Village pays for its own fibre broadband network

 

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By Martin James

Posted on 14 Apr 2010 at 11:30

A Midlands village that was told a high-speed broadband fibre network would be “impractical” to install has responded in a novel fashion – it has done the job itself.

Residents of Lyddington in Rutland, Leicestershire were among the 2.5 million homes in the UK currently denied broadband speeds of even 2Mbits/sec because of network infrastructure issues. And with BT having decided that installing fibre-optic lines in the area wouldn't be cost effective, the village's residents took matters into their own hands.

The Rutland Telecom scheme, a joint venture between the local firm reselling BT's broadband and Lyddington's residents, raised £37,000 and set up its own network.

We found that any company could do, on a smaller scale, what Carphone Warehouse has done and take over BT's network

“As a local IT company we were constantly getting enquiries about high-speed broadband and decided to see how this could be provided,” Rutland Telecom's managing director, Dr David Lewis, told the BBC. "We found that any company could do, on a smaller scale, what Carphone Warehouse has done and take over BT's network... we could utilise parts of BT's existing infrastructure and supply next-generation broadband services via community-funded projects.

“Rutland Telecom is now delighted to have developed the first UK Fibre-to-the-Cabinet broadband offering in a rural location, bringing a unique service to an otherwise technologically-impoverished community.”

The process still required the involvement of BT to supply fibre-optic cable to a street cabinet in the village, a process that took two years and required the intervention of telecoms regulator Ofcom.

Now, from not even getting 2Mbits/sec, the 50 homes that have thus far signed up are now basking in connection speeds of up to 40Mbits/sec. Rutland Telecom is charging £30 per month for line rental, broadband and all UK phone calls, and says it should be able to pay back its investors in a few years.

BT said it had been delighted to help Rutland Telecom, though it did urge the firm to make the network available to other service providers to avoid a “local monopoly” – though Rutland Telecom will no doubt argue that given it was the only party willing to take action in the first place, a monopoly was hard to avoid.

The firm says it has already been approached by 40 other rural community groups to help assess whether a similar solution is possible in their area, with projects in Leicestershire and Wales reportedly close to being launched.