Ewhurst Broadbanders Business and Enterprise Committee Broadband
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Ewhurst Broadbanders contribution to the Business and Enterprise Committee for their Broadband Speed Enquiry Reference becpn47 0809 Synopsis This paper offers the practical experiences of a Surrey village of 1000 properties in attempting to improve broadband performance where the present telephone exchange is too far away at over 3 km. It provides comments on the B & E C questions and additional information including an outline National remedy. It appears that a nation-wide communications “rail crash” is upon us which requires similar remedies and which will not be rectified by commercially competing interests nor miniscule phone line taxes. Ewhurst Broadbanders re becpn 47 0809 Iss. 1.9 8th June 2010 - Page 1 of 17 pages Contents Responses to the five questions the B & E Committee asked Page 3 Other views Page 4-5 Appendix A - Slovakia Fibre To The Home announcement Page 6 Appendix B - Broadband speed statements Page 7 Appendix C - U K Internet capacity Page 8 Appendix D - AAISP comments Page 9 Appendix E - PlusNet’s capacity load example Page 10 Appendix F - BT Openreach’s Limited Maintenance Pages 11-12 Appendix G - A Milton MP & Ewhurst / Ofcom meeting Page 13-14 Appendix H - BT Attitude Page 15-16 Appendix I - Conceptual Re-organisation Page 17 Revision history 1.7 Initial issue 1.8 copyright data added & typing corrections Preface This paper has been produced by Ewhurst Broadbanders, a group dedicated to the improvement of Telecommunications and Internet services in the area. The information provided are the observations from end-users’ viewpoints - i.e. external to any Internet Service Provider’s (ISP) organisation using information in the public domain. Photographs illustrate the plant condition mainly over the Summer of 2009 so the current plant could differ as BT continue to change their infrastructure. Please note:- As we are mainly end users relying on (Un-moderated) internet research and observing the difficulties of our Internet Service Providers (ISPs), it is possible that some of our topics are incomplete; it is also probable that there are omissions. However there can be little doubt that the subject matters raised are a significant cause for concern for both telephone and broadband. Copyright:- Some of the data included contain copyright material as well as the intellectual property of others. In these circumstances we must retain their rights so the document as a whole cannot become copyright of Parliament or any Government Agency. Permission has been granted for the use of the copyright material in this document. Furthermore the topics have been widely discussed with interested parties via the internet and thus should not be considered confidential. Ewhurst Broadbanders re becpn 47 0809 Iss. 1.9 8th June 2010 - Page 2 of 17 pages 1.0 Whether the target for universal access to use the term unlimited (when there are many traffic broadband at a speed of 2Mb/s by 2012 is ambitious contention points) and up to (when line distance enough? calculations can provide reasonable speed estimates, particularly when it is probable that longer-line users 1.1 No it certainly isn’t; it’s well below the speeds {including most of Ewhurst} will achieve virtually many internet users already have and which is being nothing from NGA and similar technologies). These increased substantially for them in the short term. practices are continuing with BT offering speeds In order to ensure a reasonable minimum speed at of up to 20 mbps for their NGA product and Zen the extremities it is important to specify much faster Internet stating the same but also stating “average speeds closer in if Next Generation Access (NGA) download speeds will be between 9 mbps and 13 facilities are to be of any use. Were fibre being mbps”.) See Appendix-B. The speeds obtained will deployed there would be no need to consider speed in also be seriously affected by poor cabling including as much detail as it is so much faster and importantly aluminium cables. provides similar upload and download speeds that Asymmetric technology doesn’t. 5.0 The extent to which current regulation strikes the right balance between ensuring fair competition 2.0 Is the Government right to propose a levy on and encouraging investment in next generation copper lines to fund next generation access? networks? 