{"id":1627,"date":"2012-09-17T01:05:54","date_gmt":"2012-09-17T00:05:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/?p=1627"},"modified":"2012-09-11T14:10:57","modified_gmt":"2012-09-11T13:10:57","slug":"b4rn-founder-says-fibre-optic-is-the-only-broadband-worth-uk-investment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2012\/09\/b4rn-founder-says-fibre-optic-is-the-only-broadband-worth-uk-investment.html","title":{"rendered":"B4RN Founder Says Fibre Optic is the Only Broadband Worth UK Investment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the founders\u00a0of Lancashire\u2019s unique community-built and owned &#8220;<em>hyper-fast<\/em>&#8221; fibre optic (<a class=\"shortlink shortlink-122 shortlink-chref\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/link\/ftth\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"ftth\" data-chref=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/broadband_fibre_optic.php\">FTTH<\/a>) rural broadband network, <strong>Chris Condor<\/strong>, has in our exclusive interview\u00a0told ISPreview.co.uk that \u201c<em>fibre is the only technology worth investing time, effort and money in<\/em>\u201d. Condor also warned that the UK government\u2019s current strategy wasn\u2019t working.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The <strong>Broadband For the Rural North<\/strong> (<a class=\"shortlink shortlink-49 shortlink-chref\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/link\/b4rn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"Broadband 4 the Rural North\" data-chref=\"https:\/\/b4rn.org.uk\">B4RN<\/a>) project, which ultimately aims to connect thousands of digitally isolated rural homes in the county\u2019s <strong>Lower Lune Valley<\/strong> area (East of Lancaster) via a <strong>1Gbps<\/strong> (Gigabits per second) capable <strong>Fibre-to-the-Home<\/strong> (<a class=\"shortlink shortlink-122 shortlink-chref\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/link\/ftth\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"ftth\" data-chref=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/broadband_fibre_optic.php\">FTTH<\/a>) style broadband\u00a0network, officially began construction at the end of March 2012 and is now ready to connect its first customers.<\/p>\n<p>However, unlike similar developments around the country, <a class=\"shortlink shortlink-49 shortlink-chref\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/link\/b4rn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"Broadband 4 the Rural North\" data-chref=\"https:\/\/b4rn.org.uk\">B4RN<\/a>\u2019s effort hasn&#8217;t required any subsidy from the government. The project has instead\u00a0registered itself as a <strong>Community Benefit Society<\/strong> (controlled by the Financial Services Authority) and thus\u00a0much of its funding comes from the community itself, often in return for special shares.\u00a0Any income over expenditure is\u00a0then returned back\u00a0to the community.<\/p>\n<p>Local\u00a0people are also being encouraged to help build the network, such as by digging trenches\u00a0through their gardens or\u00a0fields and into homes. In addition to buying shares the community also has an opportunity to \u201c<em>purchase<\/em>\u201d shares in exchange for labour and materials during the project build.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jXdCpg75NxE\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>It\u2019s a solution that probably wouldn\u2019t work everywhere, especially in dense urban towns and cities where road works can attract significant costs or cause serious disruption. Never the less B4RN appears to be making good progress and that&#8217;s despite\u00a0<a class=\"shortlink shortlink-145\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/go\/britishtelecom\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"BT\">BT<\/a>\u00a0having plans to reach 97% of the county with a slower <a class=\"shortlink shortlink-120 shortlink-chref\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/link\/fttc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"fttc\" data-chref=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/broadband_cable.php\">FTTC<\/a> solution by the end of 2014 (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2012\/04\/bt-confirms-97-percent-of-lancashire-uk-to-get-its-superfast-broadband.html\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>). So just how have they\u00a0managed all this and what advice could they give to help better inform the government&#8217;s own strategy?<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #339966;\">The Interview<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><strong>Q1. First, the most obvious question of all, why are you building a &#8220;community fibre network&#8221; in the heart of rural north Lancashire, especially when the government has pledged \u00a362.5 million to help make superfast broadband services available to 97% of the county by the end of 2014?<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">ANSWER:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>We are building our own network because we know that if we don\u2019t do it now nobody else will. It\u2019s a question of just getting on and doing it. <a class=\"shortlink shortlink-145\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/go\/britishtelecom\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"BT\">BT<\/a> are on the record saying it is not economically feasible to build such expensive infrastructure in a sparsely populated rural area, we are not of interest to the big companies whose shareholders expect them to make big profits. We also know we can do the job cheaper than they can with the support of the people who will benefit from the work done.