here. We do not need this scheme here. It is something which is designed for rural areas. It feels we are being sacrificed for the rural areas.”

Admittedly it would be all too easy to dismiss this as the usual Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY) commentary, although a large mast being built next to your home is rather more of a problem than a comparatively small street cabinet and such things may have an impact on property values (note: BT suffers plenty of gripes about their cabinet positioning too). But we’re less clear on the “health concerns“, which have a tendency to lack evidence.

Taylor also makes some valid points about the lack of public consultation and why such a mast is being built in a dense part of Swindon’s urban outskirts, although we suspect that the latter point is primarily because it’s nearest to the necessary local backhaul infrastructure and will then be beamed outwards to rural areas. Some parts of the town itself do also suffer from a few slowspots.

However the local council have no plans to stop the deployment, which is now part of a “legally binding contract“. The governing authority also reiterated that they did speak with both BT and Virgin Media, but both “told us unequivocally they had no plans to install fibre optic cables.”

The service has already delivered speeds of up to 40Mbps to some 40 trial homes and there’s no reason why a properly deployed 4G Fixed Wireless network can’t deliver that again for an affordable price, assuming it can get any masts built after public opposition has been considered.