Yes, you have read correctly that superfast broadband has now arrived at Madingley Exchange. I would imagine that the next questions would be when did it hapen?  which village? which streets? what speed?

I was just getting started for the day when I checked my email and scanning through the list found one from a Hardwick resident, titled “BT Infinity”. On opening said email, the content brought a smile to my face and a “whoop” that said, yes, its here! The resident had ordered BT Infinity, and it has been delivered. There was also a screen shot of the results of the line speed test, which showed download speed of 31.3 Mb and upload speed of 4.8 Mb. Very cool. The download speed does correspond to what is expected from the FTTC technology.

As previously indicated, BT has installed two new fibre cabinets, one at Hardwick and one at Coton. Both of these are to provide superfast broadband to residents in those villages. In the case of Hardwick, it is not likely that the cabinet will serve all of the village, so some will be getting the service viia fibre to the premises.

Needless to say I am very pleased at this turn of events and wish the residents of Hardwick enjoyment of this new superfast broadband service.

Cabinet in Coton

Earlier today, the Madingley Exchange Race To Infinity Team received an update from BT, to inform us of the progress of the rollout of the fibre network for super fast broad band (SFBB).

The statement reads, “Thank you for forwarding the comments from your campaign team, I understand their frustration and I am happy to confirm that we have not reduced our commitment to achieving the roll-out in Madingley (100% of premises will see an increase in speed, 99.9% of premises will receive SFBB speeds of  >15Mb, 0.1% of premises will receive between 2Mb &15 Mb).  This is a major civil engineering project and sometimes projects of this complexity can take a little longer than expected depending on what we find as we do the work (which is why we haven’t been explicit about dates).”

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Not explicit about dates… that’s an understatement if ever there was one!

It further goes on to state that “The latest update is that the cabinet at the junction of Limes Road and Cambridge Road is due to go live week commencing 30th April. We hope the second cabinet will go live towards the end of May and we are on track to deliver FTTP during June ”

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The confirmation that the deployment is still aiming to get SFBB to all the premises served by Madingley Exchange is good news. It is however tempered by the sheer frustration that the team members and the rest of our communities feel at the length of time that the deployment is taking, considering that we won the race over 15 months ago.

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The frustration boiled over when Porto Novelli (PN) who ran and coordinated the Race To Infinity for BT asked the team to take part in a photo shoot last week. This was to be part of the PR exercise of announcing the arrival of SFBB. The team refused, stating that if the rollout plan had been on time, then yes, there would have been something to celebrate. We were promised SFBB in early 2012, and so far, its still a non-event. One team member said “It seems like PN and BT need to sit down and actually align commercial strategy with PR strategy“.

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So, when all is said and done, the main points to be noted are:

1. The cabinet in Hardwick at the junction of Limes Road and Cambridge Road should go live from 30th April 2012.
2. The cabinet in Coton on Cambridge Road should go live toward end of May 2012.
3. The rest of us are getting FTTP and should expect to see service at some point during June 2012.

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Infinity Bus

As for PR, discussions are ongoing to get the Infinity Bus to come to Caldecote on 7th May 2012 as part of the opening ceremony for the new Sports  Pavilion.
Anyone who wants to see what is possible with Infinity should put the date in their diaries and come check out the Infinity Bus in Caldecote.

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I am pleased to report that there is very good progress being made in upgrading Madingley exchange for superfast broadband.

There are three forms of fibre technology being rolled out, Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC), Fibre to the Premises (FTTP), and Exchange Only (EO). There will be two cabinets, one in Hardwick and one in Coton. The other villages will be served by FTTP, with a small smattering of Exchange only lines.

The Race to Infinity winning areas are among the first areas in the country to get deployment that includes all three. It means we will potentially have the highest percentage coverage in an exchange area anywhere in the UK.  BT expect that 100% of premises will see an increase in speed, with 99.9% getting speeds of over 15 Mb/s and 0.1% of premises receiving between 2Mb/s and 15Mb/s.

Because the deployment involves more FTTP than envisaged, BT expect to use 106 kms or 99 miles of fibre cable! This, coupled with the difficulties that have been encountered with cable ducts means that the rollout has taken longer than was initially anticipated, and that the rollout will be staggered from April 2012 onwards, possibly through to July 2012.

