[Closed] So we got our (rural) boradband connected yesterday

b4rn is fabulous.

brilliant. good effort.

Like 🙂

😯

Holy shitballs!

That's unusually asynchronous. They're usually faster down than up.

EDIT, have you downloaded the internet yet?

Hopefully they'll make it to the top of Cumbria one day.

how much £ are you for that?

B4RN are certainly in south Cumbria which I know is another world away from you. They have changed their process and rules etc as such is the demand 'north' is no longer appropriate. They are about to setup another one in Lincolnshire (I think) and there's no reason North Cumbria couldn't too. You just need to link it to Penrith, Carlisle, Whitehaven or something. Ours comes from Lancaster which started about 4 years ago.

C

Its £25 a month incl vat. We invested shares in it too so make from that. There are about 1600 houses on it on a not-for-profit basis. I think the trust is about £2m in the black now!!!!

C

It's a pretty good business model.

A community (normally a parish) that already has B4RN to a neighbouring parish puts forward a proposal, a map, of how they will dig between everyone's properties. Normally across field etc. Then B4RN price that up (ours was £160k for all the parish, probably about 250 homes). Then all the people put in loans (which pay 6%PA) or shares (which pay nothing, are redeemed after 3 years, but you get a government cheque back for all the tax paid on the value (eg buy £3,000 shares, get 25% (or 40%) back from HMRC now then get your £3000 back after 3 years). The taxback is on some IT startup government fund thing.

Then once we'd raised £160k (which took no time), the community organises the digging, either by contractors or by self. B4RN pay per metre, per road crossing, per joint box, etc and that should add up to £160k. If it's more or less, B4RN take that risk.

Then once digging in a section is done, B4RN blow the fibres and splice. They put up the green roadside cabinets etc. Then each house pays £120 for a connection (is free if you bought shares) and £25 a month for service.

So B4RN have paid nothing really (as they are using loans and share money), and get 1600x£25 per month (ie £40,000 a month, half a million a year), to pay a few staff and buy the wholesale bandwidth.

it's a win-win-win-win-win situation for us all!

C

B4RN? Tell Chris I said hi.

**runs off to investigate North Norfolk options***

We seem to only get "SpireSat" here, where if enough sign up they place seek to place dish on local church, but nowhere that quick

Looks like they connected it the wrong way round.

Good on you and your community for sorting that out.

So B4RN have paid nothing really (as they are using loans and share money), and get 1600x£25 per month (ie £40,000 a month, half a million a year)

I'm curious about where that figure of 1600 comes from if there are c250 homes in the parish?

Wow, admittedly it’s a bit more work than waiting for OpenReach to plumb a line in, but even after the £3k investment Gigabit FTTP for £30 is remarkable!

I just quoted someone £500 a month for 90Mbps on a 100 bearer, 3 year min term or £2k instal. Admittedly it’s in a hard to get to place.... no wait it’s in the centre of Cardiff.

Was speaking to a gamer today with a massive computer, and he gets 980mbps symmetrical on b4rn. All depends on the device I guess. I am well happy with my 2ms ping and whatever I want to do it will do, all through the house. I love B4RN. Just to correct the numbers, they now have around 4000 customers according to the AGM report and cover an area of the M25 or something. They have done all the hard bits and connected those who were prepared to help themselves. They have gone where telcos fear to tread. Hi back to Alan. Chris xxx

That's unusually asynchronous. They're usually faster down than up.

EDIT, have you downloaded the internet yet?

They’re only that way because 99% of people want more download that upload speed so it’s ‘tuned’ that way, you can get connections that are the same, they’re better for things like VOIP networks.

OPs connection is FTTP (fibre to the premises) so only limited to the width of the ‘pipe’ gigabit in this case so get the same up and down, there will be 260 homes all downloading stuff, hence the loss on the download side.

Doesn’t mean it’ll be massively faster than say a 100mbps connection though, you can only squeeze so much in to a hard drive at once, but if you’ve got a couple of teenagers 8 hours into a YouTube hole you might just be able to stream Netflix 😉

Still going well

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@ChrisE - Nice one mate, are you up Dent or Barbondale way?

We are in Wharfe, near Austwick. Mrs ChrisE is from Dent.

Does the £25 include line rental and uk calls? I've been offered a microwave link in the Meon Valley £60 /month 150mb connection including all land line calls. You seem to have a very good deal!

Phones are not included. I think the intention is that you go to one of the any, many VoIP phone providors and buy what you like. I think they start below £10 a month and have alsorts of whistles and bells including call forwarding, remote voicemail, number-blocking and stuff. Of course we'll transfer our old BT number across before we tell BT to get stuffed (which will be good!). BT at the moment for phones only and not very many calls is about £90-£100 a quarter so I'll be glad to see that go.

still being blown away by this speed. I downloaded 2Gb of maps last night in about 30sec!!

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Here's mine. In town (prosperous South). If I pay more for fibre I get 11Mb apparently.
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Ah, but to be fair, living darn-sarf, you do have some things we don't have.

M25, shorter winters, huge mortgages, flat beer, 24hr fast food, ......

C

wheelie - Member
Does the £25 include line rental and uk calls? I've been offered a microwave link in the Meon Valley £60 /month 150mb connection including all land line calls. You seem to have a very good deal!

Are microwave internet links not prone to weather disruption?

I didn't need any more reasons to move to Austwick. I just need that lovely little cottage on the BW to come on the market. 🙂

Martin - do you live in Skipton or have you moved to Austwick? You prob know our house. We only bought it 'cos nobody else wanted it (in 2001), it was a mess and now we couldnt afford to buy it again! That said it would only cost the same as a 2 bed flat in London (with all that flat-beer stuff......)

C

Ivan, I'm not sure,just researching it at the moment. BT lines absolutely hopeless here,with the system always going down! Broadband also very slow!

Martin - do you live in Skipton or have you moved to Austwick? You prob know our house. We only bought it 'cos nobody else wanted it (in 2001), it was a mess and now we couldnt afford to buy it again! That said it would only cost the same as a 2 bed flat in London (with all that flat-beer stuff......)

Still livin' the dream in Skipton. 🙂

<stalker mode> Ride past your place on a semi-regular basis, if it's where I think it is. Went past on Friday, shortly before another bloody mechanical, as it happens. </stalker mode>

Martin, if you're thinking of the right house, BW up is
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and home is

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The next time you're passing, I have a pretty good workshop if you have a mechanical!

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....or if you wanted a barn floor to doss on or whatever

C

Good job you've got fast broadband to keep you occupied.

Rubbish view 🙂

ChrisE - Member
Ah, but to be fair, living darn-sarf, you do have some things we don't have.

M25, shorter winters, huge mortgages, flat beer, 24hr fast food, ......

8)

....and Swinley

I'm a bit jealous of that. This is what we get, even after upgrading to 'fibre':

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....and Swinley

Actually LOL'd then in the office, just back in the office after a long weekend staying with a friend who lives in Aldershot riding Swinley and the Surrey Hills, underwhelmed and wont be heading back sum it up.

Very Jealous of the OP's internet speeds too, if only Virgin Media would come to my town!