Test your broadband speed: Channel 5's "The Gadget Show" has joined the campaign to make ISPs advertise real speeds rather than using the weasel words like "up to 8mbs." On their website there's a simple test and form to fill in and once they've got a big enough, they'll take their finding to OfCom, the industry and Government. Click here to test your speed, it only takes a moment and there's nothing to download.

Computer Shopper/Buyer also have complete their survey, the full results will be published next month but they have revealed that the average UK advertised connection speed is 6.6mb but the average actual connection runs at only 3.4

(16.08.10) When is an "unlimited" broadband contract not unlimited? When you're with Orange and exceed 5gb in downloads in two consecutive months, that's when. I found this out when investigating why an Orange customers internet connection had suddenly dropped from a decent 5mb to a measly 250kb. Eventually I happened across a website dedicated to Orange issues and found another user who had the same problem.

It transpired that even though they had an unlimited deal, which should allow them to download as much as they like, a "fair use" clause in the small print meant that if they couldn't download more than 5gb in two consecutive months. They'd been using iPlayer a lot to catch up on TV and exceeded that, which isn't hard when you consider that a less than eight hours of TV will eat up 5gb.

The moral of the story is that it's well worth checking the detail of your broadband deal before you commit, changing ISP isn't as hard as it used to be but it's still a hassle.

(12.08.10) BT is going to upgrade 75% (OK, not everyone else) of the UK to ADSL2, fibre to the exchange and up to 20mbs downloads. I still haven't heard from the Scot. Exec. about what happened to the plan to upgrade the exchanges cursed with exchange activate, I'll have to write again but I get the distinct feeling we're being left behind. Read more here.

(05.08.10) BT is offering faster uploads in return for a sacrifice in download speed. The boost will be between 200kps and 1mb and the download will fall by 10-15 percent. Aimed at businesses and running between 8 and 5, Monday to Friday, it can result in uploads running at 2.5mb or more. Read more here.

(15.07.10) Digital Britain's pledge to make a 2mb connection the minimum speed for British households is the latest victim of cutbacks. The old target of 2012 has been dropped in favour of a hope the project will be completed by the end of the current government in May 2015, assuming it last that long. If it doesn't, which is a distinct possibility the next government could put it off again. Remember the average speed across the UK is just under 4mb and only around 4% of the population is connected via 512k, so we're not exactly a big catch in terms of voters. Read more here. Thanks to Steve for the tip.

(02.06.10) The European Commission has called on BT to give rival ISPs physical access to the actual cables that carry broadband, a step up from the current situation in which they have to provide free access to exchanges. This is called "virtual" access and the EC agree that it's an acceptable temporary solution to competition problems but not acceptable in the long run. These changes may seem esoteric but can have real effects even in remote areas. For example, BT no longer control the buildings that house their exchanges, which means that anyone can commission a company to install equipment on them. Read more here. 

(13.05.10) BT has announced that it will be investing £1bn in fibre optic cabling and hopes to cover 60% of the UK by 2015. Obviously this will effect the cities first but it could reach out to the less probelmatic areas of the highlands and islands if the Scottish Exec. gets involved. Read more here.

(02.02.10) An area in central Manchester is to get 100mb broadband thanks to a £1 million investment in fibre cabling by the local development agency. Initially it will benefit a 1000 homes and 500 businesses but it's hoped that the scheme will be extended into east Manchester in the future. Meanwhile the Tories are promising 100mb for almost everyone should they be elected but I suspect that is more of an aspiration than a promise. Read more here.

(07.09.10) The HIE has published a report outlining the case for and costs of bringing fibre broadband connections to the region. The figures are quite staggering, £81 million is needed to get to cabinet (that's the last stop before the lines to individual properties), which seems high enough but cost almost half a billion to get it into every home. It seems doubtful that such a level of investment will ever be achieved but they deserve credit for making the case. Read more here.

(16.09.09) BT has won a case against Sky and succeeded in getting one of their rivals broadband adverts withdrawn because the claim that BT throttled speeds at peak times was inaccurate but the small print reveals things are bit more complicated. BT does slow connection speeds down at certain times for people doing things like sharing files or viewing streaming content, using iPlayer for instance. I hope Sky revises the advert because ISPs that offer fast speeds only to cut them when demand is high should be exposed. Read more here.

(18.08.09) BT is raising the standard maximum broadband speed on 40% of UK exchanges from 8mb to 20mb. They aren't saying which 40% but it's a fair bet that it will be mostly in urban areas but it could also effect exchanges that are easily upgraded to ADSL2. Read more here.

(15.06.09) BT is throttling the available bandwidth on websites like iPlayer because they're fed up with the amount of traffic they generate. This results in, on iPlayer at least, with the words "There isn't sufficient bandwidth to play this programme" appearing at the bottom of  the player as the video stops and starts in a manner all to familier to those on 512k connections. I wonder what the point of selling multi-megabyte connections is if you can't play a fairly small video file is, I don't think they've really thought the whole 21st Century Network through if they can't handle iPlayer. Read more here.

(19.05.09) It's taken 8 years but the Scottish Executive is claiming that Scotland now has universal broadband coverage. This map shows that every exchange in the country is indeed supplying broadband of one sort or another (it's interesting to see just how widespread the curse of exchange activate is) but there are still those for whom Bb not quite it is for others and would envy people connected via Exchange Activate. They're the ones who were either on long or poor quality lines and have got satellite Bb thanks to the "Reach" project. It's better than nothing but expensive and at times very slow, an example is the plight of several people on Islay (click here). Click here for more and thanks to Angela for the tip about Islay.

(06.05.09) Virgin Media is piloting 200Mb broadband in Kent and has wired up 100 of it's staff to the entirely fibre optic service. Speeds like that will never be available in remote areas because it will never be viable to install the infrastructure and we can only look on enviously. Read more here.

(28.03.09) BT has launched what it claims to be the UK's cheapest home and mobile broadband package. Costing £17.12 (why the 12p?) and working with Vodafone, users will get a meagre 1Gb data allowance a month but will be able to access the Internet in 80% of the UK. Perhaps the small download allowance is a good thing if predictions by Nemertes Research is accurate. They think the growth in services like iPlayer and YouTube (now in Hi-Def) mean that current infrastructure is reaching capacity and computers could be going off-line a peak periods in the next 18 months if trends continue. Read more here and here.

(09.03.09) Ofcom is teaming up with broadband information website SamKnows to produce a league table of ISP performance. 7000 "black boxes" will be distributed to households that will check real speed and the consistency of performance. Read more here.

(29.01.09) The Government has announced that it wants every home in the UK to have access to faster broadband by 2012 but I rather agree with the Conservatives, it just sounds like a re-announcement of the 21st project, which has been on the table for some time and should see the first of our local communities, Lismore, upgraded by the Spring. Click here for more.

(08.01.09) Ofcom has released its report on real UK broadband speeds revealing, suprise suprise, that most people aren't getting anything like the maximum 8mb. As result new standards have been agreed with the ISP industry so people know before they sign up what they can expect. Frankly I think it's always been very clear that 8mb is a maximum and it may not be available on individual lines but I supose this is a good thing. Read more here.

(15.10.08) BT has named the sites for the fibre to cabinet trials and sadly they're nowhere near us. They'll take place next year in Cardiff and surprise, surprise, London. Still it's good news that they're doing it and it brings the prospect of truly fast (up to 100mbs) just a bit closer. Read more here.

(11.09.08) A report commissioned by the Government and written by the former head of Cable & Wireless has recommended that the burden of upgrading the country to next gen broadband should be born by the industry and the government's role should be restricted to ensuring new buildings are fibre ready and relaxing regulations on over head fibre cabling. So no rural first policy but the latter recommendation could make a real difference in rural areas where overhead cable is the most common.

(10.09.08) Ofcom's Consumer Panel has called for rural areas, particularly those that were poorly served last time, to be the first to get the next generation of broadband. "Let's address these issues alongside commercial rollout, not after it." Let's hope Ofcom adopts this as policy and lobbies the government to come up with the money. Read more here.

(08.08.08) Virgin media has announced that it is planning to be offering customers who are lucky enough to have their phonelines hooked via fibre by BT a 200mbs connection by 2012. The mind boggles at what would possible at that speed, would there be any need to have any programs installed on your own computer at all? Read more here, also contains some surprising take up figures for Sky high speed broadband.

(15.07.08) BT is planning to pump an additional £1.5 bn into broadband infrastructure, including putting fibre-optic cable into a million homes with the rest of the population having to make do with connections of 40 to 60 mbs. However they'll only do it if they're allowed a better return on their money, which is pegged at 10% at the moment, so it seems a fair enough request. Read more here. (I heard elsewhere that the 40-60 connections would only cover 40% of the population, so big cities and easy to reach places).

(01.07.08) Looking forward to a 8mb connection? Envying people in big cities who can get 20mb via cable? Well think on, the world's fastest connection is to the medium sized Swedish town of Karlstad and it's, wait for it...40 gigabytes per second! it enables users to download entire high defintion movies in two seconds and presumably pass the average ISP allowance in one. It's down to two things, an excellent fibre connection to the capital and a new modulation technique that enables long connections without the need for intermediate transponders. Read more here.

What do you think is the most popular Internet langauge? English probably and you'd be right it is. What's surprising is that it only makes up 30% of webpages, with the Chinese taking second place with 16%. Other languages to up 44%, a figure that will probaly rise with the enabling of web addresses in non-Roman scripts (see News). Read a little more here. 

The two stories above were inspired by an interview in the Telegraph with Tim Berners-Lee and the little list of facts at the bottom of it. My favourite fact was "the worst Internet mistake", click here to find out what it was and to read the wise words of TBL. 

(05.06.08) Ofcom is to enforce advertising standards on Bb providers that will ensure that customers know what speed to expect when they sign up. This will end the misleading "up to" caveat that can mean people signing up for 8mb being disappointed when they only get 3.6mbps (see above) and will stop them being caught by packages that offer high speeds but deliver far less. Read more here.

(08.05.08) Bournemouth is the lucky town chosen to pilot the Fibre City concept. Every home that wants it will be connected the Internet by fibre optic cable, enabling them to connect at 100mbps, the sort of speed only enjoyed by South Korea and Japan until now. It's the kind of speed that really does live up to the name digital highway, making it possible to watch TV, play games, make video calls etc simultaneously. Click here to read more here and here for the official website with an unintentionally hilarious virtual house (works best in IE).

(18.03.08) BT is to launch a simple device that could significantly improve broadband connections that suffer from domestic electronic interference. The example given is of a 3.8mb connection losing 700kb just because of a nearby flourescent lamp. Called an Interstitial Plate or iPlate (ooh, it's got an "i" at the beginning of the name - I must have one!)and costing just £10 it's fitted to the master phone socket, virtually eliminating all interference. It's being trialled with about a 100 customers at the moment and they hope to put it on sale in the next few months. Read more here.

(12.02.08) An Ofcom review of the work of Openreach, the independent BT entity that ensures that all ISPs have equal access to BT exchanges, could lead to an increase in Bb charges. Openreach is allowed to make a 10% profit and it isn't at the moment apparently. Read more here.

