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Bernie's Article
Bernie lives in a village, Little Wilbraham, in Cambridgeshire. He was connected to
Invisible Networks' Wireless Network on the 7th April 2003.
Here's his write up for the local village newsletter:
Broadband for the Warbler Villages
Anyone who has used a fast internet connection will know the frustration of
reverting to a standard BT telephone line and modem combination for anything
other than email usage. Our three villages also lack the intermediate speed
ADSL option since, apparently, even if it were installed at the exchange, we
are too far away for that system to work properly, and there appears to be
no imminent plans to extend cable to our area either. However, thanks to the
efforts of a group of people in Bottisham, a solution exists, and indeed, is
up and running there. This is now expanding to nearby villages, including
ours.
Originally called ‘Bottisham BroadBand’, this community group envisaged
using licence free Wi-Fi low power radio links (used to link computer
accessories without wires) to interconnect each other’s computers. A high
capacity line into the BT network was also installed at the home of one of
the members, giving high speed Internet access for all of the others in the
group. By this time, BBB had grown into ‘CARNEF’ (Cambridge Ring North East
Ltd), a not-for-profit company set up for all the villages on the Bottisham
exchange (see www.carnet.uk.net for
more information), and a company sought to undertake installation work.
The company installing Broadband in Bottisham is called ‘Invisible
Networks’ and it is they who will extend the network to our villages - if
there are enough subscribers! This is also achieved using Wi-Fi, where
possible. The general rule seems to be that a village needs to have 8 or
more prospective users to have pre-booked with them to make this viable. At
the time of writing (mid February), we have 9 such pre-orders here in Little
Wilbraham, so connection is (hopefully) imminent. The position in Great
Wilbraham is that they have had a preliminary get-together of interested
people (18 or so met at the Carpenters Arms one night in late January). This
was organised by lain Campbell, and John Harris, who has done much of the
work in Bottisham together with Laurie van Someren, was good enough to come
also, providing information and enthusiasm in about equal measure.
Some detailsFull details can be found on the Invisible Networks
web site (www.invisible.uk.net),
but to give some idea:
For a standard connection, the set-up cost is £200 though a subsidy from the
Countryside Agency currently reduces this to £50 in Little Wilbraham (Great
Wilbraham are applying for the same grant). There is then a running cost of
£30 a month (£24 if you pay for 15 months in advance).
The set-up items for a typical installation would be an antenna (either
internal or external), a radio unit (with standard Ethernet output) and an
Ethernet network card for your PC.
A 2Mbps line currently links the system to the outside world.
Community Angle
Since the Wi-Fi network itself interconnects all the subscribers and runs
at 5Mbps, there are other opportunities available within the local
community. For instance, web-cams could be installed to monitor road
congestion or for that matter, to keep an eye on that busy bird table.
There
are opportunities here that have no counterpart elsewhere - they just need
discovering. |
Links
Monkston and Middleton Broadband Home
Activities
If you live in or near the Monkston grid square, and want Broadband, let me
know!
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