#da12bb #HPR
Back in episode #hpr 0980, I spoke with Chris Conder of Broadband for Rural North.
Located in the very pretty but the rural Forest of Bowland in Lancashire in the UK, and tired of putting up with slow ‘broadband’ they decided to put together their own network. They tried shared wifi, 3 and 4G mobile networks, MMDS and Satellite yet all proved to be unreliable.
So over tea and cake they came up with a plan.
- A 240 Kilometer (150 mile) plan.
- A 1 gigabit (1000mb/sec) fiber optic connection plan.
- A let’s give a connection to every one of the 1700 homes, farms, schools, churches and businesses, in the area plan
And while they were at it they designed it to be:
- redundant with a dual homed backbone direct to the UK’s Internet exchange
- upgradeable with ducts large enough to take multiple fibers
- laid through some of the most rugged, mountainous area of Lancashire to get to the people that need it most. (And let’s be clear here, nothing to do with the fact that they will need to use dynamite to blast their way through the rocks.)
Life up there is a struggle and it’s a tough job to come up with the money to pay for the project. During the show I suggested that they put up a donate button on their site so that people could help them out with their project. Well with their typical “can do” attitude they have gone ahead and done it.
Sponsor them!
Over the next week or so, the names of each of my children will be added to the cable and sunk into under ground. If you have a few spare “quid” then please consider throwing them some cash. They are laying a big core next week so you can get your name on a big cable. For £5 you get to sponsor a meter or for £20 you get to add five names.