(29.01.08) Ebbsfleet in Kent is the lucky town that BT has chosen to trial 100mb broadband as part of it's Open Reach project. It won't be the existing properties that benefit in the main, it will be the new properties which are being built as part of Prescott's plan to concrete over south east England, starting with the flood plains (Ebbsfleet is next to the mouth of the Thames estuary). It will allow the Internet to be used for viewing multiple television channels and instant music downloads amongst other things.

This is because the service needs fibre cable all the way from the exchange to the house but it's hope that eventually it will cover the entire country. Strangely, this could mean that some outlying areas could benefit before cities because BT replaced a lot of old copper lines with fibre in the '90s and as domestic lines need replacing it will be done with fibre and it's a lot cheaper to do in rural areas than in cities that require streets to be dug up.

It won't be for some time though, in the meantime we've got universal 8mb to look forward over the next year to three years, depending on your area and how far you are from the exchange etc. Read more here.  

(12.11.07) BT is to introduce a system that enables customers to use up to four broadband lines in tandem. It's primarily aimed at businesses as it is quite expensive but a lot cheaper than leased line charges. Read more here.

(16.11.07) Channel 4 has a short article and more importently, an interview with the EU commissioner responsible for telecom regulation which is much easier to digest than the article I linked to below. Click here (also check the link to a story about Labour preventing mobile charges coming down as much as they should have).

(14.11.07) The EU Competition Commission and by extension, Ofcom, will in future be concentrating on telecom markets where there are still problems of market domination, such as broadband and access to existing infrastructure. It's a bit complicated and in very small type but worth reading. Click here. 

(08.11.07) UK Broadband takeup is slowing and the trend is set to continue. The problem for the providors is that most people who want it have already got it, leaving a hardcore of dialup users who will never convert because they only use very basic services like email and households who just aren't interested in the Internet. In my opinion, this could be good news for existing users because without a pool of new users, the only way ISPs can expand is to offer us incentives to change suppliers. Read more here.

(18.10.07) The Post Office is launching a broadband service which will combine with it's existing phone offering, both of which will work through the BT network. Next BT will buy a mail and package delivery service, farm it out to the PO and the world will have come full circle. Costs will be between £16 and £30 (-5p). Read more here.

BT is to luanch a service which will enable people to access the web via other peoples connections. Exploiting the typical 30m range of home wi-fi systems, those taking part will allow people to access theirs in return for similar access (if I've got this right). The reckon it will become useful once the service has 50k participants, read more here.

We sometimes, no let's make that "often," complain about our broadband services up here but things can be much worse south of the border where there's been no Government initiative to bring Bb to virtually everyone. A hamlet in Norfolk, only 90 miles from London, had to wait over a year for BT to get the eleven properties connected. It involved a lot of new infrastructure and permisions, at cost of over £40k, a cost justified by what BT described as a "good business case." That's interesting in itself, there are still communities up here out of the reach of Bb that might be described as having a good business case. Read more here.

(10.10.07) OfCom has made it's ruling and is telling the ISPs that they must be clearer in their advertising of potential connection speed. No longer will the phrase "up to" appear without it being made explicit that this a very theoretical figure and in future people will have a longer period of time to test the connection before commiting to a long term contract. Read more. Wouldn't it just be easier if the ISPs advertised a guaranteed minimum?

(26.09.07) The UK has near universal but rather slow broadband coverage comparred to other countries and this utilitarian will not serve us well in the future according to OfCom, who think it won't be capable of coping with bandwidth hungry applications such as video on demand. Even though the current average speed of 4.5 mbps is amazingly fast comparred to what it was just a few years ago, it's way below the ultra high speeds enjoyed elsewhere and ways have to be found to adapt the aging infrastructure. Read more here.

(04.09.07) BT has clocked up it's 4 millionth customer and is signing new ones up at a reate of 2000 a day as Britain rushes to become a broadband nation. Read more here.

(14.06.07) There are over 300 million broadband users worldwide, that's about 1 in 18 of the total population and numbers are increasing all the time. There is a huge divide in those figures though, with the bulk of the numbers coming from the developed nations and huge areas without any high speed connection available. S. Korea is by far the most connected nation, the UK limps in at 17th but is improving, with competition being driven by providors like Sky and TalkTalk. Read more in this illuminating article.

(29.05.07) Is Talk Talk offering the best broadband deal in the UK at the moment? Someone asked to recommend an ISP to them and when I asked them who they were with and what their phone bill was, they replied Talk Talk and £25 p.m. including all calls, national and international (except premium rate of course). When I checked, I found that they could get a better deal with the same company, get free 8mb broadband, pay £5 less a month and still get the free calls! And that includes line rental! £20 p.m. for all that, there has to be a catch and there is. Talk Talk get very mixed reviews from customers to say the least, people either love them or hate them and the commonest complaint seems to be poor download speed, often far less than the advertised 8mb. You can read the reviews here. From past experience we know that when ISPs are rapidly expanding, which Talk Talk is, service often suffers as the company's capacity struggles to keep up with the expanding customer base but if I could get it through my exchange, I'd be very tempted. See the deal here.

(27.05.07) Bulldog customers are being targeted by cold callers from phone centres in Pakistan after a former executive allegedly took a database containing 100k account details with her when she left her job. She denies everything but whatever the truth, Bulldog customers are being plagued with calls. This doesn't just effect those on broadband either. Read more here. 

(20.05.07) BT has retaken the broadband top spot from Virgin media, thanks to signing up 245,000 new customers and buying up PlusNet with its 195,000 customers in the last quarter. "I'm delighted" says BT's Retail CEO, as well he might. In the meantime they've shutdown PlusNet's email service, due to an unpatchable security vulnerability. Read more here and, on the email service, here.

(02.05.07) The UK's broadband service comes in for something of a pasting in an article that summarises recent reports, such as the huge increase in complaints to OfCom and the number of people who would recommend their provider to someone else. It seems to me that the rapid increase in users has caught up with the expansion of capacity and now the system is showing signs of strain. We saw a similar trend when the wave of new dialup customers came online in the early years of this century, the difference is that there is an almost insatiable demand for bandwidth and as the Broadband Stakeholders Group warned recently, the UK infrastructure isn't up to it. Read more here.

(21.03.07) While some of us are dreaming of a 2 or maybe an 8mb broadband speed, the Government and Ofcom have been told to buck their ideas up if they want to prevent the UK being left behind on the ever faster super highway. The Broadband Stakeholders Group says that the plans for a national grid of at least 20mb should be being made now if the needs of an increasingly demanding consumer and business market are to be met. I think that even this might be a little unambitious when you consider the speeds being reached in Korea and Japan. Read more here.

(14.03.07) Customers are finding that some "no-limits" broadband deals are somewhat more limited than they were led to believe. It's down to the amount of bit-torrent downloads bringing people movies and TV shows in huge files. Once upon a time people would download them overnight but increasing broadband speed has made everyone more impatient and they want everything NOW! Read more here.

(21.02.07) The broadband providers trade association, ISPA, has named Eclipse as the provider of the year. I'd never heard of them but the association was impressed by their zero touch registration system, whatever that is. However they also named NTL, now Virgin, as best for customer service, so what do they know? Read more here, Eclipse can be found here.

(08.02.07) BT have announced that the number off broadband lines in the hands of operators other then BT has reached 1.5 million, or about 15% of the total of UK Bb customers. This is apparently a very good thing and a sign that the new regime that ensures that BT operates in an even handed way is working. Read more here.

(06.02.07) The top 5 broadband for domestic users is much the same as last year and they dominate 80% of the market. What is new however is that BT are no longer the all conquering giant that they used to be, now the NTL/Virgin/Telewest group match them, with each taking 24.6% of the market. New into the top five is Carphone Warehouse, carried in on a wave of "free broadband" ads, while Orange (formerly Freeserve, Wanadoo) are keeping thier end up. All the other providors, and there's hundreds, are scrapping it out for a the remaining few percent. Read more here and here.
Note to self; must put more news into Broadband News, there has been more but it tends to end up on other pages.

(07.09.06) BT have announced the first phase of its "21st Century Network" plans with the enabling of high speed services in Cardiff. The results from the test area will be used to judge the impact across the the 5500 exchanges across the UK. Read more here (in the article "ethernet" refers to the phone network)

(25.07.06) Virgin is offering customers who sign up to their "SIM only" (keep your old phone, just change the card) offers, which cost either £15 or £30 p.m. a years free Internet access at speeds of up to 8mb. Could be very appealing if you use your mobile a lot. Read more here.

(18.07.06) What a surprise, BT has come out top in a performance survey of phoneline based ISP which covered download times, connection reliability etc. Epitiro, normally a company that only makes it's findings available to the industry, tested services every 15 minutes and correlated the results in terms of speed achieved versus theoretical maximum speed, which could have skewed things as many ISPs sell an "up to" product even when its known that a customer has no hope of reaching it. Read more here.

(02.07.06) Thus, the Scottish telecom company, has beaten BT to the £70 million Pathfinder contract. The project will see high speed internet services brought to 800 sites across the highlands and islands, two thirds of which a scheduled to be completed over the next two years. Depending on the technology used, there could be knock on benefits to any community with a qualifying asset, such as a school or a library. Read more here.

(30.06.06) More than half of the UK's broadband lines are supplied by just two operators, BT and the new NTL, Virgin, Telewest (NVT) conglomerate, who have roughly a quarter each. There are only five, BT, NVT, AOL, Tiscali and Wanadoo that have over a million customers and the rest have a measly 1.2 million customers between of the 10.7 in the UK. It just goes to show that monopoly and advertising beats customer service when it comes to winning business. Read more here. 

(27.04.06) Carphone Warehouse the company behind TalkTalk has been told to withdraw or reword their "Free for life" broadband adverts following complaints from rivals. The ads are misleading because there's a £30 connection fee and the service only lasts as long as your contract. Seems a bit picky to me. Read more here.

(03.04.06) BT has told 3000 heavy broadband users that they must either pay for the extra bandwidth or find another service. This is a huge change in company policy which up until now has only taken similar action with three people. It's not hard to see why, the 3000 in question have been downloading 200Gb or more a month, the equivilent of 1½ DVDs a day. This is way above the 40Gb limit of BTs top broadband package but it's going to be an increasing problem for ISPs as speeds increase, especially in the cities. Read more here.

(24.03.06) The price regulations that capped BT prices since privatisation have been lifted, leading to the possibility of increases for those who have no choice of line supplier. However rival telecoms oppossed the change on the grounds that it could squeeze out smaller suppliers which suggests that they believe that it will lead to price drops. Read more here.

(23.03.06) BT is to launch an Internet TV service, exploiting the near nation wide increase in connection speeds. This will allow it to provide services that match its cable rival NTL which already provides intergrated net, phone and TV packages and will soon be in the mobile market with Virgin mobile. Read more here.

(17.03.06) The average broadband speed in the UK is now just under 2mb, which highlights just how slow a 512k connection is. There's an enormous difference between how you use the Internet with dialup, basic broadband and higher speeds, we must do all we can to improve things before we are left behind. Read more here.