The cabinet in Hardwick has been installed at the junction of Cambridge Road and Limes Road and is awaiting commissioning, so it can be brought into service. The good news is that BT is confident that those within 2km range of the cabinet will be able to start ordering the service as from April 2012. The cable installations in Caldecote have been taking place for a number of weeks now, as captured in this picture. White vans have also been seen in Coton/Madingley areas.

The service is not going to be automatically adopted. Anyone who wants superfast broadband service will have to order it either from their current telephone provider or from BT. The system is being built out for open access, so that other telephone suppliers can buy wholesale from BT and supply their own customer base. Check with your supplier to see if they have signed up with BT to get on the superfast broadband network. Nag them if they haven’t.

BT has offered to help us celebrate the first orders, and have asked for suggestions. This may include sponsoring a local event or award, donating two free Infinity lines to deserving causes, and there is the opportunity for the BT Infinity bus to visit the area over the summer!

So, please write in with suggestions – madingleyx@gmail.com or leave a comment below. You can also join the chat on the Madingley Exchange Facebook page.

According to a recent article in ZNet, one in 10 British neighbourhoods gets broadband speeds below three megabits per second, despite the UK’s push for super-fast connections. This was the outcome of a survey recently concluded by uSwitch.com.

The survey, based on 1.68 million broadband speed tests conducted by business and residential broadband users, looked at broadband service by postcode. It found that the average UK broadband download speed is 6.7Mbps, and that the deployment of fibre by BT and Virgin is, for many people, “not causing so much a splash as a ripple”.

“What’s really surprising is the number of cities and towns such as Hereford and Carlisle that are suffering from slow broadband speeds, dispelling the view that it’s just rural areas and small towns that have issues with their broadband,” uSwitch.com telecoms chief Julia Stent said in a statement on Thursday.

According to the price comparison site, 34 percent of UK postcodes get less than 5Mbps and 23 percent are on connections slower than 4Mbps. One in 10 get speeds below 3Mbps.

The slowest postcode is TN36, Winchelsea in East Sussex. There, the average broadband speed is just 1.1Mbps. When it comes to larger towns and cities, Hereford (HR1) is bottom of the league at 3.2Mbps.

“Too many people do not appear to be enjoying super-fast speeds because faster services are not available in their area yet,” Stent said, adding that the government’s goal of getting 90 percent of the UK on speeds of 25Mbps or more by 2015 seemed a long way off.

The government has pledged funding of more than £500m to improve fixed-line broadband speeds in England, Scotland and Wales via its Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) scheme, though this has had some glitches. In addition to aiming for 25Mbps for the majority of residents, it is aiming to deliver a minimum of 2Mbps to all.

The average broadband speed of 6.7Mbps that uSwitch.com has reported is significantly lower than the 7.6Mbps average that Ofcom revealed in November, although Ofcom’s survey measured only residential speeds.

Ofcom’s survey was much more comprehensive than uSwitch.com’s effort, being based on 572 million performance tests. The uSwitch.com analysis also discounted any postcode where fewer than 100 speed tests were performed.

The following table shows the UK’s broadband blackspots for towns and cities with populations above 40,000:

The following table shows the worst broadband blackspots in the UK, by average broadband download speed:

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This figures do make for interesting reading. However, I am curious as to how some of the Cambridgeshire towns have not shown up in the figures abiove when we know for a fact that speeds of  1Mb/s are not uncommon. Oh well, that’s surveys for you.

Needless to say, the communities served by Madingley Exchange will soon find their broadband speeds in the superfast league.

I came across this BBC News Technology article recently and thought “what good news”, and timely. It will be if  BT do as it is told.

BT Group will have to cut the prices it charges internet providers and others who sell on services using its lines, Ofcom says. The telecoms regulator wants the cost for use of a broadband and phone line to fall from £91.50 per year to £87.41. The cost of using a broadband line only should also drop from £14.70 per year to £11.92, Ofcom said.

An Ofcom spokeswoman said: “We hope it will lead to cheaper broadband and landline prices for consumers.” This is the third time Ofcom has set the prices that Openreach, BT’s wholesale division, charges other companies for using their lines.

The proposals have been submitted to the European Commission which has a month to comment on the changes. If approved, Ofcom expects the changes to come into force from April.

