NextGenUs Announces £10Million Investment for “Big Society Broadband”

Community Broadband Operator, NextGenUs UK CIC, today announces the launch of its Beyond Infinity programme to drive broadband delivery forward in the UK.

In partnership with Industry, led by AFL Telecommunications, a Fujikura business, NextGenUs has secured a further £10Million of private investment to enable dynamic local communities.

This private incentive is in direct challenge to the BT “race to infinity” media stunt, to truly deliver future-proof FTTH (Fibre to the Home) for the UK.

NextGenUs has reservations over the Government's Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) which has selected several rural counties as a testing ground as this process has become bogged down with bureaucracy and red tape.

NextGenUs UK CIC has extensive experience of deploying high speed internet connections into remote communities, including the villages of Newton on Rawcliffe and Stape near Pickering in North Yorkshire and the UK’s first rural FTTH network at 1000Mbps capacity.

Said Guy Jarvis, CEO:

“The NextGenUs Beyond Infinity competition is now open and up to 10,000 households and businesses will benefit from this £10Million investment phase alone.

“This is real money on the table, unlike the kind of “Race to Infinity” marketing exercise promoted by BT.”

“NextGenUs will invest in those communities who demonstrate demand and their determination for change.”

Simon Davison, Technical Director:

“NextGenUs aims to quadruple BT’s meagre performance and looks to deliver 24 communities with truly future proof telecommunications ready for the next century.”

“NextGenus does not recognise the sticking plaster solutions to NGA services delivered over copper infrastructure being touted by BT.”

We understand that to be European leaders in broadband delivery the UK must throw off the legacy copper networks to deliver the UK knowledge economy”.
 
Beyond Infinity is a community and private sector initiative that does not depend upon Public Subsidy handouts. For further information please see www.nextgenus.net

In contrast, both BT and Fujitsu, backed by Virgin Media, have asked the UK government for handouts because of the alleged lack of a business case to deliver rural FTTH.

For further information and to register your interest - click here

DEFRA to Rescue Rural Broadband

As reported by Ian Grant at CW, the recent announcement by SoS DEFRA Caroline Spelman MP of broadband funding for remote and disadvantaged upland rural communities may well prove to be the breakthrough required to end the seemingly interminable delivery hold-ups and market distortion introduced by the increasingly-ironically named BDUK.

On a superficial level, BDUK is fast becoming a laughing stock and national embarrassment.

The real problem with BDUK is not actually its failure to deliver though.

No, the emerging scandal of BDUK is that its mere existence has already delayed future-proof Final Third FttH/FiWi deployment by 6 months and counting.

Whenever there is the uncertain possibility of free money to pay for installation then it is understandable that local communities will naturally hesitate to commit to contributing towards. 

NextGenUs has disturbing and growing evidence of direct meddling by certain BDUK personnel and political advisers that has clearly undermined projects put forwards by NextGenUs that do not require any public subsidy to deliver.

Now let's be crystal clear here - from an industry perspective, from a community perspective, from a 

public sector perspective, we all want to see the Government's broadband policy objective delivered and help BDUK where this is helpful to the national interest do so.

What is disturbing about the behaviour of BDUK to date is the unwillingness shown to properly engage in a manner that builds confidence, an aroma of ignorance bordering on arrogance.

NextGenUs, for example, has been:

Repeatedly quizzed about specific deployment technologies employed, drilling down all the way to component level, costs and suppliers; 

Subject to requests bordering on the dictatorial regarding commercially-sensitive financial and business case data with no explanation, therefore unknown whether reasonable or unreasonable, as to what that data might be used for, whom it might be shared with and for what purposes.

In any event, why would any business want to share its hard-won knowledge of how to actually deliver 

future-proof FttH broadband into the so-called Final Third markets where by its own admission, the 

incumbent BT is incapable of finding a successful investment formula?

Cui Bono?

Who benefits from broadband distraction UK?

So much for problem identification, what is the solution?

Let's go back to basics:

We are only considering state intervention due to perceived market failure and that failure is being defined (on a dubious premise) as incumbent unwillingness to invest in better Digital Services for a third of the UK population.

Some 20 million people!

And where do most of these folks live?

In rural areas.

It is now 9 months since the SoS DCMS Jeremy Hunt MP launched BDUK at the July 15 2010 Industry Day with the bold mission of helping secure the best superfast t'interweb for the UK by 2015.

After the passing of this human scale gestation period, let us consider what community benefit has actually been delivered by BDUK.

Diddly squat that's what :(

Lots of theoretical exercises and roundtables and industry days.

Endless waffle waffle waffle and of course every day, money set aside from our BBC licence payers fees draining away on salaries and expenses for a team at BDUK to seemingly gaze intently at their respective navels.

Let us contrast the non-delivery of BDUK with actual delivery by another Government Department, DEFRA, of RDPE funded superfast broadband activities in the same time frame. 

In the same time period as BDUK has existed and delivered nothing, RDPE has supported at least one rural broadband project from Expression of Interest to procured, designed, delivered, paid for - end to end, job done, service delivered, local community benefits.

If nothing else, having DEFRA as a reference for successful delivery can only help BDUK step up to the mark and start delivering. 

The key question is whether BDUK is in fact actually capable of working with the market to do what it should be doing i.e. deepening and quicken the broadband policy objectives of Government.

Here are two cheap and easy to administer catalytic steps that will make all the difference:

1 - Big Society - Broadband Vouchers that offer best value for public money by rewarding outcomes not paperwork and by empowering individual households and businesses to consider the alternative supply options available then make informed choices as future bill-payers for Digital Services

2 - Digital Penny Post - Community Interest Dark Fibre as a mandatory explicit line-item deliverable 

from all future PSN procurements to enable distance-independent backhaul for Digital Village Pumps

Perhaps it is time for Government to conclude an inconvenient truth that BDUK is not simply fit for purpose and put the task of broadband delivery UK into the safe hands of those who have shown they can do successfully, DEFRA?