(06.03.06) Shoreditch an up and coming borough of Europe's wealthiest city (London), is to get 2gb/s broadband connections as a result of government funded program. 20 000 households and businesses will benefit from the free upgrade that it is so fast that the entire 32000 pages of the Encylcopedia Britannica could be downloaded in 7 seconds. Good to know that the government is spending our money where its most needed but what will all those door to door salesmen do? Read more here.

(24.02.06) BT is committed to rolling out the BT Wholesale Max services, which enables speeds of up to 8mb to all its broadband exchanges over the coming year or so. Of course that doesn't include the EAs and customers connected to one will see the Internet speed gap widening even further. The difference isn't just in download rates either, with the Max service uploads can run at up to 832k for businesses and 448k for home users, which will make high quality video conferencing a real possibilty. Read more here.

(22.02.06) Broadband continues it inexorable rise across the UK with almost a third of Internet users now connecting at at least 512k. Last year only about 40% had a fast connection and the change will mean that the Internet divide will grow even wider as website tailor their output to cater for the broadband user. Read more here.

(19.01.06) Local loop unbundling passed a milestone recently when the number of lines able to access directly services from providors other than BT passed 200000 a figure that is increasing at a rate of 5000 a week. On top of that the migration of users is happening more efficently, with 9 out 10 going through at the first attempt. This could have significance for those of us connected to EA exchanges which are unlikely to be upgraded by either the Pathfinder project or BT's 20th Century Upgrade. Why shouldn't we install our own equipment and upgrade the backhaul through a local not-for-profit company? Read more here.

(11.01.06) OpenReach, BT's "independent" provider of access to the local loop (the local exchanges) was launched today and will hopefully level up the playing field for rival ISPs. The most interesting aspect for me is that they have a price list for upgrading backhaul, which raises the prospect of local communities raising the money to upgrade their local exchange. Read more here.

(18.10.05) Wanadoo is to follow BT's example and offer an 8mb service to it's customers, initially in urban areas where they have installed there own equipment in exchanges. Connections of 8mb, let alone 20, are a dream for many of us but the VDSL2 test speeds achieved by Wanadoo's parent company, French Telecom, are mind boggling. Over conventional copper "last mile" connections they managed a consistent 80mbs, feeding HDTV signals, high quality video, digital television and file transfers down the line at the same time. Read more here and here, the VDSL2 article also contains some interesting information about the bandwidth required for various types of data.

(15.10.05) BT is set to make 8mb the new connection speed, great news for everyone connected to a converted exchange. The current standard is 2mb but BT has been affected by the plethora of ISPs, particularly the cable operaters, offering anything up to 24mb. That's only available in cities though and BT plans to offer their service to everyone "whether they live in valleys, villages or city centres." From November they will begin testing 53 exchanges in locations as diverse as Cornwall and Strathcylde and hope to roll it out nationwide from next spring. Read more here.

(28.07.05) Broadband has for the first time overtaken dialup connections as the most popular way to connect to the Internet. Four years ago Britain lagged behind most of the developed world, with less than 1% connecting at 512k but in May 2005 51% were and at many at much better speeds. Today, 1 or 2mbs is the norm and those with cable may have the option of 8mbs, as do some with really good lines to their exchange (read more here).

Cable is becoming increasingly important in the delivery of broadband to urban areas and one company is predicting that 100mb connections will be available a soon as next year (read more here) but what does this mean to the rest of us? Look at the illustration below, there wasn't room to mark the 512k (connection dark blue area) or 2mb (slightly lighter) but there was plenty of space for the others.

 


It's like relative wealth, the poor get rich but not as fast as those that are already rich, which is why it gets harder to get onto the bottom rung of the housing ladder and why the chance of getting a 512k connection isn't as exciting as seemed a year ago. The difference between a 56 and 512 is dramatic enough, webpages open almost instantly, email wizzes in and out and files download at reasonable speed. Those jerky webcam pictures smooth out but they're still pretty small. If you want to watch moving images at quarter screen size you're going to need a 2mb connection, with an 8 you'll get something approaching a poor TV service. It's hard to imagine what advantages a 100mb connection would have but it's a fair guess that it would entirely change the way you use a computer. 

For a start, you'd back up everything to a webserver, where space is becoming cheaper by the day and have no more worries about losing it all if your own computer crashed. Your broadband  connection would become the communications hub of the house, with your Internet, phones and TV passing through it. 

Why does this matter to us? On one hand we have a lot to be grateful for, the Scottish Executive has ensured that we're going to get some form of broadband before most of our rural cousins in England but on the other hand, the main purpose of the initiative has been thwarted by the march of technology. The SE has failed to bridge the gap between urban and rural connection speeds and so the job oppurtunities that would have come with comparrable speeds have disappeared.

And there are already businesses here that are hamstrung by the slowness of the connections, as the differential grows they will wonder if its ever going to be possible to compete from places like this and it will put others off from coming here in the first place. It looks like the campaign to improve connection speeds isn't going to end anytime soon.

(01.07.05) OfCom has had another go at BT, criticising it's grip on the local loop. Again. They should do something because this is like having a tooth pulled slowly. Read more here (warning it's complicated).

(21.06.05) Freedom2surf has introduced 24mbps Bb for customers connected to a whole 14 exchanges in urban areas (I think that means London), although promising to add a further 200 shortly. They claim that the prospect of the unbundling of the local loop (see below) will improve the chances of the service being extended. Read more here.

(19.06.05) BT may lose it's grip on the local loop if OfCom carries out a threat to refer it to the Competition Commission, a move that could result in the break up of the company. The "local loop" is the network of lines that connect individual customers to an exchange and it's BT's reluctance to let other operators access this part of the system that has been under attack from OfCom and it's predecessor Oftel, for several years. Such threats, and there have been many, are normally the que for BT to come up with an offer to fend off the threat of referral, a tactic that usually works, whether it will this time remains to be seen. Click here for more and thanks to Steve for the tip.

(09.06.05) The astonishing possibility of download speeds of 100mbps came closer to reality when the International Telecommunication Standardization Sector (!?) agreed the international standards for VDSL2 (the V stands for "very high speed"). Not that they are likely to appear in the UK anytime soon, BT is still testing the relatively sluggish, 20mbps, ADSL2 (the A stands for "around for ages"). Me? I'm still looking forward to getting my 512kb ADSL.

(22.05.05) A US company that provides telephone calls over a broadband connection has luanched it's service in the UK. Unlike Skype and other Internet telephone services, you don't need to switch on the computer to make or receive calls. It works just like a normal phone just requires you to plug a box in between the computer and the phone socket. Prices start at £9.99, which seems a little steep to me but they have phenomenally successful in the States. Read more here. Thanks to Dr.Zog for the ti[.

(13.04.05) I knew it was to good to be true, well I didn't but I should have done. It seems that UK Online's £9.99 deal is only available to people who are connected to one of the 240 exchanges that they've installed there equipment. Oh well...Read more here.

(12.04.05) UK Online has announced the first sub-ten pound a month 512mb broadband service, what's more, it's uncapped, meaning that there is no limit to how much you can download. Normally I'm very suspicious of these offers, there's been to many examples of great offers that suddenly worsen when enough people have signed up to be otherwise. But 512 is no longer fast, not with 2mb being widely available for reasonable prices and, as I've said before, it all comes down to bandwidth. Read more here.

(23.03.05) The UK has amongst the most expensive broadband services in the world, despite the recent fall in prices. Not only that but it also obeys the apparent rule that means that the slower service, the more expensive it is. While we are waiting for 512kbps and dreaming of 1 or 2mbps, the Koreans enjoy 100mbps in some areas! Read more here.

(16.02.05) BT is "regrading" it's ADSL customers connection speeds to up to 4mbs, depending on what their line is capable of and at no additional cost or useage restrictions. Not only that but one of their partners, ISP Plusnet, has made 8mb connection available and that's seriously fast. It all augers well for the future when it finally arrives for us.

(05.02.05) BT has made a pre-emptive offer to OfCom in response to the appointment of an adjudicator to oversee the unbundling of the "last mile". They're offering dramatic drops in prices, higher broadband speeds and more in a bid to retain control of our phonelines. Read more here. Thanks to Steve for the tip.

(27.01.05) OfCom has appointed an adjudicator to oversee the unbundling of the controversial "last mile". This refers to the fact that BT controls and owns the local exchanges and the lines that go from them to households, this is what gives them ultimate control over prices. There have been many attempts to sort this out but this time BT, along with 12 other major companies has agreed to abide by the OfCom ruling, so something could really change!

Post Office broadband: The PO is committed to installing Bb in all it's offices, no matter how small and to this end it has been installing the equipment needed in some of the communities offices, including some of the smaller ones. However this doesn't mean that broadband is about to arrive, they are just doing in anticipation of the exchange being upgraded and they have no news when this might happen.

(07.01.05) BT has exploited (I mean that in a good way) the newly freed up 5.8ghz radio spectrum to extend the range of wireless broadband services to rural communities. The new frequancy can offer far superiour performance over a much greater distance, up to 18 km (about 11 miles), comparred to 5 to 6 on the 2.8 band. Not only that, using  Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (absolutely no idea what that means) the signal can get through "radio rich" environments, bounce off buildings and foliage, yet still provide speeds of up to 1mb. This will bring even the most out of the way places into the compass and is a significant step forward. Read more here. Thanks to James Westland for a good story to start the new year on.


(13.12.04) Pilot progects in the north and south of Scotland will see schools and libaries benefit from a £90 million scheme to bring broadband to rural and outlieing communities. And not just any old broadband, they're talking about 4mb broadband, faster than anything available outside the premium services to big city centers. Hopefully it heralds the same being available locally, read more here.

(10.11.04) Thanks to Angela (again!) for pointing out that the story on the beeb website doesn't have any great examples in it at all! I'm sorry, I think they must have re-edited it after I posted the story. I can't remember the story well enough to repeat it, it was something to do with it being quicker and cheaper to put a 10 mb flash file on a bus to the next village (can't remember which villages) than to send it via a dial up connection. Oh well...

(09.11.04) The BBC has an interesting report on the "Powering Up for Broadband" conference mentioned below. It makes the expected points about the digital devide and how it's arrival will help job creation, a subject highlighted by the Scottish Executive moving civil service work to rural communities with Bb. It is worth reading, if only for the startling example it gives to the difference Bb makes to data transfer, once read you'll never forget it - trust me, you'll repeating it down the pub. Click here and thanks to Angela for the link. 

(25.10.04)  The "Powering up with Broadband" Conference is taking place in Aviemore on the 2nd and 3rd of November with workshops and meetings covering all aspects of the coming change. You can see details by clicking here, there is something for everyone, especially the business and public sectors.

(01.09.04) Yet again BT is being accussed by Broadband ISPs of the unfair pricing of wholesale leasing packages which in turn leads to them having to charge more than they wish to the consumer. Obviously BT deny it but if history is anything to go by, Ofcom will find in favour of the the independent ISPs or BT will change it's price structure before a decision is reached. Read more here.

