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BT will be replacing the FTTC (fibre-to-the-cabinet) modems that power its Infinity broadband service due to a faulty chip in the modem which could cause overheating. The letter sent out to BT Infinity customers explained they would be receiving a better Openreach modem for free, but did not mention why. According to a BT spokesman talking to The Register, the modems needed to be changed because of a malfunctioning chip, prone to overheating, although they were keen to point out that there is no risk of fire.
"We can confirm that Openreach has been replacing some of its modems with more reliable updated versions. This is because the connection could sometimes drop with some of the early modems that we deployed.
There has been no health or safety risk whatsoever associated with this issue but it is obviously important that the connection doesn't drop if the customer is to enjoy their service.
As a result, we are offering to visit any affected customers to provide them with an updated modem. In the meantime they can continue to use their old modem without any safety concerns.
BT Spokesman
The modems being replaced are ones that were shipped before August 2011, and these will be replaced by the Openreach contractor, Kelly Communications. All ISPs using the FTTC service will need to have their modems replaced.
Openreach with its code powers does not need to always apply for planning permission when locating its cabinets for VDSL2. In areas such as nominated conversation areas, planning permission will be required. Details of four cabinet planning applications in Montrose, Angus reveal some interesting facts.
Usually Openreach street cabinets are green, but in this case Openreach was asking to install grey cabinets but has had the condition imposed that the cabinets need to be green, though the exact shade of green has yet to be defined.
The four locations, for those who live in the area and thus will be familiar with the streets, are:
The full planning application gives some other interesting information about the Openreach cabinets, for those who have not seen one in the real world yet, the standard full sized cabinet is 130cm high x 75cm wide and 40cm deep with a 0.3sq metre footprint. The interesting snippet that reveals a lot about the future of broadband in the UK is that Openreach is informing councils that the cabinets which supply Super Fast Fibre Access are likely to be in place for some 20 years. By 2032 whether the cabinets will be supplying VDSL2 or a newer even faster xDSL variant or perhaps they may be housing fibre concentrators to merge the data from 200 or more homes that are then fed by fibre rather copper is open to debate and crystal ball gazing.
While there are three areas of the UK at risk of no BDUK plan, Lancashire County Council is ploughing ahead and has announced who its commercial partner is to be in delivering vastly improved broadband to the county.
A high target of 97% having access to superfast broadband at speeds in excess of 30 Mbps is stated as the eventual completion goal of the project. The remaining 3% will see basic broadband speeds of 2 Mbps or faster which for areas where people have no broadband will still be welcome, to try and reduce this 3% even further a £500,000 fund is to be created for these rural areas with an initial pilot to the east of Lancaster.
"We are determined to ensure that Lancashire continues to benefit from being at the forefront of this technology. Establishing this superfast broadband network will not only open up opportunities for businesses in Lancashire, it will revolutionise the way that people in the county, especially in rural or deprived areas, connect to the wider world"
Geoff Driver, leader of Lancashire County Council
The size of the public sector pot in the project is £10.8m from BDUK, £16.5m from the European Regional Development Fund (£16.5m) and £4.7m from Lancashire County Council. It is not clear at this time, but given how investment is often restated many times it is possible the £16.5m from the ERDF may be some of the extra £100m announced for broadband projects.
A roll-out with a 97% superfast broadband target pretty much ensures that Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) will be the dominant technology, hopefully Openreach when planning the roll-out will be able to incorporate a mixture of FTTP and FTTC technology, for small villages and towns that have clusters of terraced housing, FTTP deployment costs should potentially be feasible, particularly where ducting is available.
Lancashire already has a community led Gigabit fibre project underway, and while there will be criticism of the Council for choosing BT as a partner, since BT is very likely to rely heavily on FTTC, this leaves projects like B4rn in the position to provide an attractive world leading speed solution, that other rural communities, particularly in the last 3% of Lancashire will be very interested in emulating.
Another day and a little more fibre for UK broadband diet to digest. Openreach which has had a relatively small scale fibre to the flat pilot running on the Isle of Dogs is looking to expand this pilot. The aim now looks impressive with 1,000 buildings sought in the next pilot, with buildings being partly chosen via a registration scheme, the main pre-requisite is that the building is in an area where the Openreach fibre services are already available. Co-operation of the landlord and the cost of deployment are of course important factors.
"We are keen to extend the benefits of our fastest broadband services to those living in apartments. Through our registration scheme customers are clearly showing us they now seek these higher speeds and see the provision of super-fast broadband as a significant benefit. We are factoring customer demand into our future deployment plans but are also keen to partner with landlords and involve them in our plans."
