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Monday 29th March 2004
Should we focus on lobbying for higher speed broadband?
I throw the following email to the informal email list:
Should the group be focusing more on high speed broadband? That is serious
speeds of 2Mbps and beyond?
1, A straw poll in the pub at last Thursday's session was "no, 512kbps is fast
enough."
2, The chair at the Broadband Workshop pointed a finger at
the "citizens" for not pushing for better products; and essentially looking for
the best price all the time.
3, Today I receive the following from a friend doing A level Film and Media
studies:
"I have recently seen an American student's adaptation of
a Star Wars film. It's amazing! It can been seen at
www.crewoftwo.com (It was made
by 2 people) it's all blue screened, and I'd be very interested in trying
something like it out...
I am just curious as to what programs to use; if it's worth investing time
and money in; etc..."
It took 20 minutes for me to download the 40MB video clip at 512kbps."
Should the group be focusing more on high speed broadband? What do you think?
Here's some replies...
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I do not think that campaigning for 2MB would be an issue. It's all down to
BT and line loss and distance. Until they get that sorted out, many of us
cannot get the 1 MB or 2MB services.
It's all down to distance: that’s our next issue.
Richard, Group Secretary |
| Let's get 512kbps first! Mark |
I work from home at least 50% of the time, via a VPN connection onto the
office network. The 512 service meets most of my needs at the moment and is
fast enough. Occasionally I do need to download very large files and then a
faster link would be nice.
I'm not a big games player, so I'm not graphics intensive, although
something like movies on-demand would appeal in the future. We do also use
webcam with ip phone to talk to friends and family overseas, which is
cheaper than intnl call rates. This would benefit from a fast connection,
although it's not a priority right now because usually the person at the
other end is slower than 512K.
My own opinion is that 512 is probably good enough for most people today,
but then as we all know technology moves on and the services that may be on
offer in 2/3 years time may well demand higher bandwidth. Certainly if MK is
to live up to its High Tech image, then we should be thinking about this
ahead of time, but still considering that some group members will still be
happy to get a 512 link to start with.
Regards,
Steve
Happy (for now) Monkston resident |
BT advertise 1MB connection, yet it is unavailable in Walton Park.
My view is that BT should at least provide 1MB.
Ross |
I agree with Steve.
We have many 'customers' who are extremely angry at the lack of Broadband,
and the complete lack of action from the local Council (and other bodies) to
tackle this issue five years ago. In 2004, everyone should have Broadband.
We all want lots of bandwidth, but at this point in time, many servers will
not have connectivity that can provide huge download speeds for everyone,
therefore there is little point. From a technical point of view, we must
always look to the future, remaining realistic.
On Wednesday, at the Council's Broadband Workshop, I
noticed that the Oakgrove presentation was very much a fairytale, and I
rather hope that they will re-think the ideas. As far as I could tell, the
Oakgrove plans for 10Mbs to every house were expensive, unworkable in
today's world, and rather like someone had sold them an idea that cannot be
delivered. English Partnerships needs to focus on providing decent and
sensible connectivity, that actually works, with choice for the consumer,
and not another NTL cable style problem in years to come.
Our aim is to deliver something better than smoke signals to the residents
of Milton Keynes. Not a fairytale that cannot be delivered this side of
2010.
Let's get the majority on Broadband, and then worry about huge connections
(which I for one, would not pay for at this point in time).
John, Press Secretary |
512 is fine for me at the moment.
Perhaps when everybody has got that, we could push for more?Margaret |
For e-mail true 512K is ample usually. For downloading large media files
then 1M to 2M is better.
I'm sorry that I wasn't able to be at the recent workshop. I have been
travelling lots and lots recently. Just two points of interest...
1) Munich airport, Brussels, Oslo, Stockholm but not Heathrow all have high
speed wireless LAN access. All you do is energise the WLAN. Open an internet
browser. Pay up 5 Euros for 1 hour and then engage VPN. Voila!
2) Had I been at the workshop I would have had to correct the finger pointer
that not all of us are citizens. Some of us are residents. Often local
council officials need a slap across the face to remind them that we have
departed the beer and sandwiches culture of seedy 70s socialism.
Best regards,
Dave (Resident of Middleton and worried Wireless Broadbander - when will the
scheme be switched off?) |
Whilst I'm a happy wireless trialist, I can't get even 512k BB from BT. So
just in case the wireless trial doesn't get rolled out commercially, my
personal priority remains to campaign for a basic 512k BT service for the
whole of MK. (In fact, even assuming I could get it, I probably wouldn't
want anything faster than 512k just yet).