(26.08.04) Sweden is the place to be if you want really fast broadband. Users can get 10mbit connections for £43 pm and this includes the ability to access TV and films. Not only that but this is the slower of the services, those with fibre connections can get 100mb downloads. The service is very asymetrical, 10 down but "only" 1 up but it really shows the UK how far it has to go in the Bb world. Read more here. Incidently I think the linked story might be wrong, the companies website seems to suggest that the 10mb is available for phone customers, I could be wrong as I don't speak Swedish.

(09.07.04) The Net media seems to be welcoming the news that BT is doubling the number of SDSL exchanges from 150 to 300. SDSL allows users to send at the same speed as they recieve data, whereas ADSL downloads faster than it sends. But the price for a 512 connection is £170 per month, obviously it's aimed at business but the price is still outragous in my opinion. Eventually it will become clear that what is being sold is bandwidth, no matter how it's used or delivered and pricing will change accordingly, until then we will have to put up with these anomolies as if they were doing us a favour.

(08.07.04) As reported below BT is trialing pay-as-you-go Bb in Milton Keynes (or somewhere similar where people have been driven mad by roundabouts), it turns out that they are charging 5p per minute! 24/7 dial-up, like we had for the first year, costs around £15 per month, payg dial-up costs 1p per minute. Bb 24/7 costs around £20 per month, or 25% more than dial-up and yet they intend to charge payg Bb customers 500% more than their dial-up neighbours! It's obviously aimed at people who hardly ever use the service but if that is the case what on earth have you got Bb for in the first place? They're going to have to rethink this IMHO. 

(20.06.02) BT has cut the price of it's ADSL packages, is offering financial rewards for introducing people to the service and even free flights to new sign-ups. They describe it as a responce to a competitive market, some may call it a desperate attempt to hang on to market share, decide for yourself by clicking here.

(09.06.04) BT have announced ambitious plans to upgrade the entire UK network to intergrate broadband and 3G mobile phones into a single system by 2009. They intend to replace the copper network with fibre across most of the country at a cost of £3 billion. "Most" probably won't include us and we'll have to hope that once again the Scottish Executive picks up the baton. Read more here.

(08.06.04) The Scottish Executive website has been updated with an item confirming the annoucement on Monday about the upgrading of exchanges (and more), it more or less reiterates the items earlier but it's nice to see it on an official website, click here for the website.

(25.05.04) The Access to Broadband Campaign is to hold its main conference in Avimore in November and has cancelled the July one as a responce to the recent BT announcments. As reported on the main news page Scotland has the bulk of exchanges that won't be included in BTs plans. Read more here (4th item down).

(08.5.04) So - broadband. Is it all that it's cracked up to be? What difference will it really make to our lives? A discussion on Lesley Riddoch's Radio Scotland program thrashes these questions out and is well worth listening too if you are wondering how its arrival will affect you. Click here for her page and the Listen Again link (this will probably only last until next Friday). Thanks to Jane for the link.

(26.04.04) Telewest is to introduce a 3mb broadband service to replace its current 2mb one for its cable customers - at no extra cost. Even customers on the 512 service will see a rise of 50% to 750k. This is part of a battle between cable providors and NTL is making the same kind of upgrade but Telewest is the first UK 3mb connection. They expect homeworkers and "early adopters" to be the first customers but as the benefits become clear more people to take up the £50pm/3mb offer. Now that's what I call broadband, a great play is being made of the arrival of ADSL to remote communities but in a few years, a 512k connection will look like today's 56k to people wanting to come here and work online. 512 is no longer fast. Read more here.

(20.04.04) BT has been busy with two interesting stories making the Register. The first is particularly relevant to us as it concerns the testing of 500k ADSL to homes beyond the present 6km limit. BT has been extending the range for sometime and this could have a great affect on homes in the digital community which are just outside the villages with exchanges, such as Lee on the Isle of Mull for example. Click here for more.

BT is also trialing 2mb and 250k connections, at £38 and £12.50 per month wholesale. The 250K doesn't look that interesting but a 2mb connection at £50 retail could appeal to a lot of people. Click here for more. Thanks to Steve for the links.

(07.04.04) GNER, that runs trains from Edinburgh to London is introduce broadband Internet onto its trains. Free to first class (and I should think so too), £4.95 to everyone else, it will connect to various digital providors along the route, even inside tunnels. Read more here.

(06.04.04) BT dropping the price of the router needed to connect an Xbox or PS2 to a broadband connection by a whopping £79, bringing it down to only £20 if bought online. Online gaming is one of the primary drivers for broadband and selling point for the boxes, about 15% of which are expected to be connected to the net.

(01.04.04) BT is planning to introduce variable speed broadband that will increase the connection to up to 2mbs via an online control panel. The idea is to allow people to use the best speed for the content they are accessing and the top speed will used for streaming DVD quality video. At least that's what ComputerActive magazine is saying but I can't find any links to the story so it could be just an April fool.

(24.03.04) Broadband suppliers have joined BT and Telewest (see below) in providing sub-£20 ADSL packages. This will provide those lucky enough to have their exchanges upgraded a much wider range of choices and promises more imaginative permutations in the future. Read more, including a break down of what will be on offer, here.

(04.03.04) Guess what the average monthly cost of 516k Bb is in the Europe, go on - guess...over 74 euros! That's nearly £50! The most expensive place is Switzerland, where you really need to own one of the banks to connect and the cheapest is Sweden, where they give it away in cornflake packets. Click here for more. UK quite cheap - who'd have thought?

(01.03.04) BT & Telewest have dramatically dropped the monthly cost of 512kbps broadband (ADSL) to £19.99. But there is a catch, BT will charge £80 for the modem and set-up and there is a restriction of 1gb on the amount you can download, the equivilent of 20 000 webpages apparently. This "no frills" package, to be known as Broadband Base, is thought to appeal to about half of their customers. To my mind UK broadband is still overpriced for a slow and restrictive service but things are getting better. Click here for more.

(09.02.04) The Hydro Electric are staring their commercial trials in Stonehaven and Winchester and are hoping to sign up to 1000 people in the English city alone. However in an article on the Independents website a former BT researcher is very critical of the system in general and sceptical of the Hydro's claims, it makes interesting reading, click here for more. Thanks to Angela for the tip.

(05.02.04) BT has outlined plans that mimic Hi-Wide's ideas on combining wireless and ADSL to bring broadband to outlying areas. They don't intend to offer it a commercial product either, rather they will work with local initiatives which have other funding. Like Hi-Wide for instance. Read more here.

(24.01.04) A combination of BT and the regional development company are putting £9m into the north east of England to ensure that all the exchanges are upgraded by 2005. The announcement coincided with net-phobe Tony Blair's visit to his constituancy and the upgrading of his own local exhange. £9m is far more than is allocate for the whole of Scotland. Read more here.

(23.01.04) BT has published the new prices and speeds for SDSL services for businesses, mostly aimed at the high end of the market and not much interest to most of us but an indication of what will be available in the future. Click here for details.

(12.01.04) BT (again!) has apologised for the slow delivery of the wiring to enable a local wi-fi company hook up its customers and has announced the date the work will be completed. Coincidentaly it will be done two days before BT enables the exchange for ADSL but there is nothing sinister in this according to BT, read more here. Thanks to Steve for the tip.

(07.01.04) BT continues to bring broadband to the masses with a tie up to McDonalds, installing WI-FI hotspots in all of the 400 "restaurants" as technology becomes available. Amazingly it will be installed in drive-thrus, which will OK if you have all your emails typed up before you get to the window I suppose. Read more here, our nearest McDs are in Fort William and Helensburgh.

(05.01.04) BT has been slow to deliver again, another community based Bb group report that that the company has failed to install equipment on time. Read more here.

(29.12.03) The Government has freed up another wireless frequency for wireless broadband systems. Each frequency has it's own characterisitics which affects the power needed to cover distance, the equipment needed to sent and recieve it etc. I don't know the technical details of the new one but the more there are the better. Read more here.

(26.12.03) Ever felt frustrated by our slow progress towards Bb Nivana? Read this story, there's always someone worse off!

(16.12.03) A story on the register seems to confirm suspicions that the BT announcement of so many Hi-Wide communities had been set trigger points was more than just a coincidence. A Berkshire community which organised it's own Wi-fi system has found that the BT end of the service suffering from continual failure and more to point one of it's sites suffered a long delay during which BT listed the small exchange for ADSL. This let them to lose a lot of customers. Click here to read more.

(24.11.03) Tiree or at least Scarnish at the eastern tip (I don't know if this is the only exchange), has been given a trigger by BT. Those connected to it will have to rack up 100 registrations to get the exchange converted for ADSL. Didn't spot this yesterday!

Meanwhile no news is no news from Hydro Electric. In a reply to forum member Peabody they say that the trials have come to an end and plans for the roll out have not been finalised. The only hint of new information was that the issue of out lieing exchanges, which may need a satelite link, hadn't been finalised either, so there may be hope yet! Thanks for sending this in!

(23.11.03) BT sets local triggers! In amongst the 2300 triggers announced on the 17th (see below) are three local exchanges, Balvicar (Seil and Easdale), Fionnphort (inc Bunessan and Iona) and Tobermory. The numbers needing to register to trigger the ADSL upgrade are relatively low but high considering the size of the communities. The numbers are (with the current registrations in brackets) Balvicar 100 (55), Tobermory 150 (56) and Fionnphort 100 (23). Considering the effort that people put in to getting people to sign up the last time and that all of these places are to get Wi-fi broadband it seems unlikely that the trigger will ever be met, which is a pity because choice and competition is good for everyone. Thanks to Steve for spotting this.

(20.11.03) While we eagerly await the arrival of 516kbps broadband Korea has set in motion the upgrading of it's broadband network from 2mbps (i.e. 4 X UK ADSL) to an astonishing 100mbps. The idea that the UK is serious about broadband technology is just a joke...Read more here.

(18.11.03) BT has announced 2300 new trigger points, some for small exchanges that require "only" a hundred registrations. This has been hailed has a move towards universal broadband but there will still be many communities left out. Even the HIE scheme, good though it is, isn't catching everyone, the two exchanges nearest to me will never meet anyones trigger despite one of them having 40% of the residents registering. Read more here.

(13.11.03) How the southern half lives! Piccadily, London, is to be made a wireless broadband area giving anyone there instant access to the Internet! Read more here.

(12.12.03) A new long range wireless brought was launched this month capable of tranferring data at 70Mbps over a range of up to 30 kilometers. This, if adopted by HIE, would have considerable implications for communities as the area covered is condisderably bigger and the signal much more powerful. Click here for more. Thanks to James Westland for this tip.

(28.10.03) BT is to offer a faster Bb connection following successful trials of the 1mb system. Unfortunately it will be available within four kilometers of the exchange. Will it affect any of us anyway? Is the HIE considering ADSL or are they just looking at Wi-Fi? Click HERE for more.

(19.10.03) A survey suggests that Bb is not always all it says it is and that two thirds of subscribers would be willing to pay more for a more reliable service. This mostly affects ADSL services, rather than the WiFi that is the HIEs preferred option. ADSL suffers from fluctiations in connection speed which some users, particularly gamers, find very annoying. Read more here.