Market power

Ofcom regulates the prices charged by Openreach because, it says, the company has a dominant position in the market. The price changes were welcomed by Talk Talk, one of the communications providers which uses Openreach lines. A spokeswoman said: “We are pleased that the charges are being reduced – this reflects that BT’s charges have been excessive in the past.”

However, in a statement BT told the BBC: “We disagree with some of the underlying assumptions that they have used to determine these charge controls. “Our primary concern throughout this process is to ensure that we are able to achieve a fair rate of return in order to continue our investment in the future of the UK’s communications infrastructure. “We will consider all options available to us, including appealing, after Ofcom confirms its final decisions.”

Downward pressure

Ofcom said that the cuts were based in part on an assessment of the costs Openreach incurred running the network of underground ducts used to carry copper lines to properties. Industry expert Matt Howett, from telecommunications analyst firm Ovum, told the BBC that the proposals followed pressure from Europe to reduce pricing. “The European Commission has been very vocal about trying to bring down the cost for alternative operators to access incumbents’ networks,” he said.

But he added that BT could take its concerns with the proposed price reductions to Ofcom before anything was approved.

“Openreach will say the revisions will stop it from being able to make a fair return to be able to continue to invest in its network.”

Average Speeds

A third of homes in the UK have broadband speeds well below the national average, according to research from price comparison site uSwitch.

While half of addresses get broadband speeds of 6.7Mbps or above, a third struggle to get speeds above 5Mbps, 1.7m speed tests found.

The East Sussex village of Winchelsea was the slowest, with an average speed of 1.1Mbps, according to uSwitch.

Hereford was the slowest city, with average speeds of 3.1Mbps.

The government wants to see super-fast broadband as the gold standard in most UK homes, and has pledged to make the UK the fastest broadband nation in Europe by 2015. By that time, it also promises to make sure that all homes have speeds of at least 2Mbps.

“Britain might be riding the wave of a super-fast broadband revolution, but for 49% who get less than the national average broadband speed, the wave isn’t causing so much a splash as a ripple,” said Julia Stent, director of telecoms at uSwitch.

“And what’s really surprising is the number of cities and towns such as Hereford and Carlisle that are suffering from slow broadband speeds, dispelling the view that it’s just rural areas and small towns that have issues with their broadband,” she added.

Other towns and cities to offer average broadband speeds of below 5Mbps include Kilmarnock (3.2Mbps), Dumfries (3.6Mbps), Canterbury (4Mbps) and Shrewsbury (4Mbps).

Fast pipes

The government has provided £530m to help local councils fill in the UK’s blackspots. Cumbria, which has several areas in the top 10 slowest postcodes, received the biggest amount, with more than £17m to cope with its 96% of homes eligible for subsidies.

Councils will have to put some of their own money towards the costs, and some have been slow to get the projects off the ground.

For those in well-connected postcodes, the news is much better.

Both Virgin Media and BT have recently turned up the speed dial on their broadband services.

Virgin announced that broadband with speeds of up to 100Mbps was now available to 10 million homes, while BT pledged to offer some homes speeds of up to 300Mbps by 2013.

source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17130367

The House of Lords will investigate the UK’s aim of introducing superfast broadband to more areas of the country.

It is expected that the House of Lords Communications Committee’s action will assess the government’s proposals to have the best broadband network in Europe by 2015, in order to highlight any possible areas of improvement.

The technology will affect a wide variety of people, ranging from citizens, consumers and businesses to network providers, regulators and the coalition.

Topics that the investigation will cover include the potential changes in digital communications that will be anticipated over the next 20 years, and how these will impact Britain’s tactical investment in its digital infrastructure.

Another issue that the work aims to highlight is if the coalition’s investment in the technology is being applied to ensure maximum social and economic benefits.

Furthermore, the committee will explore the roles that the different methods of delivery will play when it comes to guaranteeing that the UK’s superfast broadband network will be fit for purpose.

Lord Inglewood, chairman of the Communications Committee, discusses the new inquiry in more detail on YouTube, and explained: “Superfast broadband is clearly an important development across Britain, not just for economic growth but also because it will impact on how people do things such as view media content, shop and even access healthcare.

“We want to look into the government’s proposals to find out if its targets are likely to be met and whether it is being ambitious enough in its plans.”

Ed Vaizey, the communications minister, has commented on the UK’s superfast broadband proposals, explaining that good progress is being made by most local authorities.

