Dave, We’ve had a fair bit of experience tapping into Openreach assets to deliver backhaul to remote Community Broadband projects. Specifically in the Highlands & Islands of Scotland (which has it’s own challenges).
A lot of Community Broadband folks we speak to are worried that BT or someone similar may choose to over-build their infrastructure with FTTC or FTTP. There is a risk of that, but my advice is usually; if you can move quickly, sign up the customers and provide a good service - customers will be very sticky, even when BT builds super fast in your area. The chances are if BT aren’t planning to build in your area just now, they’re not likely to in the short/medium term. This area has lots of moving parts though - In Scotland specifically CBS, R100 and now the BT USO are all topics which may change the landscape. Happy to advise on what’s possible. We’ve had a number of enquiries for Orkney and Shetland, but not yet enough to move on. Could possibly aggregate demand to make something happen. Email me off-list if you’d like to discuss further. Regards C Charlie Boisseau CTO, Commsworld / Fluency Twitter: @charlieboisseau www.commsworld.com [email protected] > On 16 Aug 2017, at 18:44, David Derrick <[email protected]> wrote: > > One of our neighbours in Orkney is looking into setting up a not-for-profit > to put fibre on the outer islands as well as to provide training and reskill > opportunities for young people and forces veterans. He's aware of B4RN and > I've given him a few things to think about but the big question in my mind is > whether a larger existing company might roll up and squash his business model. > > I'm wondering what people here think are the chances of Openreach spending > some of the promised £600M up here (there's already FTTC on the mainland and > Westray). On the one hand spending the money once to do the job right first > time would be cheaper than revisiting multiple times to incrementally bump > the tech to meet the minimum speed, and Orkney is one of the areas > consistently highlighted as being among the worst places for Internet access > so there's a PR win as well. On the other there are a lot more profitable > locations to spend the money. > > Thoughts? > -- > David Derrick > Systems & Network Engineer > Entanet International Ltd > 0330 100 0330 >
