CBN has been engaged by the communities living among the glens of Angus in Scotland, to help them find a solution to their lack of broadband. This is a rural area with the population dispersed across the countryside. While the population is connected to one of several BT telephone exchanges in the area, they are too far away or the infrastructure too poorly maintained to provide most of the community with a broadband service of any kind.

After spending a few days in this beautiful part of the country researching their predicament, Adrian Wooster spoke to a very well attended public meeting. This is a community used to being self-sufficient, who are clearly keen to find their own solutions to their broadband dilemma rather than expecting others to solve the issue for them. However, the complexity of the geography means that its not immediately obvious what the solutions might be. In the coming days, CBN will be presenting a report to the community which will lay out the options, and the work will begin to make broadband in the glens a reality.

The community's report of the public meeting can be found here. 

With the debate about next generation broadband beginning to heat up, this community is a timely reminder that there remain some areas of the UK with no access to the first generation.  While the solutions may become less obvious, CBN believes they exist and with the right balance of stakeholders, an intelligent approach, and a strong community there is no reason why these communities can't lead the way to the next generation.

The BSG recently published their "Pipe Dreams?" report, investigating the need for high-speed broadband access and the UK's progress.

There is already a pent-up demand for far higher speed access to deliver a much rich mix of content, including video. Our current telecommunications network can only support a proportion of this performance for upto 50% of the UK population. Rural and poorer urban areas will be left behind - again.

It is estimated that it will require and investment of about £10bn to build this 21st century access network - but at the moment there are few signs that this will happen in the UK any time soon, while rapid progress is being made across Europe.

CBN board members provided input to the BSG's body of research and we welcome this valuable addition to the NextGen debate. 

The full report can be downloaded from the BSG website. 

18th September 2007, Commonwealth Club, London

Stephen Timms addressed the members of the Broadband Stakeholder Group on the challenges facing the UK as we move towards the next generation broadband.

During his speech, he highlighted the work CBN is embarking on in Manchester and Walsall, and underlined the important role that that Community Broadband made in the development of first generation broadband.

The Minister for Competitiveness went on to say that he plans to chair a high level summit later this year to consider Next Generation broadband access.

For the full text:

 Stephen Timms speech 18 Sept 2007 BSG 

Download CBN's latest newsletter to find out about developments in open next generation networks in the UK and how the UK's community broadband experience is making an impact in Africa. 

  CBN Newsletter - Autumn 2007 (444.69 KB)