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>We are building a community fibre network because we believe fibre is the only technology that is worth investing time, effort and money in and is future proof. A member of the management team has spent his career designing networks and had all the skills needed to design a world class fibre infrastructure. Other members of the team have also been involved with community based <a class=\"shortlink shortlink-124 shortlink-chref\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/link\/wifi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"wifi\" data-chref=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/broadband_wireless.php\">wifi<\/a> and <a class=\"shortlink shortlink-119 shortlink-chref\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/link\/satellite\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"satellite\" data-chref=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/broadband_satellite.php\">satellite<\/a> service since 2003 and one laid the first rural fibre in 2009 and proved it wasn&#8217;t rocket science. We knew we had the support of many people within the community as they are all desperate for a connection having waited for a decade for the promises of broadband and having many bitter experiences trying to get one. It is a project whose time has come, and someone has to be the first.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<p><strong>Q2. Phase 1 of the project is predicted to cost around \u00a31.86 million and you&#8217;ve already raised enough (close to \u00a3400,000) to cover the &#8216;core network&#8217; build, which is expected to pass over 400 premises before later touching close to 1,500 through further investment (note: the network plan has since expanded outside the parishes a bit and thus this figure could end up being closer to 2,000).<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Can you tell us a little about how your funding model works (e.g. how you raised the money etc.) and what your expectations are for covering the entire cost of phase 1?<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">ANSWER: <\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>Initially we went to the community and the parish councils and explained what we wanted to do. We managed to obtain a grant from the Forest Of Bowland AONB (Area of Natural Beauty) to enable us to set up a web site and produce marketing material. Residents in the coverage area were asked to register if they were interested and when we had achieved a 50% level of interest we decided it was time to start the company. B4RN was registered as a Community Benefit Company with the FSA. We then raised the money by once again going to the community, explaining what we wanted to do, and doing a share launch on December 14th 2011. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>We registered with the EIS scheme which gives each taxpaying shareholder 30% of their money back as a tax refund. (over a \u00a3500 share that is). We also added another bonus deal for the early adopters of a free connection (worth \u00a3150) and the first year&#8217;s service free if they subscribed to \u00a31500 shares (foundation member). Shares have to be held for a minimum of three years to qualify and after that they can only be sold back to the company at their face value. Interest on the shares will be paid after year three if people want to leave their investment in the company at a reasonable rate of interest (5%). We are also running &#8216;sponsor a metre&#8217; whereby people can have their name put on ducting by donating a fiver a metre. We have had support from all over the world, and every little helps.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>We worked on the principle that we would only spend the money when we had received enough to build the core routes between the main villages. All additional funding will enable more routes from the core to be built. We will do those in order of popularity, i.e. the more registrants on a route the higher up the list it goes. In an effort to manage cash flow at the start of the project our model enables\/encourages landowners to dig in their own duct in exchange for shares in the company at a rate set by B4RN. All the management team are volunteers and don&#8217;t get paid. This is very much a community project for the community by the community and we are building it for ourselves.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The strength of the project is that we have got a fully mapped out and costed design which has taken our network designer over three years to refine. The technical side is second to none and a good man with a digger can dig a trench and lay the fibre ducts. It isn\u2019t rocket science and not as difficult as laying a land drain, so most farmers are over qualified for this work, some simple instructions and they can do it.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>NOTE (Clarification from B4RN on the above): Shares can only be sold back to the company after three years and they will only be \u2018bought\u2019 as and when the company has the funds to do so on a first come basis. Interest will be paid after year three and it is currently suggested that the rate will be 5% per annum but this is subject to confirmation.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Q3. B4RN claims that its network will be able to provide &#8220;<em>fibre to every home providing [a] 1000 megabit (1 gigabit) future proof connection for \u00a330 a month<\/em>&#8220;. But to be economically viable even the fastest connections must often share their capacity. What kind of real-world speeds can customers actually expect to receive (i.e. once the network is complete and homes connected)?<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">ANSWER: <\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>Every customer on the network will have more speed than they can use or measure with today&#8217;s computers. A computer downloading a film in 32 seconds can only download so many before it has run out of storage. People have a limit to how much they can actually use at one time. What it boils down to is that 1000 megabit is available to the customers all of the time.