Village starts its own ISP to get superfast broadband

[Palisadoes]

Source.

A small village which set up its own ISP because BT would not provide it with super-fast broadband, has begun its service to 200 homes.

The plucky villagers of Lyddington in Rutland raised £37,000 so that they could enjoy download speeds up to 40Mbps.

They had tried other telecoms companies, but they all said it would be too expensive for them. So the Lyddingtonites formed a joint venture with a local ICT company that resold BT's broadband, to create Rutland Telecom.

The government is trying to supply fast broadband to all British homes, but 2.5 million in the UK can't get speeds above 2Mbps.

Dr David Lewis, managing director of Rutland Telecom, said: "We found that any company could do, on a smaller scale, what Carphone Warehouse has done and take over BT's network."

Rutland Telecom then approached BT's phone network division, Openreach, and asked it to supply fibre-optic cable to a street cabinet in the village. Eleven local investors put in £3,000 each and two years later, the service has started operating and has 50 customers.

Rutland Telecom director Mark Melluish said: "For the first time in UK telecommunications history the telephone lines of customers are completely cut off from the local BT exchange."

BT said it was "delighted to help Rutland Telecom" but hoped Rutland would let other ISPs use the network. "Otherwise there is the risk of a local monopoly developing, which is never good for consumers," said BT Group Strategy Director Olivia Garfield.

A number of other villages have asked Rutland for advice on setting up their own telco, and it will soon be establishing similar services in two nearby communities.

For the big companies such as BT and Virgin Media, providing fibre-optic cabling for small rural communities is not cost-effective.

The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) has criticised the lack of government support for rural broadband provision.

It said Rutland Telecom was a good step, but the government needed to put more money into countryside broadband. Dr Charles Trotman of the CLA said: "Without that money the rural/urban digital divide will extend and that will have a significantly adverse impact on the economy."

Stephen Fry went to school in the neighbouring town of Uppingham, where Rutland Telecom is based, and supported the launch. "It has always been a frustration that fast, reliable broadband service has always been hardest for those who most benefit - those in the countryside," he said.

This sort of thing could only ever happen in those tiny, close-knit communities. Nice community spirit there though!

[Josquius]

I remember back when broadband was just being introduced in the UK. BT had this system whereby they guaged demand in various areas to decide whether to upgrade them or not...
Me and my friends of course spend our dinner breaks at school going through the phone book and registering loads of people on the site. We got our broadband nice and fast despite being in a crappy little rural town.

Odd that this village wouldn't have got it. Though Rutland is the county most people don't know exists isn't it in a pretty urban part of the country?

[Palisadoes]

I remember back when broadband was just being introduced in the UK. BT had this system whereby they guaged demand in various areas to decide whether to upgrade them or not...
Me and my friends of course spend our dinner breaks at school going through the phone book and registering loads of people on the site. We got our broadband nice and fast despite being in a crappy little rural town.

Good idea!

Odd that this village wouldn't have got it. Though Rutland is the county most people don't know exists isn't it in a pretty urban part of the country?

It was temporarily made part of Leicestershire, though the Rutland people refused to change the signs to "Welcome to Leicestershire". Eventually it became it's own county again. So yeah... they have a history of being very close-knit and inbred!

It's quite rural, really. Very nice, particularly Rutland water - they flooded two villages to put the reservoir there!

[The Brain]

Rutland was killed at Wakefield.