Mike Galvin, Openreach Managing Director for Next Generation Access
The BT press release, confirms that the deployment will be full Fibre to the Premises via the speeds available on the service, which is 100 Mbps currently, rising to an optional 300 Mbps in spring of 2012. There is some debate as to whether this is the fastest commercially available speed in the UK, due to the presence of Hyperoptic who already offer 1000 Mbps (1 Gbps), we presume that Openreach is referring to that wholesale access that exists on their network. In terms of upload speeds, Hyperoptic has an even bigger lead since it offers a symmetric service.
We did some checking on various postcodes where fibre to the cabinet is available, and the Openreach fibre to apartments registration checker tells us that the postcodes we checker were outside the trial area. Therefore it seems likely the trials apply to areas where Openreach is deploying its Fibre to the Premises product, which currently is Bradwell Abbey, Highams Park, Chester South, York, Ashford (Middlesex), Ilford Central, St Austell, Forest Hill, Leytonstone or Exeter. Residents should register at www.superfast-openreach.co.uk/resident/ if you are a landlord then this alternative registration page should be used.
For those with a flat not in these areas, it is a case of waiting to see how the trials go. The alternative of chasing Hyperoptic to come to your area is feasible, though at present their roll-out is concentrating on London and again co-operation from the landlord is crucial.
UK cities are slowly starting to take on the look of others around Europe, with DOCSIS 3.0 available to many, and fibre from various sources across a city. The key to even wider roll-outs will be if landlords see tenants turning down flats due to a lack of superfast broadband. The ramping up of Openreach's interest in apartments is not surprising after Hyperoptic and Metro Ethernet providers like Ask4 have paved the way. Small providers showing these is a demand mean that the larger operators have an easier job convincing those holding the purse strings that it is an area they need to operate in.
The BDUK process is a long one, with central approval of any plans being required before a local authority and four areas have received that approval, allowing the area to undertake the business of taking tenders from commercial providers.
Back in November 2011, when the £100m Urban Broadband Fund was announced, there was a hint that more money was being sought for other parts of the UK, and it appears today that this extra funding has been secured. The £100m secured from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) if spread amongst the 44 BDUK funding allocations will achieve very little, but due to the source it seems likely that not all areas will be eligible.
The funding pot for goal of the UK being the best in Europe with regards to broadband now stands at £530m via BDUK, £20m rural broadband fund, £100m urban fund, and £100m from the ERDF, giving a total of £750m.
A very important question now, is how this will alter any existing local authority plans, for example if a plan is giving some extra money, will the local authority and commercial partner both be expected to match fund it. If this is the case then the money may do more harm than good, as while it provides more money to do the work, cash strapped councils and companies struggling to find investment capital will be stretched even further. If the money is handed over with no match funding requirements then it could help plans to go beyond the 90% receiving superfast broadband and push it a percentage point or two closer to 100%.
The department for culture, media and sport (DCMS) have released details today listing the counties who had submitted their local broadband plans to Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) for approval. It also cited the counties whose plans had been approved but had not yet been advertised which is good news for many of those wondering what their county would be doing. Details have been released in the form of data on Google Maps and through a PDF showing the likelihood of meeting the timetable. The map shows 13 counties have had their plans approved, while a further 32 have yet to submit their plans.
While the report shows it is optimistic that most counties will meet the timetable given to them by the DCMS to submit plans, there seems to be bad news for those in the Merseyside, Tyneside and North East Somerset areas. The report has recognised it has little confidence in these three counties to meet the current timetable given.
"I am disappointed that a few councils seem to have slipped behind schedule. I will be seeking urgent talks with these councils to ensure they understand the need to make real progress quickly. We do not intend to continue to fund councils if they continue to fail to deliver."
Ed Vaizey, Minister for Culture, Communications and the Creative Industries
The DCMS set aside £530 million for broadband in 2010's Spending Review, which will be allocated to councils who submit their plans on how to use the funding by the end of February 2012. This then begs the question, what will happen to money allocated to councils if they don't submit their plans. Will it be re-allocated back out across the other counties?
Many of the councils have also pledged to match the funding given to them by BDUK in order to maximise the broadband upgrade.
Arqiva has reacted to the announcement from Fujitsu that it is pulling out of the tendering process for superfast broadband in Wales. Arqiva while not running for any of the tenders who own around 20% of mobile masts in the UK are in a position to comment on the BDUK processes, and how it appears to be going.
