Posted: 15th Aug, 2009 By: MarkJ
The
Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) in Humber, a large tidal estuary situated on the east coast of Northern England, has just become one of the UKs most remote-rural locations to have a next generation 100Mbps Fibre Optic ( FTTH ) broadband link installed.
The deployment is being sponsored by
FibreStream and amazingly the groundworks were completed by the lifeboat crew literally digging their own fibre, which will surely win some credit from the Do-it-Yourself (DiY) crowd.
FibreStream's Guy Jarvis recently told ISPreview.co.uk:
"The FibreStream approach is based on understanding that networks are about people first and technology second (though we love the geeky stuff too!). A key part of our worldview is that we support community interest or mutual ownership of the monopoly elements of Next Gen Access, that is what NextGenUs is all about - future-proofing the terms of trade in the interests of those who use, benefit from and ultimately pay for FttH.
A related focus for FibreStream is the dreaded rural NotSpot/CrapSpot - people and businesses based in rural areas have a convincing argument that they need decent connectivity more than their urban cousins, yet rural areas are badly served by 1st gen broadband (ie ADSL) today. Whether urban or rural, FibreStream seeks to build and operate FttH (including using Wi-Fi where appropriate) wherever local communities demand service in sufficient numbers to warrant the investment."
Additional credit should go to Emtelle, Steve Medcalf Builders and Pharos Films for helping to sponsor and deploy the system. FibreStream has also offered special thanks to ScrewFix for providing the PPE (Personal Protective Equipment).
UPDATE - 17th August 2009:Here's another video of the same work:
UPDATE 2:FibreStream tells us that this is a 'First Mile' FTTH deployment - as the project expands it will cover 7km to the next settlement and 10km+ to the next village.