(09.10.03) Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles are to get fixed line ADSL for their capitals bringing it within reach of 13000 businesses (I'm just quoting, seems a big number to me). This is being subsidised by the Scot Exec and has little to do with us except it shows that they still have faith in ADSL which I noticed had been dropped from the list of technologies on their broadband pages. Read more HERE.

(02.10.03) Hydro Electric Bb: Bad news for those of us who thought that the HE scheme could bring Bb to remote areas. The AIE tells me that a problem with "back haul" ( the connection back to the main Internet infrastructure) makes it uneconomic for small populations even though the conversion of the sub-station is relatively cheap. The connection to the main Internet requires a satelite which adds to much to the cost. Thanks to Paul O'Brien for this info.

(01.10.03) Local Developments: Following emails AIE have told me that the Tobermory scheme will be extended to the other registants in the area as well as the original 20 businesses. This will happen early next year.

The areas announced in the Press and Journal have been confirmed as likely to get Wi-Fi pending surveys and HIE will be holding meetings in each community to explain the process of installation etc.

They will be also looking for local Broadband Champions (ring a bell?) to liase between HIE and thier local community, more on this when I have it. Thanks to Paul O'Brian for all the above.

Still no news on the fate of Salen or what the HIE view is on the Hydro Electric scheme.

(07.03.09) The Register reports mixed news from BT. The good is that they are dropping the wholesale price to rival telecoms so they can compete with the compnay and this will result in greater choice for domestic customers. The is that they raising the cost of the faster business services by quite a lot affectively taking out of range for small companies.

They have also announced that Bb is now available to 75% of UK homes but admit that coverage in rural areas is still very patchy. It is hoped that the 1.8billion the government has committed to promoting it will make some headway here.

Closer to home there is a rumour that to more community areas are to get a wireless service this year, watch this space for more in the near future!

(28.08.03) BT is to trial 1mb ASDL in the near future. Line quality means that the service will only ever be available to 60-70% of existing Bb customers and whether it is introduced at all depends on the success of a week trial. Basically they are offering home users a product previously available only to businesses. Read more here.

(20.08.03) Good news! I've had an email from the Hydro telling me that the transformers many of us have on our mainsline will not affect the availabilty of the service. It will however be down to how many people register for it, they need 50 registrations to make it economically viable to install the equipment in a sub-station. This is considerably lower than BTs trigger levels and I hope that HIE are looking at it as an alternative to wireless and ADSL.

Meanwhile they are going ahead with full commercial trials, click here to read more. Thanks to sgegreen for sending the link in.

(07.08.03) A survey on the PC Advisor website reveals just how common broadband is amongst surfers. Only 34% of respondents used dial up while 63% used either cable or ADSL broadband. Even more amazing was the number of ISDN users - 1%! The survey is somewhat self selecting, favouring keaner Internet users but if you are reading this so are you!

(06.08.03) UK Government bulk buys Bb for...England & Wales. In a move to improve availability of BB and to encourage companies to invest in the technology the London Govt. will set up 9 regional boards that will spend a total of £1 billion! over the next 3 years to bring the technology to areas that are not economic in commercial terms. Read more here.

(30.08.03) Domestic broadband customers in Tobermory are facing the prospect of having to fork out £175 for the wireless equipment because they are not eligible for the grant available to businesses. The town became one of the first places to become of the HIE scheme when 20 businesses registered a definite interest earlier this year but now the registrations total 47. The same thing will presumably apply in Salen too, where wireless has been preferred to ADSL on the grounds of installation costs. Hopefully because of the large number of self employed and small businesses in both areas this will not affect to many people.

The Guardian has interesting report on the changes to the radio license which will make wireless broadband much cheaper and more widely available as both the number of people and the range a station can broadcast to will be increased. This will hopefully reduce costs making it a better  propersition for all, this in turn could reduce the cost of the receiving kit needed. Read more here. Thanks to forum member Peabody for bringing this to my attention.

(17.07.03) As reported on the News page, Salen has passed the trigger point and could see wireless broadband arriving as soon as October. This is great news to all who have registered and encouraged people to do the same. I know at least one local business that can't wait! I got this piece of news from Paul O'Brien of Argyll Enterprise in response to an email I sent asking about the issues raised in the story below on community registrations.

His email also told me that Loch Don and Craignure had separate exchanges which was news to me. All this time I've been thinking that all the homes using the 01680 number were on the same exchange but apparently they are not. I'm still trying to track down where the Craignure exchange is.

He also confirmed that BT only count households within reach and capable of receiving Bb, hence the disparity between their and the HIS list (more on this tomorrow!) and he arranged for my exchange, Tiroran, to added to the list of registrations (thanks Paul!). We have 8, not bad out of about 20 residential households! 

(16.07.03) Broadband has reached Helensburgh and spawned a new ISP. UFCnet offers email, website hosting and creation, domain registration and transfer at pretty reasonable prices. When Argyll & Bute get their ISP off the ground the town will have two ISPs, a perfect example of what broadband can do for an economy. Click HERE for UFCnet.

(12.07.03) Community Registrations: Seaching for info on the story below I found a page on the HIE website that I hadn't seen before listing registrations by local community rather than by exchange. Some of the figures are very interesting because BT only count those who register and  are close enough to the exchange to benefit from ADSL. HIE are looking at other technologies too, so list everyone who registers with them.

For instance BT lists the Aros exchange, which is at Loch Don on the Isle of Mull, as having 17 registrations while HIE has Aros at 17, Craignure at 15 and Salen at 31 plus Ulva with 5. By "Aros" I assume they mean Loch Don, where the exchange is which would seem to suggest that there are enough people near enough to it to trigger the HIE to upgrade it to ADSL. Salen has definitely passed the 30 and they must be considering what type of technology to employ there.

Another place mentioned that don't make the BT lists is Pennyghael with 3 registrations but my exchange which is close by to it doesn't get a mention even though I know at least three people have signed up! Click HERE for the HIE reg page.

Grants: As a further incentive to register HIE are giving small businesses grants of £300 to cover installation and software costs of broadband and this rises to £1200 for satelite systems. Click HERE for more on grants.

(11.07.03) BT has announced plans to improve access to fast ADSL services of 1and 2 mbit connections and plans to drop the price to £30 per month. The difference between these high speed connections and the current 512 maximum is significant, making services like streaming video and web confrencing much better and more TV like. At £30 pm it makes ISDN look very expensive too. Read more by clicking HERE.

(06.07.03) Fionnphort, Iona & Bunessan, who share the same exchange, have clocked up 20 registrations for broadband, only 10 short of the HIE trigger point! A big thank you to forum member dazedandconfused for tracking this info down.

(05.07.03) Some good news for small exchanges can be found in the latest SIN newsletter. Small exchanges can have there registrations combined with a neighbouring one to get up to the trigger level of 30. Not much help for Colonsay, Luing and Lismore but could be of help to Tiroran and Pennyghael on the Isle of Mull. Read more HERE (scroll down to the IT and the islands section). Thanks to Angela for sending this in. 

(04.0703) Is it time to drop this page? Has the campaign to get Bb for the NAIDC islands run its course? The issue seems completely dead to me, no one posts in the Bb section of the website and local registrations have almost come a halt (see below). Part of the problem for the smaller islands is that the HIE have only dropped the trigger level not adopted a percentage of computer owners to choose which exchanges to upgrade. This means that half the households can register with them and they will still not be considered (I've written to them about this but have received no response).

It doesn't explain why relatively large exchanges on Mull have failed to reach 20 registrations though. It seems that a ceiling has been reached and there is not much possibility of getting more people to register without a huge effort on the behalf of the few who have already expressed interest. I don't really want to drop the page but I do wonder what it's here for.

(26.06.03) BT have cut trigger points (the number of people who need to register to get an exchange enabled) by 50, a reduction of 25% in some cases. This will bring many of them up to the level immediatly, especially in rural areas because there are a lot of them at around the 90% level already. This will make the lack of broadband in the highlands even more significant than it is now.

(25.06.03) Registrations have ground to a halt across the NAIDC area with only the Aros and Luing exchanges showing any increase at all. Aros is up 1 to 17 and Luing up 3 to 23 since the last time I reported them about 6 weeks ago. Both these figures are tantalisingly close to the HIE trigger point of 30 but Aros must have much more hoe as it has about 5 times the number of computers in the area. I can't find any figures at all for Tiree, Bunessan, Pennyghael or Tiroran exchanges, if anyone can help I would be grateful.

 (18.06.03) BT is to extend its distant ASDL trials after success with its own staff. No lose of data was found over the extra 1km with the stronger signal and they hope this will bring many more people within range. However even if succesful it will only bring ASDL to people living within 6km of their exchange which will still leave a lot of people on Mull with only ISDN to look forward to. More on this story HERE.

Meanwhile power cuts downed ASDL for many people across England according to THIS story at the Register, do power failures affected normal Internet connections? Thanks to Steve for sening this in.

(30.05.03) ISPs are reporting that porn and file sharing are the content that drive the progress of broadband amongst consumers. Porn is no great suprise as it is credited as being one of the prime incentives of the boom in the late nineties but file sharing is new. What is interesting about this is the amount of effort that companies are putting into preventing it, either buy encoding product or by suing the companies that produce or host the software needed. I wonder how this will sit alongside all governments desire to see Bb spread, without file sharing the main content driver will be porn and I'm sure David Blunket wants people to have better reasons for getting it! Read more HERE.

(26.05.03) Balloons: If you thought the idea of receiving Bb through the mains was odd wait 'til you read this. A Yorkshire based comany has been running successful trials with wireless broadband broadcasting from arrays under balloons! The balloons that look like WWII barrage balloons are tethered about a mile in the air and only 18 base stations would be needed to cover the whole of the UK, including the highlands and islands, with a 1mb send/receive service. Cyber pie in the sky? Read more HERE. Thanks to Steve for sending this in.

(22.05.03) Wi-Fi (wireless broadband): A Spanish company has linked up with 3 Com to utilise the telecom's network of mobile phone masts and bring broadband to a remote region. The Catalan region which is most famous for producing Cava wine has a challenging terrain but the system they are adopting is making the installation affordable. It could be an option for us and the possibilities of using existing masts has already been discussed locally. Read more HERE. 

(21.05.03) Hydro-Electric have finally got back to me with an email from their PR department, very polite but completely failing to answer any of the questions I'd asked. Rather it suggested that I contact my ISP or an IT professional. As the questions can only be answered by them I was a bit disappointed. It even asked me to check their FAQs but as that was the web page I'd clicked the contact link from it seemed a bit pointless. Read the email HERE, I've written to them again of course (don't hold your breath...). 

(17.05.03) Hydro Electric have still to answer 2 emails enquiring about their broadband scheme, so keeping up the traditions established for so called Digital Scotland. Of particular interest were the answers to questions regarding remote households, particularly following an email from Steve Green that suggests that locations with their own transformers may be disadvantaged. Lets hope that the questions get answered soon.

