Re: 21CN

Peter Crosland wrote:
Well it seems to me that for anyone except fibre to the premises thefinal stage will be exactly as it is at present i.e. over copper.

Fiber to the premises, or at lest to street boxes, is not so far fetched though.

If the basic infrastructure is in place,its simply a matter of running e.g. power and a fiber down BT ducts or overheads, and terminating to the last 50 yards of copper..or indeed fibre.

I.e. it isn't the final solutin, but its the first step to it.


Oh that it were that simple! There is an enoumous difference in what is possible, or likely, in urban areas compared with rural areas such as the OP was asking about.

Agreed.

It really comes down to simple economics and practicalities.

Which I didn't touch on..only the POSSIBILITY.


Running power and fibre down ducts can be very problematic not to mention costly if the ducts are not in good order as is often the case.

Thats not an insurmountable problem though. If you remove the copper wires altogether the power wires aren't gong to interfere with the fibre..and medium high voltage DC could be used as well..


As for rural areas served by overhead cables just how do you expect BT to run power and fibre down them?


Simple rewire. Overhead cabling is a lot cheaper to install and modify than underground is.

You can use a tube and blow fibre down it.

An tack a bit of armoured power onto the poles..

Or replace with tight band point to point microwave.

I.e. its all very doable: but the cost/benefit is the key in every situation.

But one fibre pair carrying a whole villages broadband and voice is the name of the game.


Remote rural locations are always going to be expensive, whether its done with copper or fibre.

It's a *political* decision as to whether 100% coverage at - say - at least 8Mbps is mandated via OFCOM. If it is, BT will merely pass the costs on to the rest of us.

Personally 10% on my broadband bill to ensure the whole country gets at least that sort of speed, would be acceptable. However I doubt I represent the majority opinion!




Peter Crosland


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