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Wednesday 4th February 2004
Oakgrove Collaboration Design Workshop
English Partnership's Oakgrove Collaboration Design Workshop was held earlier this week.
A new estate is being planned for Milton Keynes. I attended the workshop. My reason for going? Why to report back to my happy
readers how dire the IT
infrastructure was going to be, that planners haven't a clue what Broadband was, and
aren't developers a total waste of time!
Wrong on all counts...
The quality of the Oakgrove workshop was excellent, open and up front. The
participants were planners, academics, environmentalists, prospective
developers, council staff, EP staff, MK councillors, parish councillors, and a handful
of
MK residents.
Broadband
Nigel Bruin gave a presentation that addressed the Broadband issues. "Oakgrove will utilise the latest advancements in ICT."
"Future proof" was an
expression
he used a lot.
In brief I'd suggest that if you want proper Broadband in the UK you
should sign up
and move to Oakgrove! (I plan to put his notes / slides up on this page - so
watch this space.)
Public Exhibition This Friday Evening
I'll leave the publicity to Jenni and John, two Broadband members that
have helped with our campaign:
If you're interested in the Oakgrove grid square development ideas,
do come along to the design exhibition on Friday 6th Feb, 6pm to
9pm at the National Hockey Stadium near the Station. The points were
very forcibly made that the rest of Middleton Ward wants fast broadband
(or any broadband) too, and that the infrastructure needs to be
accessible for changing later, and there needs to be a funding mechanism
for this. There probably won't be any answers yet - because they
genuinely haven't got that far, but the questions have been formally
raised and are seen as important opportunities for getting more benefit
to MK out of the project.
A lot of rumours have been circulating round the area about what EP has
in mind for Oakgrove. Some of them were scotched completely during the
design workshops, and others were presented, but only as a first idea
for discussion.Virtually everything is still up for discussion, and
the discussion is proving very lively indeed. Whatever ideas EP started
the week with will certainly have changed by the end of the week, so the
exhibition will have plenty of new material to display! Do come. This
will drive the ideas for many other new estates in MK and EP (and the
Liberal Democrats and the Council) genuinely want your comments.
Jenni Ferrans
Middleton Ward Liberal Democrat Focus Team |
Oakgrove has been chosen to become one of the Government’s seven
“Millennium Communities,” with potentially major impact on its future
residents and on everyone living nearby – especially people in Middleton
and Monkston.
The plans involve building more new homes than Monkston on an area half
the size, with community design guidelines unlike anything MK has ever
seen.
I believe we should all be working hard to influence the designs and,
having spent 2 days this week in the Collaborative Design Workshop, I
urge everyone to visit the exhibition of design ideas this Friday 6-9pm
at the Hockey Stadium.
Residents will be pleased to know that there is already a community
group and website committed to exert positive
influence on the designers, and I’ll be pleased to have any feedback
sent to me personally.
John Bint
Conservative Spokesperson, Middleton Ward |
I am helping set up a website that will air questions MK residents are bound
to
have with Oakgrove. I will not be diluting effort with the MK Broadband Action Group. This web site
will remain 100% focused on the
Broadband issue in MK.
Ofcom
I have received the following email from Ofcom:
| 04 Feb 2004 Dear Mr Hubbard
Thank you for your taking the time to contact Ofcom about a subject that
I understand is important to you and the other residents of Milton
Keynes.
The roll-out of ADSL was a commercial decision taken by BT and was not
mandated by Ofcom. Ofcom’s role has been to ensure that BT complies with
its legal and regulatory obligations. For example, BT must offer its
wholesale products to all service providers/operators on the same terms
& conditions and must not unduly prefer its own service provider
business.
Ofcom is keen to ensure that everyone who wants broadband service is
able to obtain it be encouraging BT to roll-out ADSL to more exchanges
and develop alternative methods of providing broadband services e.g. via
satellite. However upgrading the network and exchanges takes
considerable investment and time so universal service is not possible
overnight.