(09.05.03) Rural communities are being disadvantaged by the lack of availability of broadband services a report from the Countryside Agency states. While in urban areas 97% of homes and businesses can access Bb, in rural areas it's only 7% and this falls to only 1% for places like ours (that'll be Tobermory then). This is causing businesses that might otherwise relocate to the countryside not doing so which is impacting on employement oppurtunties in a time when they are desperately needed. Click HERE to read more. Thanks to Steve for sending this in.

(07.05.03) The Hydro Electric has been reported on this page in the past but to be honest it all seemed so implausible that I haven't taken it that seriously. How wrong I was. The schemes Crief and Campbeltown commercial trials are going very well and it seems certain that the service will be rolled out across the country in the nearish future.

It offers a 1mb speed (twice ASDL), always on service for £30 per month, which compares very favourably with BTs offering, especially given that it runs at twice the speed and requires no phone line. On top of that they claim a very low contention rate (the number of people trying to connect to the same computer port as you). And you can just plug your computer into any mains socket to access the Internet!

They have a similar "register your interest" as HIE has and I recommend that everyone does so, even if they have previously registered with BT or HIE. The more options we have the better. Click HERE to go their website (or use the direct link at top of page) and click HERE to have your say on the forum.

The HIE registration scheme is going better in some areas than others. Here are todays registration figures along with the number of NAIDC computers connected to the exchange and the resulting ratio.

The success of the Balvicar registration scheme stands out as does the work of Duncan Swinbank in getting 20 businesses to express a "definite" interest in Tobermory. Closer examination demonstrates the unfairness of the "trigger point" of 30 for the HIE scheme. This served Balvicar well but even though Luing and Colonsay have done even better in terms of the proportion of the population registering with HIE they are still well short of the desired figure.

(06.05.03) BT has called on the Government to take urgent action to bring broadband to rural areas. It claims that the processes that the have to be gone through are slowing the spread of the technology down. The Government in turn has appointed a civil servant, the appropriately named Stephen Speed, to lead the efforts to improve things. Read more HERE.

(01.05.04) BT seems unaware that the Balvicar exchange is to be upgraded for broadband! In an email to a Seil reader Jim Mackay they say that the exchange has not yet reached its trigger level (the number of registrations needed before BT upgrades) despite the First Minister, Jack MacConnel, announcing it on the 25th of March. In a second email, responding to an enquiry about the removal of a DACS box, BT recommends that upgrading to ISDN is the only way round the problem. Click HERE for the press release. Thanks to Jim for sending this in.

(30.04.03) Oftel has redefined broadband to be a service with a download speed of 256kbps. This is a significant change to the Governments definition which is affectively any speed with an "always on" facility. Click HERE to read more.

(29.04.03) Midband, the BT service based on the existing ISDN package, is even more expensive than originally stated. It was expected that it would be an "always on" 64kbps connection that would automatically jump to 128kbps when a file was being downloaded and costing £25-£30 per month.

Now it seems it will cost £35 p.m. and users will be restricted to 150 hrs p.m. and that the 128 download speed will use up those minutes twice as fast.

This is of particular interest to us because this is what BT keep recommending to everyone who complains that there connection is being slowed by a DACS box. It seems that BT haven't made home highway cheaper but more expensive, 150 hours a month restricts you to only 5 hrs a day after which you pay by the minute. And presumably if you use the Internet enough to want the service you use it a lot more than that. Click HERE for more.

(16.04.03) BT have created a webpage to encourage local communites to campaign for Bb! Full of information and useful tips, it's well worth a visit for anyone who is interested in getting things going in their area (like me!). Click HERE to visit it.

(13.04.03) According to the latest Corncrake newsletter, despite the hard work of Kevin Byrne, only 5 people on Colonsay have registered with HIE for broadband, way short of the 30 needed to gaurantee the upgrade of the exchange. However this is not such a low figure as it first appears. There are only 51 computers on the island so around 10% have signed up, in most other areas this would well on the way, if not surpassing, the trigger point. So well done Colonsay and keep up the good work. Click HERE to visit the Isle of Colonsay excellent website. I've written to AIE on the issue of the trigger point for small exchanges but have yet to receive a reply.

(28.03.03) Broadband brings 60 jobs to Stornoway reports the Oban Times due to the availability of of broadband. Criticall, a company that specialises in alert messages to the emergency services and other organisations that need reliable inforation transfer chose to locate there as a direct result of the roll out of Bb services across the Western Isles and they are looking for three other sites too. This is a clear demonstration of the boost the technology can bring to an economy and just one more reason to get people to register. Click HERE to visit the very "flashy" Criticall website.

(27.03.03) Does Broadband availability effect property prices? I've suggested that it does in the past but my emails to the national associations of surveyors and estate agents and the Government failed to illicit any evidence. Now though it appears to be emerging in reports from the USA that vendors are adding connections to properties and advertising them accordingly. Meanwhile in the UK housebuilders are saying that routing (the ability to easily network computers in a building) is a selling point in the same way as a conservertory might be. Absolute prove has not yet emerged in price statistics but it can be only a matter of time. So even if someone isn't interested in broadband for themselves the fact that it effects the value of their home will definitly peak their interest. And remember you read it here first! Read more HERE. 

Today's Oban Times reports on the upcoming upgrade to the Fort William exchange to ADSL today (page 4). This is part of the HIE scheme which has been reported extensively here this year. The news that Seil is also to be upgraded arrived to late for the paper.

(26.03.03) Telewest, the cable TV and phone company is to test "true" broadband by hooking up 1500 people at 2mbps. They were one of the first suppliers to provide a 1mbps service at £35 pm which was taken up by 25 000 people. These speeds seem phenomenal to us in the UK who regard 512 as broadband (and the actual speed is around 350) but in the far east up to 5 mbs are not unusual. The only people likely to deliver this kind of speed to us is the Hydro who's tests have run at 2mbps. Read more HERE.

(25.03.03) The Black Isle town of Cromarty was the venue for the first demonstration of community wireless broadband today launched by Lewis Macdonald, Deputy Minister for
Enterprise, Lifelong Learning and Transport (Transport?). This is first of the 6 similar projects, of which Tobermory is one, that will bring wireless broadband to up to 250 remote highland and island communities which are unlikely to get ASDL. The Deputy Minister took the opportunity to announce the first twelve exchanges, including Seil and Easdale's Balvicar exchange, to be upgraded to ADSL. The full HIE press release will be posted in the Broadband section of the forum.

(19.03.03) Freeserve maybe offering ISDN packages similar to ADSL this summer, should BT complete plans to make available a wholesale, 128kbps service to ISPs. The service would probably be "always on" but capped in terms of downloads and around the same price as ASDL. Rather like a DACs line costs the same as a proper one really. Read more HERE.

Satelite broadband is a subject of occasional debate and some of us have wondered if it was the future of the Internet for people in remote areas.Not according to an article on the BBCs website which dishes (ha ha)  the dirt on the true value of the technology. The big plus is supposed to be the download speed but with this capped by the providers at a pretty low level people just can't access the net in the same way as a normal Bb user. Not only that but normal surfing is much the same due to the time lag between planet earth and the satelite. And this will never change according to the people who know, all a bit depressing...Read more HERE.

(18.03.03) The government has decided to redefine or even, dedefine, broadband, dropping all need for a connection to meet certain speeds or always on status to be advertised as broadband. This might mean that the 64kbps version of homehighway could be called broadband if the provider wanted to. Cynics might say that this will be very helpful when it comes to meeting the targets they have set for provision of the technology. This is in marked contrast with a letter from the Guardian Online by the wonderfully named Federico Gaggio, describing what real broadband is like. Read more on the definition change HERE and the letter HERE. Thanks to sgegreen and peabody for sending the items in. 

(16.03.03) HIE sent out a newsletter with the latest updates regarding the "Speak Up For Broadband" campaign. They have now had 5000 hundred people registering an interest across the HIE area and are will be announcing the first remote communities to benefit from the scheme at the end of this month (this all seems to moving so fast). There registrations have enabled to outline their longer term plans but the basic principle remains the same, the more people who register in your area the more likely you are to get it. The full text of the newsletter are posted in the Broadband sections of the forum. 

(12.03.03) The Scottish Executive has allocated £24 million (!) to bring broadband to rural areas and to encourage its take up by business. The target is to get 70% of the population within the range of Bb by March 2004 and a voucher system will be introduced for businesses. Jack MacConnell also annouced the seven towns that are to get their exchanges upgrade to ADSL by BT with assistance from HIE, they are Forres, Nairn, Dingwall, Buckie, Oban and Fort William. 

The First Ministers statement covered Bb for schools and healthcare services, endorsed the Hydro's Stonehaven pilot amongst other things, click HERE to read the other things. 

(11.03.03) Councillor Ian Gillies welcomed the Scottish Executive's announcement of the seven tendorers for the Pathfinder project (which will bring broadband to Scotlands rural areas) in a statement reported on Argyll & Bute's website. Read the full story by clicking HERE, more detail on the Scottish Executives statement plus news of other Bb developments tomorrow, I'm running late tonight. Thanks to Phillip for sending this in.

(10.03.03) The Hydro are moving forward with their plans to provide broadband through the mains network. The limited experiments in Crieff and Campbeltown were evidently successful because they plan to start a full scale commercial trials in Stonehaven. The technology, called Powerline Communication, can deliver an Internet connection of up to 2mbs, approximately 4 times faster than ASDL. If the Stonehaven trials go well they plan to roll out the service next year at a cost of £25-30 per month. Read more HERE. Thanks to Steve for sending this in.

(08.03.03) I've created a map showing the potential ranges of ADSL and wireless Bb on the Ross of Mull (click image for map). The mauve shaded areas are the coverage of units put the existing mobile phone masts and the lines are the distances from the exchanges. It shows the difference between a 5 kilometer range around the standard for both technologies and 7, which is being tested. It should be remembered that wireless is line of sight, so if you can't get a mobile signal, you won't get Bb and that the phone line range is mile along the line, not as the crow flies. The difference is dramatic, if BT succeeded in getting to 7km most of the Ross would be covered. If anyone else has made a similar map, send it in or if they would like one, send details of local masts and exchanges.

The map shows, that although the range of the wireless Bb is good, a lot of people are out of sight of the aerial. A story on VNUNET tells of how a little initiative can get round such problems. A man in this situation put a relay unit on a willing "neighbours" house and sent the Bb signal to his own. In order to boost the signal sufficiently he boosted it using dog food cans (?!), a trick used by students at Edinburgh University except they use with Pringle tubes (well they don't have pets but eat a lot of crisps). Click HERE to read this very odd but informative story. I included the TV relay aerials on the map because I thought they might be useful for people in a the same position. Thanks to Steve for this tip.

(07.03.03) RMS Broadband has launched a satelite based Bb service with prices starting at only £30 pm, the lowest price it's been available for so far. These services are one way only, you upload via your telephone but download by satelite. The price structure is typically by speed of transmission or priority, schemes aimed at domestic users are usually the former. The fast download, 1mbps+, means that it is practical to purchase software and games over the net and to watch high quality streaming video. Its one way nature makes it a poor choice for game players though. Read more HERE. 

