New UK Research Paper on Delivering Faster Rural Broadband

A new research paper from Northumbria University has been published that details two examples of rural broadband connectivity schemes operating in Cumbria (England). The paper shows how adopting more innovative business models can successfully bring superfast broadband to some of the world’s most isolated areas.

The paper – ‘Fibre to the Countryside: A Comparison of Public and Community Initiatives in the UK‘ – focuses on two familiar community-led and public (state aid) supported initiatives. Both have been used to deliver “full fibre” (FTTH) and fibre based FTTC/P “superfast broadband” (30Mbps+) or faster ISP networks in the rural county of Cumbria.

The first example centres around B4RN’s community funded and built 1Gbps Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) network, which hopefully needs no introduction. Meanwhile the second example similarly looks at one of the many public-private partnership based projects between Openreach (BT) and local authorities (Connecting Cumbria), which is supported by the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK programme.

Over the years we’ve written at length about the pros and cons of both approaches. In that sense there’s nothing terribly new for seasoned broadband watchers in this paper, but if you’re not as familiar with the market then this might be a good place to start your research.

Lecturer Paolo Gerli, Northumbria University, said:

“Our research studied both approaches and demonstrates how the pioneering business models used in Cumbria can contribute to bringing superfast broadband to very remote communities which have been struggling with poor connectivity for two decades.

Whilst the rural digital divide remains an unsolved issue across developed and developing countries, by analysing the interplay between community-led initiatives and public-private partnerships, this research provides useful recommendations for policymakers and practitioners committed to providing everyone with fast connectivity and dealing with the roll-out of rural broadband.”

Paolo Gerli and Professor Jason Whalley, based at Northumbria University’s Newcastle Business School, were recently in Washington DC where they presented their research at the prestigious 46th TPRC Research Conference on Communication, Information and Internet Policy. The paper itself was completed earlier this year.