Real Estate Firm Tells UK Farmers to Build their own Broadband

Real estate company Strutt & Parker has suggested that UK farmers, many of which aren’t exactly swimming in lots of spare cash, should consider investing to build their own “private” broadband networks instead of waiting for whatever the Government’s 10Mbps+ Universal Service Obligation (USO) will deliver.

The new legally binding USO, which will be installed by BT (Openreach) or KCOM and pledges to deliver a minimum broadband download speed of at least 10Mbps (1Mbps upload) – upon request – to those in disadvantaged areas (details), could be formally introduced at the end of 2019 (officially enforced from 2020). This will focus on the final 2-3% of premises that cannot yet order a “superfast broadband” (24Mbps+) service.

However Strutt & Parker have told Farming UK that struggling farmers, many of which will exist in that final 2-3% of premises, could instead invest to build their own broadband networks. The company includes a suggestion of three potential options (listed further below).

Stuart Gray, Strutt & Parker, said:

“In the past, the costs of installing a private broadband network may have looked unviable. But the importance now placed on good connectivity, with growing numbers of people working from home, means that attracting tenants is difficult without being able to offer a reliable broadband service.

Each of the options have their own pros and cons and not all may be available for a particular use or location. But the good news is that in most instances there are practical solutions to the problem, some of which may attract grant funding.”

S&P Proposed Alternative Broadband Options

1. A leased fibre connection to the premises (FTTP) which involves installing a physical fibre connection from the mainstream network across private land.

2. Satellite broadband which operates by sending and receiving a signal to a satellite rather than using the underground copper/fibre network.

3. Over-the-air solutions such as Fixed Wireless Access networks which use specific frequencies of the radio spectrum to transmit signals.

On the first option S&P appear to have confused a business leased line with native FTTP, or perhaps they’re referencing the halfway house of a Fibre on Demand (FoD) service from Openreach (BT). However the latter is not currently available to order due to an on-going “stop sell“.

Either way, for most farmers building their own fibre network to a single remote location is likely to be overkill and would cost thousands of pounds (possibly tens of thousands – depending upon the location); the Government’s Gigabit Vouchers are only able to cover up to £2,500 of that. This would only make sense for bigger commercial farms and not cash strapped local farmers who struggle to turn a profit.

On the other hand it may be a lot cheaper if you happen to be close to an existing fibre network or can work with the local community to co-fund a wider project (not unlike the B4RN model). A similar problem may exist with the option of a Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) network, which tend to be quite niche in their coverage unless you can encourage one to deploy (they usually like to serve somewhat more than one client in such areas).

Meanwhile Satellite is less about building your own network and more akin to the traditional approach of subscribing to an existing ISP, which will then sort out the necessary hardware and installation (setup costs can often be covered by the Government’s Better Broadband Subsidy Scheme). But Satellite suffers from slow latency, meagre data allowances and heavy traffic throttling at peak times (i.e. best as a stop gap for basic needs).

We’d also point out that some rural farmers may be covered by 4G (Mobile Broadband) via one of the mainstream mobile operators (O2, Three UK, EE or Vodafone), which is another option that should be considered and is likely to be a better bet than Satellite as a last resort.

Otherwise there’s the option of waiting for the USO to begin, but just remember that the suppliers are likely to be inundated with early requests and from that point it could still be up to 12 months before the actual service goes live (this is likely to be built via either FTTC or FTTP, based on the current proposal).