At the moment, a third of the country’s 47 superfast broadband projects are set to begin providing the connections to residents and businesses, with Shropshire and Telford among the latest councils to have their local broadband plans approved.

Source: Simon White of Broadband Finders

Superfast broadband coming to our homes is edging ever closer, and infact could be a reality for some shortly.  Last week, the Race to Infinity organisers Porter Novelli (PN) sent an email to give an update on the progress of the broadband rollout to our communities.

Dates for First Orders for Superfast Broadband announced

The email from PN announcing the update on the superfast broadband rollout started with the opening lines:

Further to your meeting with the BT team last year, we’re delighted to say that some of the first people in Madingley will be able to start placing orders for BT Infinity at the beginning of April. We therefore wanted to share the activities and support we can offer to celebrate this milestone and we would very much appreciate your thoughts and any ideas you might have to maximise the occasion for the Madingley community.

I’m sure there are those who will immediately pick up on the misconception that we are one community instead of separate villages, but please don’t jump up and down about it. I have explained this to Porter Novelli time and again till I’ve gone nearly blue in the face, and given up, but whilst PorterNovelli might not get it, BT does.

The real good news here is that some residents within the exchange area will be able to start placing orders for superfast broadband as from the beginning of April. The emphasis is on “some”.

As stated in the previous article Superfast broadband coming soon to a PC near you!, the rollout will be in stages, and it is those in the catchment area of the new green cabinets that are likely to be able to place the first orders.  These communities are Hardwick and Coton where the new broadband cabinets are being installed.

This picture shows the first superfast broadband cabinet, installed in Hardwick on the corner of Cambridge Road and Limes Road (opposite the school). This is expected to provide FTTC service to a large proportion of Hardwick village, with download speeds of up to 80Mb/s.  The areas not covered by the cabinet is expected to have cables installed for FTTP service.

Superfast broadband is indeed becoming a reality in our communities, and that is really good news. We have waited just over a year now, since being announced as one of the winners of the Race To Infinity, and it is good to know that it is now becoming reality.

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Superfast Broadband rollout Ongoing

Installation of the cable network for the superfast broadband service is ongoing and visible to residents in Caldecote, particularly over the past couple of weeks.  There have been various sightings of white vans, and large rolls of cable,  etc., as shown in the photograph, taken recently on West Drive.

The cable installation work has not been without its challenges, as the installers have found that some of the cable ducts are blocked ducts. Where this is occuring, another team will have to unblock the ducts, and the cable laying team come back to lay the cable. This means that the cable laying will take longer than anticipated, which means superfast broadband service to Caldecote will probably not start until toward the middle of the year.  However, the good news is … superfast broadband is a lot nearer reality now than it was a year ago, so please be patient.

If you see any of the workmen in your street, say hello to them and offer them a cuppa.

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Celebrations for New Milestone of First Orders for Superfast Broadband

The milestone of the first superfast broadband orders is worth celebrating, but the question is how? There are some suggestions from Porter Novelli, which may include:

• The sponsorship of a local award/event
• Awarding two free Infinity lines to the most deserving causes in the community; these could be charities, community institutions etc.
• the opportunity for the BT Infinity Bus to visit the community over the summer months, to provide every member of the community with the chance to speak to the BT team about the benefits of BT Infinity

The BT Infinity Superfast broadband publicity bus does look quite the biz, and it would be exciting to have it visit us in our villages. Please feel free to put forward ideas along the lines suggested above, so that we can enter into discussions in a meaningful way with Porter Novelli, to ensure that each community benefits in some way from the this opportunity.

Send your suggestions by email to MadingleyX@gmail.com with your ideas or via the contact us button on the right or leave a comment below. Look forward to receiving your contributions to this milestone in the race to bring superfast broadband to our community.

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BT gave an update on the progress of the broadband rollout to the communites served by Madingley exchange at a meeting in December 2011. A potted update was posted on a thread on the facebook page at the time. Unfortunately, due to technical issues, it was not possible to put that broadband rollout update here on this site. Those technical issues have now been resolved, and the broadband rollout updates should now be available more regularly … starting with

a summary of the key points of the broadband rollout programme as it was in December 2011.