NEVERTHELESS... I think it's a *superb* idea to broaden the campaign's remit
and start to lobby for faster access. We wouldn't have to change our policy
or anything, we'd just widen our demands! The objective of the campaign,
instead of "BB for the whole of MK", would become "BB for the whole of MK,
and at WHATEVER speed is available from BT, NTL and others in their standard
offerings".
At a local level the specific campaign objectives would, initially, be
different - e.g. "512k for Shenley Lodge" but "1M for Monkston". And as soon
as Shenley Lodge got its 512k then we'd up the stakes to "1M for Shenley
Lodge". This might actually prompt BT to sort out the areas PROPERLY at the
first hit, knowing that any lash-up solution won't make us go away!
I've often pondered the fact that, assuming we succeed in our current
objective, membership of the group will at some point start to decline,
eventually to zero, as we all get BB. The challenge will be for the last
handful of members (i.e. those whom BT leave languishing at the end of the
longest, thinnest lines) to sustain the momentum and win the fight.
I certainly don't believe that we should keep the group going just for the
sake of it - we'd quickly become a nerdy weekly drinking club - but if we
were to broaden the remit as suggested, we would maintain a useful 'critical
mass' for longer, would ultimately achieve a bigger thing, and moreover we
would retain Nick's drive and determination even though he has his own BB
sorted!
Let's go for it.
Neil [Shenley Lodge Deputy] |
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My 2 cents says yes we should be looking at high speed broadband.
If they (BT) are going to commit to improving our lot then we need to
make sure that
(a) they have something to charge us for and bring the money back in, and
(b) that what we get is sufficiently advanced that it remains competitive
in the near term.
Take a look at the high speed broadband services in places like Sweden,
Japan etc. That's where we should be. Home workers often move large files,
more and more content is streamed multimedia and more and more software
bugs/improvements are rolled out over the net. Net meetings, video
conferencing, it is all there - 512kbps is survivable, just with this
technology, but 2+Mbps is way better and
I'd be happy to pay for it. Then again I'm on ISDN, so even 512MB in the
short term would be nice :(
Paul |
Yes and no....
Realistically I think BT SHOULD be looking at making sure the infrastructure
they provide is going to be capable of providing such speeds. We don't want
to be resurrecting the campaign in 5 years time because whilst the rest of
the country sits on 10MB lines, good old MK is stuck on 512... (ok, it's a
bit of a dream I know!)
Jeff |
I think we should be taking more heed of the provocative facilitator at the
meeting a week or so ago. He said that it is in part our fault, as
customers, for being so easily satisfied, that is the reason why BT etc are
merely aiming to get such low-capacity “Broadband” rolled out.
On behalf of the population at large, I reckon we ought to be raising the
stakes a bit – at some carefully chosen time, of course. Or else the
suppliers will conclude that there is not, and potentially never will be,
any substantial demand for more bandwidth.
Perhaps I wouldn’t (yet) pay for 2 Mbps – but before we’re ready for it,
apps will run as ASP services, streaming video will be available, my
colleagues will be expecting instant responses to 20Mb data files rather
than the 3Mb ones they currently lob around as if everyone was on the office
LAN, and more and more conference calls will expect video as well as voice.
Come the day that 512 gets to this end of MK10, I’d hate to find that all
the IT jobs have gone to another country or another city, because they are
equipped with 2 Mbps (or ten or twenty), and all we’ve got is the half-meg
we asked for!
John |
I have to say that I agree with you John. I my humble opinion BT will
provide the lowest it feels is acceptable to pressure groups - BT is a
business and it costs less.
I think that we should ask for more than 'just' MK coverage at present
levels. Give BT a higher target and we are also more likely to get MK
coverage as a whole, as BT strives to deliver the higher target.
Also, it seems to me that as MK is part of an expansion area there will be a
high level of govt. agency pressure on BT to provide at least 512. So why
not up the ante a little. Aim 1 = BB for MK. Aim 2 - 512+ for MK.
There are all sorts of arguments for
Regards,
Ross |
My Inbox
In last week's presentation at the Council's Broadband Workshop I wittered on
about the impact of not having Broadband and house purchases. It is apposite
that I receive the following emails:
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I stumbled across your website whilst searching for Kilwinning Drive,
Monkston as I'm possibly going to be moving there.
As a current ADSL user in Emerson Valley, I'd want to continue this in
Monkston, is this now a possibility ? Also would you recommend the area?
Thanks in advance for any info.