"The Government should heed this announcement from Fujitsu and recognise that the planned series of separate, devolved broadband procurements are clearly economically and commercially challenging for the private sector to deliver.
This means there is a serious risk that the key public policy goal of offering broadband to all may not be achieved.
It is now clearer than ever that wireless broadband must be offered to all consumers who aren't going to be offered fibre. What's more, if the Government is serious about achieving broadband for all before the next election, then they need to take a leadership position and directly procure a national, commercially viable, wholesale solution to ensure that the 'last 10%' of consumers - mostly rural - are reached."Comments from Arqiva
The BDUK process has not been a very fast moving process, and perhaps that is why the deadline for submission of local authority plans to the BDUK was brought forward to the end of February 2012, originally it was set for April 2012.
It should be noted that some BDUK plans already have talked of using 4G mobile broadband to provide infill for areas where fibre solutions are not cost effective, and Suffolk went further wanting blanket 4G coverage of the county as part of its plan. Of the alternatives for people living in this final 10% where the BDUK money is inadequate to provide even the more basic FTTC solution, wireless either fixed or mobile is perhaps the most future proofed, and others reasonable downstream, upstream speeds and decent latency.
There is the £20m rural broadband fund, but if that is divided out and handled piecemeal it will not go far, and may just end being used to subsidies KA-band satellite services, which while they provide a solution are well above what most people are willing to for each GB of usage, and also exclude one big success story in the UK economy, the gaming industry.
Some may take comments like those made today as a death knell for the broadband for all by 2015 target, but with some positive direction and some actions to reduce the risk to private investors may re-introduce tough competition and drive innovation, rather than the approach that we seem to have of patch and make do so that the May 2015 target is met if one uses the right metrics. The worst thing that can happen is if every one gives up and rolls over, thus allowing whatever forms the path of least resistance to roll-out a patchy mediocre solution.
180 customers in the St Newlyn area of Cornwall have been on a 4G trial which was due to come to an end soon. Ofcom has given approval for an extension of the trial to June 2012, for testing of 4G in rural areas.
Everything Everywhere is running the trial in conjunction with BT Wholesale. The trial is using a part of the sub 1GHz spectrum which is better at penetrating buildings and obstructions that the higher 4G frequencies. Average download speeds are reported as 7 Mbps, with 2 Mbps upload speeds.
"Before the 4G trial, my fiancé and I were using a dongle, and downloading anything was impossible it was so slow. Now, we can watch on demand television and stream music. Better still, my fiancé’s sister in Australia has met her four-month-old nephew for the first time over Skype. The extension of the trial is a godsend for me, as I really don’t want to go back to the digital dark age."
Tamasin Battell, 4G Cornwall triallist
The Superfast Cornwall project which is vastly more advanced with actual roll-out underway compared to BDUK, and has always had wireless (fixed and mobile) in its plan to provide superfast broadband to as much of Cornwall as possible. One unknown still, and this applies across the UK is how BT plans to meet the 25 Mbps (or 30 Mbps in some areas) minimum speed target for exchange only lines (a line that has no street cabinet between it and the exchange). The Cornwall blueprint seems to suggest these will be some other technology than FTTP.
Hopefully for triallists in Cornwall, a further extension will be granted in June, rather than service being withdrawn until the 4G auctions finally complete and service delivery commence in 2013.
If you're reading this news article using your O2 mobile phone, you'll be pleased to know that O2 have already sent us your mobile phone number within the HTTP headers which normally contain information about how content can be displayed on your device. These headers are not normally seen by users, and usually not logged by most websites, but the flaw allows malicious sites to get more personal information about you than you may be willing to share.
For example, if you open an e-mail which includes references to external images, the mere action of opening the e-mail would divulge your phone number. This could be used by anyone undertaking a phishing attack or other scam to get more information from you. The opportunity to abuse this is potentially endless.
This issue was uncovered by @lewispeckover and has been confirmed by thinkbroadband as being correct, although by the time we took this photo, the issue seems to have stopped affecting the phone we tested:
This screenshot from an iPhone still shows the problem:
We understand from other sources that it is still affecting some individuals, however we suspect O2 has been quick to start fixing the issue. Our suspicion is that the feature is used by internal O2 websites to identify the user trying to make changes to the account, but that one or more of O2's proxy servers have been misconfigured.
We have tested this on Vodafone ourselves and have found no trace of a similar problem
O2 users may be able to confirm if they are still affected by visiting Lewis Peckover's website here (external link), noting that by visiting the site, you're probably giving him your phone number (although we very much suspect he would be more careful with it).