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Contention rates only really matter if you are talking about using a phone line and exchanges, once you get on fibre nobody would even notice if anyone else was using it. Its an abundance model rather than a scarcity one. It\u2019s like saying if someone took a bucket of water out of the sea would the waves be smaller. If ever contention did become an issue the lights on the fibre could be upgraded to terabit capacity if needed. What we are building is future proof, and will always supply the customer with more than they need. We could have advertised a 2, 10, or 100 megabit product, but we thought it is actually cheaper to go for a gigabit as those lights work out as worth the money, whereas any other equipment for lower bandwidth or throttling what is there works out more expensive.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Lj7aYA9o20Q\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><strong>Q4. What happens if the fibre optic cable gets cut, do you have any redundancy in the network for a temporary solution and how do you figure out where the damage has occurred?<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">ANSWER: <\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>Yes, the core network is a resilient ring with 10 Gigabit feeds at both ends. If the core was damaged then traffic would be routed via the failover path. Standard network operating procedures apply, which includes suitably experienced people able to respond to network outages in a timely manner. Industry standard equipment will be used to help monitor and locate breaks and help speedy repair.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Q5. The business plan anticipates a take-up rate of 50% in the first year, which would give you a customer base of 700+ properties by around Q2-2013. How many premises have already committed to the service and do you expect to meet this target?<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">ANSWER:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>In some areas of B4RN the committed take up is over 80%. The lowest is 38%, the average seems to be 50%. We anticipate more than that once the fibre goes past people&#8217;s properties and they see it actually happening. We have already experienced that in the areas we are currently digging through. Registrations from the notspots [ISPr ED: Areas with no broadband at all] come in faster than slowspots [ISPr ED: Usually areas with sub-2Mbps broadband connectivity].<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Q6. Back in June 2012 the UK government&#8217;s Secretary of State for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), Jeremy Hunt MP, said that he &#8220;supported&#8221; B4RN&#8217;s project and would even visit it in the future (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2012\/06\/jeremy-hunt-mp-support-rural-ftth-broadband-network-lancashire.html\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>). How much of a surprise was that comment and has he set a date yet?<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">ANSWER:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>It wasn&#8217;t a surprise, MPs often say things like that. No date has been set, and no further comments received from mr Hunt.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>ISPr NOTE: Jeremy Hunt MP was officially replaced by Maria Miller MP as part of a cabinet reshuffle on 4<sup>th<\/sup> September 2012 (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2012\/09\/maria-miller-mp-appointed-to-oversee-uk-superfast-broadband-policy.html\" target=\"_blank\">details<\/a>).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<p><strong>Q7. The UK government&#8217;s own <a class=\"shortlink shortlink-66 shortlink-chref\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/link\/bduk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"building digital uk\" data-chref=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/guidance\/building-digital-uk\">Broadband Delivery UK<\/a> (BDUK) plan, which aims to make superfast broadband (25Mbps+) services available to 90% of the country by 2015, has recently faced criticism from both the <a class=\"shortlink shortlink-101 shortlink-chref\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/link\/ec\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"european commission\" data-chref=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/info\/index_en\">European Commission<\/a> (EC) and a House of Lords Select Committee Inquiry (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2012\/07\/house-of-lords-inquiry-calls-for-uk-to-deploy-robust-fibre-optic-broadband.html\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>).<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Both the EC and Lords inquiry appear concerned at the lack of competition in the BDUK tenders, with only BT and Fujitsu allowed to bid; Fujitsu has already withdrawn from several projects and smaller ISPs seem to have been economically excluded.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Related concerns have also been raised over the speed target (25Mbps+ vs the EU&#8217;s 30Mbps+) and lack of open access to BT&#8217;s Dark Fibre lines. What are your thoughts on these concerns and the state of the government&#8217;s current broadband strategy?<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">ANSWER: <\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>The lack of competition was due to the process the councils initiated. It effectively eliminated altnets from bidding. Also the experiences with &#8216;superfast Cornwall&#8217; when other suppliers couldn&#8217;t compete with an incumbent who already had the capability to deliver a limited service over existing copper infrastructure proved that the contracts weren&#8217;t worth bidding for.