Cheers,
Kevin [Kilwinning Drive is fine. Copper cable went in last year.
Monkston_migration.htm] |
| Do you know of anyone with broadband in Monkston,
specifically Kilwinning Drive? Ash
[Yes. See
Monkston_migration.htm] |
I am planning on moving to Tattenhoe, do you know if there
is Broadband access there?
Many thanks,
David[There are no members in Tattenhoe. This area is a safe bet. The
area is served by the telephone exchange in Emerson Valley, the neighbouring
estate.] |
I also receive...
I heard your presentation at the Broadband workshop at MKC
last week but had to leave to go to another meeting shortly after you
finished.
I am a seasoned campaigner and at work have dealt similar problems for many
years - going back to when BT said I could not get ISDN to Crownhill as it
was too far away from the Stony exchange. But when the (then) magic word
Mercury was mentioned BT managed to re-route cables. We have moved on then,
through an very poor ntl service and now in our fourth year of a connection
from Kingston (recently changed to 2Mb from 256kb at little extra cost).
I'm keen to see better provision across MK and am keen to promote things.
I'm happy to cover something in our next Town Council newsletter - but as I
say I suspect most of our area could get broadband if they wished.
Some further thoughts/comments:
I'm very sceptical of the worth of the current wireless trail - particularly
as it involved ntl
It was disappointing that Kingston were not involved in the broadband
workshop - albeit they concentrate on the business market they have an
excellent network around most of MK.
20% of the land mass of MK is in the "urban area" - i.e. 80% is rural.
01908 covers areas outside MK - particularly Deanshanger, Old Stratford and
Cosgrove where there certainly have problems MK includes areas such as Olney
which are on 01234.
I think there is some merit in an "urban" community (metro?) broadband - in
an ideal situation I'd like to be able to "cable Wolverton & Greenleys" for
community broadband! But of course we would - ideally - need to get funding
to get this off the ground.
On one of your pages you have various bits about ntl:
1. The cable TV system in MK was in fact a BT run system - although perhaps
state of the art when installed many years ago it is not now and given that
it was a BT system it is not surprising that it is not available for
telephone over cable.
2. The fact ntl now run the cable in MK is only because BT were forced to
sell off there cable interest in MK and Westminster (I believe on a 99 year
lease) as a result of their wish to get involved in multi-media.
3. I am sure there is nothing stopping ntl "digging up the road" if they
wished to do so - far from it in fact. As a utility there can more or less
do what they want!
4. ntl do not want to invest in replacing the current analogue cable system
with a modern digital system. It is of note that ntl have largely been
created by merging of existing cable operations rather then actually
installing new cable networks themselves.
5. The BT (now ntl) cable TV system only ever reached the new estates of MK
- so it never for example got to places like Wolverton.
Regards
Mike
Councillor Mike Galloway
Chair, Wolverton & Greenleys Town Council
Wolverton - A Beacon Town for community consultation and partnership working
Wolverton Unlimited - Be a piece of Wolverton's Bigger Picture -
www.WolvertonUnlimited.com |
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Just to let you know, I've just moved from Walnut Tree, Yep the big red
blob! MK7 7NQ to MK15 9DQ. I had ADSL 512kb at Walnut Tree yet I cannot
get it here in Willen Park and line of sight it's so far shorter to the
exchange!!!
What the hell are they thinking of?
I'm willing to pay up to £2k PA for 1MB download. Any ideas? Cheers
Jason [BT are due to make an announcement soon. (2 weeks) I understand
that they are planning on some upgrade work in the area. We'll have to wait
for their announcement
Enroll with the NTL pilot
http://www.mkweb.co.uk/broadband/] |
Thought I would let you have an update on the ntl trial.
ntl were on Crownhill today checking line of sight for me and as I was
around (having got back from Malta at 3am) I had a chat and he confirmed
that we do have sight of Bow Brickhill but not Linford Wood (from the
junction of Cruickshank Grove and Robeson Place).
Transmitter should be up in the next two or three weeks and they'll be in
touch for the install.
Regards
Steve |
|
I live in Stanbrook Place on Monkston and have been taking a look at the
Broadband Action Group website.
I did take a look at the website about 6 months ago and an trying to work
out if we are getting any nearer to getting broadband. If you can give the
latest status and let me know what I can do to help that’d be great. Dylan [Yes
Stanbrook Place is fine. See
Monkston_migration.htm] |
It may have been a good meeting. What happened.???
Brian[The council will be doing the write up. I'll advise everyone as
soon as it is published. Keep an eye on this page.] |
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