By BT installing fibre optic cable in your area it means that you will
not currently be able to have their ADSL service. This potentially stops
BT from being able to offer their customers a service that could make
them. As BT is money making company I am sure that they would have used
Copper lines in your area if it had been commercial viable for them to
do so at the time. Ofcom regulations do not stretch to the extent that
all new installation lines must be Copper.
There are other ways of receiving a broadband service. Broadband
satellite services are available throughout the UK, though are currently
more expensive than ADSL or cable. Broadband fixed wireless networks
have also been rolled out in some areas of the country. Details of the
availability of these services and the companies offering them are
available from:
http://www.ispreview.co.uk/broadband.shtml.
Yours sincerely
Alastair Hogg
Ofcom Contact Centre
***********************************************************************************
Ofcom is the regulator for the UK communications industry, with
responsibilities across television, radio, telecommunications and
wireless communications services. Ofcom exists to further the interests
of citizen-consumers as the communications industries enter the digital
age.
Ofcom has taken over the responsibilities and assumed the powers of the
five former regulators it has replaced - the Broadcasting Standards
Commission, the Independent Television Commission, Oftel, the Radio
Authority and the Radiocommunications Agency.
This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and
intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are
addressed.
If you have received this email in error please notify the originator of
the message. This footer also confirms that this email message has been
scanned for the presence of computer viruses.
Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender,
except where the sender specifies and with authority, states them to be
the views of Ofcom.
*********************************************************************************** |
My Inbox
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Just thought I would drop you a line to say well done for pushing for
broadband in MK and also to let you know about my company as we may be able
to help some people with advice. Macannex Ltd are specialist Apple service
providers in Mk and we also offer broadband services 512-2000k ADSL and SDSL
where available.
My reasons are obviously a bit commercial, but I would go further than that
in that I get so cross with the large broadband companies dumping on the Mac
users. I hear time after time from people who have been told they cant have
broadband with their Mac when what the supplier should have said is we cant
support Macs because we don¹t know what we are talking about. We therefore
are very open to giving free advice to anyone who asks and trying to tell
them what they can do.
When we first moved into our Crownhill office we were unable to get
broadband from BT due to line distance and quality and struggled for 9
months with dialup, then tried Silvermead satellite. Finally I noticed a BT
guy over the road doing work and quizzed him about the possibilities to find
that they had replaced a joint to Crownhill. I reapplied for ADSL and BINGO
it worked. No one would ever have told me this!!
Also check out our forum at
www.macannex.co.uk I am developing the broadband section there.
Look forward to hearing from you
Andy Woollard
Macannex Ltd PS. We do talk to PC people too..... Internet is basically the
same for everyone... OR IT SHOULD BE!!!!! |
On the 19th December you reported that "BT seem to be doing
something for Middleton."
There is something happening... I think we have an issue that my BT account
manager will not discuss.
You have a meeting with BT on the 20th February. Raise the issue at that
meeting.
Mr Mole
[Thanks for pushing. Seems your BT account manager has tried - that's
appreciated. Serena is under a lot of pressure
to spill beans. I'll report back on our meeting of the 20th.] |
I have been trying to get BT Business broadband at home
(Clare Croft, Middleton) for the last couple of weeks and came across
your website.
The engineer that came round got a reading of 60.7dB (0.7dB over the limit)
at about 3.5km from the exchange (my estimate). He told me that the wrong
resistance of cable was used underground when the estate infrastructure was
built in the early 80's (sounds like Bull**** to me).
I am now trying to get BT to run a new cable of the correct resistance,
but am not having much luck. Any contacts or help in this would
be appreciated - I know this is being done in Monkston. I would be very
happy to get involved in any meetings with BT if you need any assistance.
As my broadband connection is being funded by work I will also try and apply
some corporate pressure through our account manager.
Simon
IBM
[Any pressure you can apply on BT would be very welcome. There is
progress. BT have the cabling in. I'm expecting an
announcement on the 20th when we meet with BT.
Try Serena.] |
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