Pubs are the latest places to get Bb "Hotspots", places where people can plug in their laptops to a Bb service. This isn't of direct relevance to us but it does demonstrate what people are going to expect to be available in an area in few years. Remember how surprised people used to be when you told them that mobiles didn't work anywhere locally (still are on some islands) or further back, when parts of Mull had no TV? Click HERE to read more.

(04.03.03) BT is trialing ADSL lines of up to 7km which will put a lot of people within reach of an enabled exchange. The jump from 3.5 to 5 was largely responsible, along with the additional exchange in getting the number of those close enough up to 66%. Read more on the trials HERE and the ever increasing availability HERE.

The unstoppable force of broadband is set to raise Internet data transfer from ginormous to so much I think they have had to invent a new number for it. Read some mind boggling statistics by clicking HERE. (A petebit is a qaudrillion or 10 to the power of 15). 

(26.02.03) Easdale and Seil have started an Internet working group. Called Easdale Island Connect, it hopes to bring broadband to the area by promoting awareness and HIE registration but also to work to improve conventional connections as well. This is an excellent approach as broadband is of interest to only a few at the moment and this will bring the whole community together and should be replicated elsewhere. Easdale & Seil residents should contact Steve Brown by clicking HERE.

(13.02.03) Online Gamers seem to be the biggest single group to take advantage the faster connection speed of broadband. These make the experience playing online similar to playing on a local network, with little lag and a more realtime feel. This is no suprise to me, a year ago I was running a web group dedicated to a game with a big online following and the users divided between them, mostly American, broadbanders and those on a conventional connection. Quite a few them used it to share a world with distant family members after divorce, which is not the first use of broadband that occurs to you. Read more by clicking HERE.

(21.02.03) It's all right for some, Lincolnshire is to get £7 million in EU money to bring broadband services to it's rural areas. HIE is having to make do with just £1.7 million for the whole of the highlands and islands. Linconshire is one of the poorest counties in England but its hardly the size of the HIE area. Someting is surely amiss here. Read more by clicking HERE.

(18.02.03) AIE has placed a prominant advert on page 3 of this weeks Oban times as part of its "Speak up for Broadband" campaign. Very to the point, it compares the arrival of broadband to that of Hydro-Electric in the not to distant past. Rather than encouraging people to register online it highlights the freephone number (see above) which is new to me and will be very helpful for those on poor connections.

(13.02.03) Broadband through the Hydro Electric seems a the stuff of science fiction but as mentioned before it is a reality. The Campbell Town project seems to be going so well that they are planning to expand and hope to offer it to all 3.5 million customers eventually for £25 per month (current price). Read more by clicking HERE

(12.02.03) Luing Community Council met this week and the subject of broadband was raised. Once people realised that they were not committing themselves to a contract by registering and the urgency of the issue was explained, it received a very positive response. As far as I know Luing has the only CC that has got behind the scheme and anyone who has looked at the help the DC! map will know that they and their neighbors on Seil/Easdale are the most active when it comes to reporting speeds and if anyone is going to get bb in the NAIDC area it will be them. Thanks to P.R. for this

(08.02.03) HIE sent out their latest newsletter this week. One item of interest was the news that the "Speaking Up for Broadband" campiagn has only been advertised on Grampian and not Scottish Television. As a result we are having to make do with a mobile billboard, you may have seen it in Oban last week. This is hardly as effective as TV advertising and will be one of the reasons people have just look blank when you mention the subject, so it's all the more important for us to spread the word personally, other wise we will get left behind as the money gets spent elsewhere.

Also in the newsletter were links to updated webpages with a lot of good info about broadband and the Tobermory project in particular. Click HERE the Tobemory page and use the links at its foot to reach the rest. If you do the word "backhaul" refers to the connection from a small independent network to the general UK Internet.

(05.02.03) Broadband signups are expected to reach 3 million this year and 10 million by 2008, that's 33% more people than subscribe to Sky TV now. The vast majority of people will connect via ADSL or cable while those that connect through wireless like we expect to will be a small minority. Click HERE to read more.

(04.02.01) Links: I don't see why I should be the only one who has to wade through this stuff so here's a couple of articles about broadband that you might find useful. Wireless networks are one of the ways of bringing low cost Bb to remote areas, click HERE for an explanatory article. ISDN is available to many people now, it is sometimes called "halfband" because it provides a 128kbps connection rather than a 512 one. It's very complicated, read how complicated by clicking HERE.

(02.02.03) An island primary school had problems video conferencing with children in the USA last week because of the disparity of their internet connection speeds. The American school, which was on broadband, took three days figuring out how to slow their signal down to our kind of connection speed before the conference could go ahead. Anyone who has used the webcam on their computer will appreciate what a lose in quality this would have meant. This is an example of how the lack of broadband for the school and in our homes is denying those who need it genuine communication with the outside world. Education is just one of many examples of something that could be improved by a fast connection.

(01.02.03) A new group to promote broadband on the Ross of Mull launched, if that's not to grand a word (it is), today with its own section of message board for members to keep in contact and pool ideas. The section is only visible to RoM resident members but this is more to keep the forum tidy than to keep the section secret. It stops the thing extending miles down the page with things of interest only to a few. Anyone else who wants their own section, to promote broadband in their area or whatever else, only has to ask. I see local groups as the way forward for broadband in the NAIDC area and will help anyone else who wants to set one up in whatever way I can.  

(31.01.03) According to the new AIE webpage, “Broadband for Argyll”, they are hoping to see the next round of broadband installations in place by September. Who gets them will depend on who registers the most interest by the next cut off date (yet to be announced). The page is full of information and well worth a visit, click HERE to do so.

(30.01.03) The eventual price of the 24/7 broadband service is anticipated to be between £25 and £30 p.m. This will seem quite high to many people used to a free 24/7 conventional connection (normally around £15 p.m.) but it shouldn't put anyone off registering their interest. For a start they are doing just that, registering an interest, secondly that is a good price now and if Bb follows the course of conventional line costs, this will dramatically fall over the coming few years. It's not that long ago that the fall of conventional 24/7 to below £50 p.m. was hailed as a break through, now look where it is.

And if we don't take this opportunity to say we want it, then we won't be able to access it when the price does fall within our budget.

(28.01.03) The creation very localised groups to promote broadband would seem to be the logical way forward for us because the NAIDC project covers too large a geographic area to be regarded as one thing. The geography of such groups would have to be fluid as they would overlap and the eventual area that gotbroadband would depend on the technology used. Groups would not be competing with each other, rather they would work together to pool information, contacts and ideas. NAIDC is a powerful entity and Argyll & Bute view the introduction of broadband as a logical extension to the project, so it's best if we work together. Anyone who wants to set up or join such a group is welcome to contact me and I will do all I can to help them.

(27.01.03) Luing & Seil are way out in front for people interested in broadband if my inbox is anything to go by. Almost every time I check there are new responses to either the requests for speeds or general questions. If these translate into people registering with HIE then their chances of being one of the 100 areas that get broadband this year must be very high. I don't know how much of this is due to the positive attitude of the Community Council (see below) but it can't be hurting.

(26.01.03) Wireless broadband, the technology that seems most likely to be used across the islands, has had its small scale networking capabilities boosted by the arrival of some new technology. This will allow a small hub costing as little £300 (+ receiving equipment) to service communities of 20 properties. It also allows different hubs to overlap their mini-regions without needing complex software to sort out the signals. All this could be a great help to small populations with complex geography, read more by clicking HERE. Thanks to Steve for spotting this.

(24.01.03) Phillip Robertson, chairman of Luing Community Council, will be bringing up broadband at the next meeting of the council. I think this is an excellent initiative on his part, the CC's are the only level of government not actively involved at the moment and we should all get our local councillors to do the same. It will bring the matter to the attention of people who may not be as aware of the technology as the readership of this and similar websites and could really give the campaign a local boost. He's also going to be discussing this website which obviously an excellent idea too, for which I thank him.

(23.01.03) Thanks to everyone who responded to my latest round robin about registering for broadband, it's good to know that the word is spreading and we're getting somewhere. However by no means a majority of those emailed have done so, if you still haven't registered please do so, even if it is of no interest to you personally than it will be to friend. Personally I can't stand the idea of broadband only being locally available in Tobermory and Oban!

(22.01.03) Tobermory is to get wireless broadband! The announcement was made last night on the HIE website and lists Tobermory amongst 6 centers across the region that will be getting bb within 6 months (I think). One of the reasons that it was added to the list at the last moment was the work Duncan Swinbanks and Alan Parker did in signing up 20 local businesses to register a firm interest, another reason was the lobbying done by Paul O'Brian of AIE and NAIDC/A&B on behalf of the digital community.

The technology to be used will be wireless broadband rather than ADSL but it will not as rumoured be rolled out across the rest of the island as a matter of course. Rather the rest of Mull is in the same situation as the other NAIDC islands, if an area demonstrates demand then it will be considered. As is shown by the inclusion of Acharacle , Loch Sunnart, in the current round of installations, very small communities are in with a shout, so click on the link at the top of the page and do so now if you haven't done so.

HIE is committed to raising availabilty to an eventual 95% across the region-don't be part of the 5% that can't get it!  Click HERE to read the HIE press release.

(21.01.03) Hotspots are the latest thing to be enabled by the Government to improve the availability of Broadband. These are places where you can either pluggin or bluetooth (a wireless network standard) laptops etc and get BB. They envisage it being available in places like city centers and airports but what's interesting to us is the freeing up of another radio frequency for the use of ISPs. Read more by clicking HERE.

Thanks to Steve for pointing out that the deslams in yesterdays story, were actualy DSLAMS and there's neat definition of them HERE.

(20.01.03) HIE (Highlands & Islands Enterprise) is charged with raising broadband access in the region from 40 to 70% over the coming year. To this end they are asking all computer users to register their interest on their website (link below). I've reported this before but now I having spoken to them I realise the importance of registering. Once they have got BB into the main "hubs" (Oban etc) they are going to be looking for 100 sites for the next phase of installations. These will be the areas that have shown the greatest interest in the registration process.

And they aren't just looking for the places that return the highest numbers, somewhere with high proportion of people expressing interest from a low population might be considered
before somewhere the opposite was true.

Even an exchange with very few phonelines could benefit as they will be using amongst other things "deslams" (hope I got that right), small devices that allow existing exchanges to get up to 16 people connected to ADSL. They are not only looking at ADSL but whatever technology seems best suited to a situation, an exchange and lines that cannot be used might have wireless BB installed instead for instance.

So register your interest today and tell your friends to do so, the HIE is our best chance for BB in the near future. Click HERE to register.

(18.01.03) Arthur C Clarke described getting information from the Internet as like " trying to get a cup of water from Niagara Falls" and how right he was. Today I spent two hours looking for a piece of information that you would think was readily available, how does the broadband access effect house prices? Could I find it? Could I...and yet it must have an effect, If I was offered a choice between properties and access was the only significant difference I know which I would pick.