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The speed targets are a strawman, the real deal is to get infrastructure in place that can deliver whatever is needed into the future. The 25+ was chosen to make sure adsl2+ was not accepted as a standard, and to eliminate <a class=\"shortlink shortlink-119 shortlink-chref\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/link\/satellite\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"satellite\" data-chref=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/broadband_satellite.php\">satellite<\/a> service from funding.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>BT will never allow access to dark fibre. They would be mad to, because it would break their business model. The government&#8217;s current broadband strategy seems driven by people who don&#8217;t really understand the technicalities, they are being led by the nose by the incumbent and they believe that copper can deliver a solution. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>A further tranche of funding has been announced from the <a class=\"shortlink shortlink-95 shortlink-chref\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/link\/bbc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"bbc\" data-chref=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\">BBC<\/a> digital switchover [ISPr ED: \u00a3300m to be spent between 2015 and 2017], let us hope that is used for Altnets this time, or at least to start a build out of parish pumps. Analysis mason say parish pumps would cost 1 billion. When you add matched funding to the \u00a3530 million already allocated to the Digital Britain project you can see that pumps would have primed a new build out of altnets.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Q8. What is the biggest challenge that you&#8217;ve faced so far?<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">ANSWER: <\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>The biggest challenge was taking the final decision to press the GO button and actually start spending shareholders money. This was discussed at length, we set ourselves a target and worked out what we would need to raise, the cost to do the core, and the risk of failure. It was a big decision to make, knowing full well that we had no support from government or the council. This is not public money we are using, it is the share money from our community, who trust us to spend it wisely. It\u2019s a big responsibility. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Once the decision was made and all the cogs started turning we&#8217;ve been faced with other challenges, the weather this year has been especially bad in this area, and our project relies on the farmers to help build it. They have been far too busy trying to get crops in for winter, so we have concentrated on the hub and getting the connection to be live.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Q9. What are B4RN&#8217;s future plans beyond phase 1?<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">ANSWER: <\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>The immediate plans are to ensure that phase 1 is complete and functioning as intended, all the processes are in place and tuned accordingly. Beyond that, B4RN has already had requests for service outside of our initial areas but it is important we have the service right with the first phase before we move on. B4RN is provided by the community for the community so the priority is that it serves the community well rather than rush through providing service to additional areas before service is established in initial areas.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Once people can see what the B4RN service offers they will find ways to exploit it. We have already had people contact us regarding new ideas they want to explore once they have the connection. We expect this to increase.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>END.<\/p>\n<p>ISPreview.co.uk would like to thank Chris Condor for being kind enough to do this interview. Chris notes\u00a0that\u00a0an AGM will be held in October 2012, which\u00a0should sort out the final company structure and update B4RN\u2019s original business plan with the latest progress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the founders\u00a0of Lancashire\u2019s unique community-built and owned &#8220;hyper-fast&#8221; fibre optic (FTTH) rural broadband network, Chris Condor, has in our exclusive interview\u00a0told ISPreview.co.uk that \u201cfibre is the only technology worth investing time, effort and money in\u201d. Condor also warned that the UK government\u2019s current strategy wasn\u2019t working.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[146,52,65],"class_list":["post-1627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial_article","tag-b4rn","tag-fibre-optic","tag-ftth"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>B4RN Founder Says Fibre Optic is the Only Broadband Worth UK Investment - ISPreview UK<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"One of the founders\u00a0of Lancashire\u2019s unique community-built and owned &quot;hyper-fast&quot; fibre optic (FTTH) rural broadband network, Chris Condor, has in our\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2012\/09\/b4rn-founder-says-fibre-optic-is-the-only-broadband-worth-uk-investment.html\" \/>\n<link rel=\"next\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2012\/09\/b4rn-founder-says-fibre-optic-is-the-only-broadband-worth-uk-investment.html\/2\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"B4RN Founder Says Fibre Optic is the Only Broadband Worth UK Investment - 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