 Status of superfast broadband rollout in December 2011

The main points to note are:

1. There will be two cabinets for FTTC, one on Limes Road Hardwick, the other on Cambridge Road, Coton
2. The cabinet in Hardwick is installed but awaiting commissioning
3. The cabinet in Coton cannot be installed until we know for sure from Highways if Cambridge Road is adopted.
4. Soon as both cabinets are commissioned, those whose that are within its service range (2km) radius can begin to get the service.
5. Service will not be automatic, as the existing system will still be in place to service those who don’t want faster broadband, so you’d have to request it from your service provider.
6. You don’t have to get BT to give you the service – your current provider should be able to do it – using BT infrastructure
7. FTTC will give speeds of up to 80 Mb/s
8. The rest of the exchange area will by FTTP.
9. The FTTP delivery will be longer due to the cabling work that is required. So, the rest of the exchange area will find that service will be phased in over a period of months.
10. Whilst the delay in getting FTTP is a nuisance, it means though that those who do get it will have speeds of about 100Mb/s
11. Service dates now anything from Feb12 onwards … possibly till Jun12 or later depending on the rollout speed.
12. SamKnows does not know on this occasion, as it is usually updated quarterly in arrears. Whilst the projection it showed might have been correct once upon a time, it is not now!

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So What Does It Really Really Mean for Broadband rollout for us?

Reading between the lines, during the broadband rollout, there have been challenges that are having to be dealt with. This requires more effort than anticipated. But they are being dealt with and the broadband rollout is making progress.

I think more to the point is that Fibre-To-The Cabinet (FTTC) will be the minority technology and Fibre-To-The-Premises (FTTC) will be deployed to a larger proportion of the communites than was first envisaged. The downside is that there will be a delay in the broadband rollout for some folk, becaue it will take longer than previously planned. The upside is that the download speeds that will come with FTTC will be more than fifty times what some are getting now, and probably more than 100 times more for others!

We should be seeing more activity on our streets as from now on. The broadband rollout in villages like Madingley, Caldecote, Dry Drayton Industrial area, Childerley and parts of Hardwick will involve lots of cable laying. And that means we should be seeing Vans beside the road with big rolls of cable next to it and men in flourescent jackets trying to get the cables into the underground ducts.

It is happening folks. We just need to be patient as the broadband rollout gathers momentum.

A recent letter from BT has given much cause for optimism in the quest for superfast broadband services to our communities. In the letter, Johnny McQuoid, the BT Group Superfast Broadband Programme Director said that:

“I am pleased to be able to advise that the extensive planning and survey work being carried out by my colleagues in Openreach has now been completed for your area and we are progressing to the build stage and installation of new equipment in Madingley. Furthermore we are now in a position to talk in much more detail with you about the potential coverage and uplift that the fibre deployment will bring.”

Superfast broadband is on its way to Madingley exchange

So, after months of waiting when nothing seemed to be happening, even though we knew something was going on behind the scenes, we now have confirmation that the rollout of superfast broadband to the communities served by Madingley exchange is making good progress, and that it is now being laid out for real.

Johnny McQuoid states further that:

“As I mentioned in my previous letter, fibre coverage is likely to reach and be available to more than 90% of premises in Madingley and importantly, for those who take up the service, will bring significant uplift to their current broadband speeds. I am continuing to review and finalise the Openreach plans over the next two weeks to see if we have any additional options to improve and enhance this coverage even further.

I am sure you will agree that this is great news for all those who supported the Race To Infinity (RTI) campaign to bring Super Fast Broadband to Madingley.“

Very great news indeed, and no doubt we will learn soon enough just what goodies BT are putting in place to deliver superfast broadband to the Madingley exchange area.

New Cabinet for superfast broadband spotted in Hardwick

Quite interestingly, two people have informed us that they have spotted a new green cabinet in Hardwick, on the corner of Limes Road and Cambridge Road, just opposite the school. The question is – is the newly sprouted green cabinet one of those that is to deliver superfast broadband to Hardwick?

The obvious questions then might be:

• Which premises will this cabinet be connected to?
• Will it cover the whole of Hardwick village?
• If not then where are the other cabinets going to be located?
• What about the other villages, where are their cabinets?

Answers hopefully will be provided soon enough.

Is Superfast broadband really here?

Maybe, probably, hopefully ….

Watch this space folks, the dream of superfast broadband moves ever closer.

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