News

Fibre and wireless is the way forward for rural broadband - Community Broadband

"Fibre and wireless is the way of broadband for the future" said Community Broadband Network founder Lindsey Annison told the Access to Broadband Campaign at a briefing session at the Department of Trade and Industry in London this afternoon.

Annison was describing progress with the CBN's new "mentoring" service  to encourage new rural broadband networks, and was also presenting the results of a survey, "showing that there are literally hundreds of wireless networks in the UK which Government information databases don't know about."

Talking to around 80 delegates at the DTI Conference Centre, Anderson said that only 6% of the 260-odd networks (in 550 locations around the UK) were funded by public money. Nearly half of them were "social enterprises: and not commercial companies, and their biggest single problem is raising finance, she said.

The mentoring service takes people who run already-successful rural broadband networks, and "seeds" them into communities which are struggling to get going, mostly with technical advice.

The project was launched almost exactly a year ago, when CBN Project manager, Malcolm Corbett said: "We know there is a real need for grass roots support and we believe that the demand for this service will be high. We are very grateful to the Countryside Agency for their willingness to pump-prime this part of CBN's activity and provide resources for up to 50 mentor-days. We are actively seeking funding from other sources to extend this initiative."

Not all is good news, said Annison. "Frankly, the EC is way behind the Far East and America. We're still playing with copper; but ADSL is not broadband. Fibre and Wireless is the way forward. We are already starting initiatives to achieve this - and you will see large moles in rural areas digging trenches for fibre."