The battle for rural broadband
We report on the struggle to bring rural internet users up to speed
Talk to most broadband users in rural Britain and they’d probably tell you how difficult it is to get a BT engineer out to look at their creaking internet service. But for Norfolk resident Raymond Moreton the opposite is true. Moreton has refused BT access to an exchange cabinet he claims resides on his property – shooing away engineers as they arrive.
He’s concerned that BT will fit a larger cabinet in his garden, thereby obscuring drivers’ views of a nearby road, though his neighbours are far from happy about his “not in my back yard” approach. BT itself says it only needs to do “necessary maintenance”, as a larger fibre cabinet has already been installed a few roads away, but Moreton appears unconvinced.
BT told us it is still in talks with Moreton, but couldn’t say whether the dispute had been resolved. “We hope both parties reach an agreement soon, so we can carry on providing superfast broadband to nearby residents who are keen to sign up to the service,” a spokesperson said, adding “the cabinet has been in that location since 1972”.
It’s a dispute that leaves local residents stuck on connections averaging just 2.7Mbps, far short of Ofcom’s stated UK average of 28.9Mbps, and less than even the lowest recommended speed for standard-definition streams on iplayer (2.8Mbps) and Netflix (3Mbps). And at least one of those residents is rather unhappy about the situation. Moreton revealed in an interview with the BBC how he received a phone call from a neighbour telling him how they were “going to come and burn the place down.”
Others were, thankfully, less extreme in expressing their disappointment at being unnecessarily kept on slower broadband speeds. “Something needs to be done though, because the internet is painfully slow here,” one local resident told The Telegraph. “My children need it to do their homework, but it constantly cuts out.”
Wayleave rule changes
Moreton isn’t the first person to refuse BT access to private land. Normally, in these situations, the telecoms giant negotiates what’s known as a ‘wayleave’ with landowners, giving it permission to access the land or even build on it. “We’ve done this in thousands of cases across the country,” a BT spokesperson explained. “It can slow deployment, but the vast majority are smooth.”
This is not only a rural concern. BT has been working on creating a standard wayleave document for landowners in the City of London in order to speed up the process.
Even the Government is getting involved. In May, the Queen’s Speech revealed impending changes to the Electronic Communications Code that should make it easier for broadband
companies to deal with residents or landowners. “They’re going to make it easier to roll it out and bypass the red tape,” explained Andrew Kernahan, Public Affairs Manager for the Internet Services Providers’ Association (ISPA).
Right to request
The Queen’s Speech also laid out plans for a universal service obligation (USO) to provide a minimum broadband speed of 10Mbps across the entire UK – to be enforced by law. But there are two caveats: first, the USO doesn’t come into force until 2020; and second, rural residents will have to request a line – and potentially pay some of the costs of delivery.
It’s not yet clear how a resident in rural areas – or anyone else without adequate broadband – would make that request, though some clarity is expected in August, when Ofcom publishes an update on its consultation.
Experts predict the USO will work in a similar way to the telephone-line service obligation, whereby UK residents request a phone line via the provider of their choice and can in turn be asked to pay any difference over and above £3,400. “We don’t know what the cap level will be on the broadband USO, but the principle exists [and] something in the £3,000 to £5,000 region is possible,” said Andrew Ferguson, analyst at Thinkbroadband.
Ofcom may recommend that broadband has an entirely different cost cap and structure, though. While the ISPA’S Kernahan told us how the USO also fails to address important aspects of broadband, such as maximum latency (the time it takes data to reach its destination) and minimum upload speeds.
What now for the final 5 per cent?
It’s hoped that the USO will help those who still experience slow lines, often called the final 5 per cent (a reference to the Government’s 95 per cent superfast UK coverage goal that it aims to achieve by 2017). This means that 95 per cent of households should have access to superfast broadband by the time the USO comes into play in 2020, meaning the law would only apply to 5 per cent of the population.
In fact, Thinkbroadband’s figures suggest that the 5 per cent figure is already down to 4.5 per cent, a figure it predicts will have fallen to between 1 and 2 per cent by the time the USO comes into force. In other words, this USO will only affect a small fraction of the UK population. Good news – unless you’re one of the dwindling number trapped on slower lines, of course.
“If you are one of those stuck with 2Mbps until 2020, when the USO is law and thus a legal right, this will not feel fair,” Ferguson explains. “Herein lies the problem, and it is far from a uniquely UK situation: roll-outs of broadband take time to deliver.”
And, as Ferguson notes, with public finances already stretched, it’s no surprise that existing broadband providers don’t want to spend thousands of pounds “on a property where the current resident has no interest in broadband, or may even be happy with the slow broadband they have.” Hence the suggestion of a demand-led request system.
What to do right now
If you are stuck on a line with speeds of less than 10Mbps, you don’t need to wait until the USO comes into force to get help.
If you don’t have access to broadband where you live, or it’s so slow that it’s all but useless, you can apply for a voucher to help cover the installation costs for a satellite connection. Go to http:// basicbroadbandchecker.culture.gov.uk to find out if you qualify.
Another option is 4G, which offers
average speeds of 22Mbps across the UK, according to Ofcom. However, as Ferguson points out, no providers yet offer an unlimited data package. So if you like to stream video or play online games, it could get expensive.
The USO may eventually be delivered using a combination of 4G and fixed-line technologies. Satellite broadband installations cost a few hundred pounds, rather than the few thousand that fixed-line infrastructure can rack up. “We accept that in order to connect more isolated properties and communities it may not be possible to use the standard fibre to cabinet (telephone line) method used to connect homes and businesses in urban areas,” said Shane Brennan, director of external affairs at the Country Land Association (CLA).
Fixed-line help
If you prefer traditional fixed-line broadband, options remain, including working with BT to co-fund an upgrade, as many community projects have done.
“The starting point for a person or community looking to get connected is to understand what is available via BT,” said Brennan. “Funding and grants can be available in areas that don’t have access to the BT network, speak to your local council to find out more.” And if that fails, contact the CLA for help at www.cla.org.uk.
BT’S Community Fibre Partnerships website ( www.communityfibre.bt.com) is another good port of call. BT provides a single point of contact to help you get an overview of the broadband coverage in your area and even set up a crowdfunding campaign to spread installation costs. So far, fifty community partnerships have done just this, from Binfield Heath in Oxfordshire to Ravenstonedale Parish Council in Cumbria. Though this assumes you don’t have a neighbour, such as Mr. Moreton, blocking the way.