ARmy Rumour SErvice

**Hermes** · 17-05-2012, 22:08

Do you want super fast fibre broadband available on camp? Gaming performance I suspect will improve with up to 76Mbps broadband* from a fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) upgrade.

BT's rollout is likely to miss many military sites as the cabinets that supply them are not economical to convert to fibre. The government has setup Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) with £500m to spend in collaboration with local councils to convert cabinets that aren't economical. There doesn't appear to be a similar plan for military sites, but there is now an e-petition which will get attention if enough signatures can be raised:

FTTC Upgrade for Military Bases and Service Accommodation - e-petitions

*Zen Internet have just increased their quoted speeds.

PrinceAlbert · 17-05-2012, 23:16

Goody. Another E-petition.

A pointless one at that. The government can't tell a private company when/where they have to install their wares.

**Hermes** · 18-05-2012, 15:56

PrinceAlbert,

I sense your frustration at another e-petition. I must comment that although it is not best worded, the sentiment it conveys is correct. BT will not be told by the government which exchanges and cabinets to install fibre. This will be done on an "economical" basis given the number of porential customers on a given exchange or cabinet (for example, although Blandford Forum exchange is due to get fibre the cabinets up the hill at Blandford Camp are unlikely to be converted without intervention). In general, this suggests that rural areas, and military camps, with comparitively few users are unlikely to be economical.

The government has setup through the department of Culture, Media and Sport a company called Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK). This has £530m (from an underspend by the BBC on digital TV switchover) to spend to convince BT to install fibre in exchanges and cabinets that are not economically viable at present.

So, how do we influence BDUK to think about spending some of that cash on service personnel?

1. Write to your MP.
2. Write to the Armed Forces Minister about the Armed Forces Covenant and its corresponding "Armed Forces Community Covenant" (which incidentally is all about stopping military personnel being disadvantaged in a community compared to the permenant civilian population - dentist waiting lists, schools, etc)
3. Sign the e-petiton.

4. All of the above!

Now corrected, I look forward to your signature!

**bobthedog** · 18-05-2012, 16:15

The current distance issue with Broadband in rural areas is the distance from the exchange to the consumer. Typically ADSL will run at reasonable speed for up to 4 KM from the exchange. FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet) brings this distance limitation down considerably, and while you quote the Blandford Forum exchange being distant from the camp, surely BT may gain advantage by moving Fibre up the hill to the camp, due to other services they present on camp. Kilostream and Megastream for the Camp exchange commcen and other applications etc could be carried on fibre if presented within a cabinet.

**Hermes** · 18-05-2012, 21:58

If providing fibre is economically viable then I am sure that BT will put fibre to cabinets on military sites.

However, there is already anecdotal evidence that BT are trying to avoid putting FTTC in areas where they will cannibalise their existing business products (Ref: PC Pro Mag issue 212, p170 and again in PC Pro issue 213, p32)