Fibre-Only Exchanges - the ultimate BT lock-in

The Crown and Tuns, Deddington

BT have announced that Deddington in Oxforshire will be the first exchange in the UK to be "fibre only".  This means that all the services from the exchange will be connected on fibre.

Since BT uses a shared fibre system (GPON), this takes away the ability for competing telephone companies to "unbundle" the local loop and run their own services over BT's infrastructure.  Experience has shown that it these companies who provide the innovation that pushes competition in the market and without them, the subscribers of Deddington will be at the mercy of BT forevermore.

"Superfast" Surrey

Last week Surrey County Council sent out an update on their plans for spending their BDUK grant. I was struck by how unambitious their goals are, despite previous promises that we were to get the best broadband in Europe.

I would suggest you read the newsletter on their website, but it hasn't been uploaded yet - not a good sign that they are in tune with the Internet age.

Netflix in the UK and Net Neutrality

I see Netflix are launching in the UK which is good news for TV and film addicts but is going to cause some headaches at the Internet Service Providers.  Some report put Netflix usage in the US at over 30% of all bandwidth, or to put it another way, it adds half as much again to current Internet traffic volumes.

Whilst this isn't in itself an insurmountable problem for the backbones, the crunch will come when subscribers realise that the £5.99/month Netflix fee doesn't change the contract on their home broadband connection.  Most broadband connections in the UK are provided by BT and their cheaper tariffs have usage limits.

B4RN in focus

 Much as I agree with many of B4RN's goals, I do have some serious concerns about the project - one in which the "innocent public" is being asked to plough a lot of money (£1.5m)

My concerns about B4RN are:

1. there isn't enough detail supporting the published business plan
2. the proposed telephony service is a white elephant
3. the project has single-points-of-failure
4. the finances don't add up
5. there is no promise of openness
6. can B4RN Ltd. deliver the proposed service?

Why don't B4RN want on-line discussion?

I note with interest that the B4RN web site  doesn't seem to have a "feedback" or "comments" section on their web site, which is a shame.  I hope the individuals who are being asked to invest in this appreciate the risk involved and that there are many questions about the project plan which are unasked, let alone unanswered.

A discussion forum directly accessed from the project's marketing page would at least give everyone a chance to debate the project's viability.

It seems odd for a community orientated project, especially one promoting Internet access, not to be publicly engaging with the community in this way.

B4RN: How To Lie With Statistics

Darrell Huff's excellent book How To Lie With Statistics was written over fifty years ago and yet is as applicable today as it was then.

I was reminded of the book when I was surfing the The B4RN project's web site where they have illustrated their progress using a barometer-style graphic.  It is a little deceptive as is it appears to have a non-linear scale, but having being alerted to this kind of skullduggery by Huff, I knew I had to delve deeper.