2.1 No, it is wasteful of resources and would 5.1 We are living with the lamentable decision, require yet another Government administrative probably made by Ofcom, to prohibit BT originally body to collect the tax and then to oversee the from installing Fibre but then allowing others to do procurements which all too often seem to fail. so only in profitable areas. Current legislation has The Telcos would also have to set up otherwise therefore allowed Virgin Media (via CableTel, NTL useless administrative systems. The proposed levy and Telewest etc.) to provide increasingly faster isn’t nearly big enough to have a major impact. It Fibre-To-The-Cabinet (FTTC) solutions with new also seems unfair that the poorest people would be higher-performance co-axial cables to each property. penalised when it’s most unlikely they would ever The legislation has also provided a platform to use broadband. Furthermore the fibre property tax allow many ISPs to provide ADSL broadband over illustrates disjointed planning particularly where the inferior and degrading BT twisted pair copper there is a strong case for encouraging Fibre. and aluminium network. However the whole BT Wholesale arrangement is flawed as there is no 3.0 Will the Government’s plans for next obligation (No USO) for BT Openreach to maintain generation access work? the local loops in an adequate condition for optimum broadband performance, nor even to provide a 3.1 No, this type of intervention will seriously broadband speed line. They only have to provide distort broadband and telephone design and a 3 kHz audio capability and this can be satisfied implementation plans. All of the stop-gap designs with DACS line-sharing units or even with crossed to meet this very low standard have limited or non- pairs of wires (which are disastrous for ADSL existent upgrade paths to reasonable speeds; the entire which relies on balanced twisted pairs). Furthermore operationmust then be repeated probably before 2012. business pressures are forcing BT, who are at a The UK must catch up with developing countries serious technical disadvantage, to concentrate on the such as Slovakia who have already implemented more economically attractive areas of the country phase one of a national Fibre-To-The-Home (FTTH) that already have mainly Virgin Media services, scheme. See Appendix A. at the expense of ignoring sparser and aluminium equipped areas completely. Likewise Virgin are also 4.0 If companies are providing the speed of not interested in the sparser areas. There is a strong access which they promise to consumers? case that sparser areas are much more in need of fast broadband in order to compete with better urban 4.1 Yes in most cases they are, as they have to facilities enjoyed by some, but certainly not all, those include caveats to cover the actual line distance and BT Openreach users. quality limitations as well as their capacity costs. However it is highly misleading for all suppliers to Ewhurst Broadbanders re becpn 47 0809 Iss. 1.9 8th June 2010 - Page 3 of 17 pages 6.0 Any other views stakeholders think the and reliability viewpoints, is a vital national asset Committee should be aware of. and must be maintained so must be included in a Governement funded National Fibre network. 6.1 There are (at least) five additional major ** It seems important that the aluminium cable topics which the Committee could consider, viz. inventory is researched to establish the magnitude of A) The capacity of the national networks. the problem. B) The replacement of the aluminium and copper network with fibre. 6.2.3 Network resilience also requires ongoing C) The resilience of all networks to accidental review. The Internet could be disrupted by activating or deliberate damage. Denial-Of-Service attacks or possibly an overload D) The current commercial and technical condition as in Appendix E. Recently a problem conditions. was caused in an exchange when equipment was E) A realistic approach to communications stolen. Essex also had difficulties when a fibre cable systems development. under the Thames was damaged whilst new cabling 6.2.1 The capacity of the National Broadband operations were underway. In current conditions Network is a complex subject; it is provided by BT major incidents such as fires and hostile acts should and Virgin Media together with other “backbone” also be considered together with contingency suppliers; all have a number of limiting capacities. plans for replacement equipment and duplicated The example at Appendix C provides outline details locations. Appendix D contains some very worrying of the current (20CenturyNetwork) BT arrangements comments upon a single point of failure. It seems that of their Remote Access Servers in 12 locations dual-redundant designs for all critical components across the UK. Appendix E describes a worrying must be a mandatory requirement. It is suggested recent incident where very significant loading was that GCHQ and / or the military are tasked with a caused by the population using BBC iPlayer to watch confidential failure-mode investigation of the entire Wimbledon. UK communications networks to cover technical and associated commercial limitations. 6.2.2 Whilst broadband speeds are a major item of debate, the copper and aluminium telephone 6.2.4 In the current financial conditions the BT network is still a vital National Asset and must Group cannot be expected to fund BT Openreach not be overlooked.