This is an example of why I believe we need a broadband group, we need to gather this kind of information in order to promote the concept and to build a financial case for getting it. Another thing we need to know is what are the capacities of the fiber optic cables that cover many of the islands. There is a broadband "pipe" going up the sound of Mull, it supplies BB to Salen hospital and similar site as far away as Tiree. What is the capacity of these spurs from the main cable. Could homes and businesses tap into it to get access now? What of the outlying areas, the fiber optic cable has been laid as far as Pennyghael, what is its broadband capacity? And why is there no simple way of finding these things out? Another example of "joined up" Government thinking failing to join up?

(16.01.03) Rural Areas of Bangladesh are to get wireless broadband connections in order to improve education and businesses. Read the BBC story HERE and ask yourself why if they can do it there, then why can't we?

(15.03.01) Yesterdays story about broadband being available on planes was somewhat in jest but it does demonstrate the power of the technology. If Lufthansa can afford not to charge passengers for the service then it must be fairly cheap and it must be improving if they can provide it on a moving plane at 30 000 feet. Read more detail in todays Register by clicking HERE.

(14.01.03) Broadband will be available all over the NAIDC islands within a year and maybe sooner. I mean literally above as it will soon be available on the planes that pass over our heads every day (maybe not the one to Tiree). So now we'll not only wonder what exotic destination they are bound for but also envy them for their Internet connection! Read a fuller version of this in the inquirer by clicking HERE.

(07.03.01) Connecting Communities reports a "flurry of interest" from the NAIDC area following the email I sent out. Although they don't cover our area yet, if we can mobilise enough support a similar scheme may get off the ground here. Thanks to all who repsonded and thanks to them for their positive and helpful emails.

(06.01.03) Quite a positive response to the Connected Communities email I sent out, including one from the people running it (wouldn't it be nice if all organisations were as effecient?). I also got a few asking for an outline of what broadband actually was and so I've written a rough guide to it, the various merits of the different technologies and some of the benefits it will bring. Read the guide and add your thoughts by clicking HERE.

(04.01.03) Anyone interested in wireless broadband (the most likely technology to bring BB to the islands) should check out the Connected Communities link. They are running a project which will see a wireless network installed on the northen isles, which is inspiring in itself. What is of immediate interest to us however is that you can register your interest in the technology being installed in your area as well and I urge you all to do so today! The form only takes a moment to fill in and it could make a real difference (you can also fill in a form about your Internet usage). Please do this!

You can also register your interest in ADSL (phone line BB) with a company sponsored by HIE, again I urge you to do so. It is highly unlikely that BT will upgrade our exchanges (maybe Tobermory's) but it will demonstrate demand (don't register if you have already done so with BT or another ISP). Thanks to Alan Parker for this link.

(23.12.02) A steady trickle, rather than a flood, of replies have been arriving in response to the email sent out last week. They came from all types of users, from the homes to businesses and included a very useful one from councillor Ian Gillies. Hopefully things will pick up after the new year and I think those of us who are fans of the technology need to persuade the uninterested as to its virtues.

In parts of the country where it is already available it is proving a very popular present this Christmas with people buying as gift in the same way as they did Satellite television. This is because once it's available in an area, it is around the same cost to install and subscribe to. In fact it's so cheap that in the South East of England they regard it as "stocking filler".

(19.12.02) First Broadband Group letter was sent out yesterday to over 70 local email addresses, including councillors and MSPs. It sets out the basic purpose of a group to promote the technology and hopes to spark interest across the NAIDC islands. If you didn't receive one you can read it by clicking HERE and if you would like to be added to the mailing list click the blue button at the top of the page. 

(17.12.02) BT has made two dramatic changes to it's broadband policy. Firstly it's halved the cost of it's wholesale product, that's the price it sells capacity to the other ISPs for and secondly it's dropped the 42 day "confirmation" window. This was the time in which ISPs had to confirm sales in between an exchange reaching it's trigger level of people registering interest and BT upgrading the exchange. Now BT will upgrade an exchange as soon as sufficient people register their desire for broadband. I got both these stories from Computer Buyer magazine and you read them for yourself by clicking on PRICE and CONFIRMATION. 
 
(13.12.02) China has the fastest take up of broadband according to the Register while the UK lies in 13th position for actual lines installed. Click HERE for the full story.

(10.12.12) It is time we took things into our own hands and set up a community based group(s) to bring broadband to the islands. It must be obvious to anyone who has tried to contact any level of government that they are overworked and understaffed when it comes to e-government and we should not expect them to cope with the connection needs of every island. We should follow the example set by other remote regions and set up our own services and tailor them to the needs of the local population. Click HERE for an example of what can be done when a community gets together. Like them we don't need to be restricted to technology of the telephone (see news story below for alternatives) and like them we can do it ourselves. Over the next few days I'll be sending out email's to everyone I can think of who might be interested and together we may be able to start something. If anyone wants to get in touch with me about this use the email button above. (Thanks to forum member Dr.Zog for sending me the BBC news item about EdenFaster (click to read it), I've already emailed them for more information). http://www.digitaldales.co.uk/edenfaster/register.htm 

(29.11.02) A trial of a new broadband technology is taking place in Essex that could have a significant impact on many remote communities. "Long Range" wireless broadband is being provided for 30 users but the trial will be enlarged to cover Colchester, Ipswich and parts of neighboring Suffolk. Each mast has a range of 25 miles and can deliver at speeds at up to 1.5mbps (3 times faster than asdl). According to the Register the estimated cost per month will be £14.50. Read the Register story HERE and visit the project website HERE.  

(07.12.02)Broadband News (Oh no, not again! Yes, again!): Oftel have published a report benchmarking (comparing) the performance of various western countries, including the UK's, roll out of broadband. In amongst the dense forest of statistics is a very interesting section that outlines the alternatives to a telephone based internet connection. As Councillor Ian Gillies said "broadband is essential if we are going to attract new businesses to the islands", one of these technologies could be the thing that breaks the log jam caused by our remoteness and the smallness of our exchanges. Read all about it HERE.

(03.11.02) A Report from the European Union highlights BTs failure to free up the Local Loop (local exchanges and lines) so that competitors can access them to install broadband. According to today's FT and the Register, the UK, Spain and Germany are marked out as particularly bad examples of how to open up the market. The UK has only allowed access to 150 exchanges so far.

I used to think that broadband was a bit of a red herring and that the real issue was basic connections but having talked to many people about this I now think that broadband and the freeing of the local loop maybe the key to improving everyones phone line. It will never be economic for a business to start installing broadband and upgrading our exchanges but we could. If an island was to set up a charity and then a company limited by guarantee for the purpose it could then take over and upgrade its own exchange(s) and lines. There is a lot of grant money out there and this would be a very suitable candidate for assistance. It's a thought! Read the Register story HERE and the FTs HERE (hope that last one works!).  

(29.11.02) A trial of a new broadband technology is taking place in Essex that could have a significant impact on many remote communities. "Long Range" wireless broadband is being provided for 30 users but the trial will be enlarged to cover Colchester, Ipswich and parts of neighboring Suffolk. Each mast has a range of 25 miles and can deliver at speeds at up to 1.5mbps (3 times faster than asdl). According to the Register the estimated cost per month will be £14.50. Read the Register story HERE and visit the project website HERE. 

(25.11.02) A government report has backed the introduction of wireless broadband to help rural areas to get access to the internet. The Broadband Stakeholders Group has called for unused frequencies to be sold off so that they could utilised by commercial operators. This is of interest to us partly because NAIDC are looking into mobile phones as a means of connecting and partly because if the idea reached fruition it would let BT off the hook when it comes to providing us all with decent connections.

Because that is the real issue. Broadband maybe of interest to a minority of online game players and people like me who run websites and transfer large amounts of data but most NAIDC users just need a decent phone line. The difference between connecting at 30k and 50 is enormous, at the lower speed the internet just doesn't work as it should, at the higher, a world of possibilities open up. One only has to read the threads on speed of connection at the forum to know which is of more importance. Broadband is a distraction from the real issue for rural areas, we have whole islands who are suffering from 2nd rate phonelines!  Go HERE for the full BBC online story.

(19.11.12) I've had enquiries regarding BT's progress with installing and upgrading telephone lines.  BT have so far installed or upgraded 124 homes, which is pretty good going but there are technical problems with 25 addresses. NAIDC are "encouraging" BT to get on with these as soon asd possible but are also looking at alternative solutions. One of which is the provision of mobile phones with internet capabilities but this will only be available in homes with a strong Vodaphone signal and it is still in the research stage. People who are concerned with the quality of their connection or have issues concerning DACS boxes etc should contact BT themselves and post their connection speed to me via the Help the DC page.

(18.11.02) Tony Blair has announced that every school in the UK will get a broadband connection! This will make a huge difference to many of us with NAIDC intent on installing public access computers in the schools for training purposes. The scheme will have a budget of £1 billion and take three years (so maybe a bit of a wait as they'll start in a deprived areas like Knightsbridge). As none of our exchanges are set up for Broadband it means the schools will have satelite access, unless BT really improves things dramatically. Many people might feel they should prioritize normal connections as some people locally are at only 14k (really) and getting a decent phoneline with a 50k connection would be like getting broadband for them. Read the whole BBC story HERE. Thanks to forum member Dr.Zog for drawing this to my attention. 

(17.11.02) The UK is "Sleepwalking towards a broadband monopoly" according the think tank DEMOS. "Oh no it's not" (I paraphrase) says #10 spokesman Ed Richards. The argument revolves around BT's ownership of the local exchanges, known as the local loop, which gives them effective control over broadband (bb) pricing. In Demos's view they should be put into the hands of a non-profit making body. The government counters that, while the UK has a much lower number of bb subscribers, they have a much wider choice of supplier.

What's this got to do with us? Well phone connections are of vital interest to the islands economies and the success of the NAIDC project. It is hard to see the present situation continuing far into the future and harder to see how change would benefit us. While it may be viable for a private company to upgrade the exchanges of small towns like Oban, it will never be so for our small ones. At the same time the current unified pricing policy that we benefit from would be unlikely to continue if BT no longer controlled the loop. So how should we approach the change that is bound to happen and which side of the argument should our politicians lobby for? I think there is a way forward that would benefit us but what do you think? Have your say in the forum

(Oct) Broadband via satellite will soon become a real alternative for those out of the range of ADSL! Its not cheap and it's only one way, you upload via your phone but you download at 1.5mbs, almost 30 times faster than our current maximum 56k! This would make downloading programs and other large files a realistic prospect, as well as streaming video. It will cost around £30 pm unmetered + a installation fee for the dish etc. Thanks to bhouys2000 for posting this on the forum. If you want more details check his message by clicking HERE.

(Sept) Want a fast connection? Then join the Police! Well almost, project Airwave will be installing ASDL for the emergency services, starting with the larger Police stations. This is just one of the interesting things that came up when I interviewed Councillor John Gillies, who was the driving force behind us getting the computers. I've got to write it up yet and when I do it'll be posted on the forum with a notice here.

(August) Broadband: BT has announced plans to enable customers connected to small exchanges the possibility of upgrading to ADSL. Previously they had insisted that it was uneconomic to upgrade if there were fewer than 200-400 customers expressing interest in broadband, the new minimum is 16. This is still to high for my exchange but will make it possible for people in most of the villages on Mull and on the smaller islands to get the service. 

 


 

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