It’s Friday afternoon and the first time this week I have been able to sit down and blog, this time about broadband miscellany. It could be a full time activity if I had the time as so much stuff passes my way.
I note that Minister for Communications Ed Vaizey has been demonstrating his politcal sidestepping skills by answering MP Tom Watson’s request for a definition of “super fast broadband” with:
“Super fast broadband means broadband of sufficient speed and quality to deliver the services that will lead to Britain having the best broadband network in Europe. The technology used to deliver this could be fixed or wireless but will represent a significant upgrade on today’s fixed and wireless networks.”
I’m not really criticising Ed Vaizey. He is a professional. From a technical perspective though that isn’t a definition.
Mr Vaizey went on to answer a question by Andrew Percy MP regarding the UK’s plans to expand the provision of broadband in rural areas. We just have to get on with this but we also need to stop messing about with the idea that 2Mbps is a sensible interim step. It is a complete waste of time.
You only have to look at what is happening with Fibrestream in Ashby de la Launde. Fibrestream is putting 100Mbps FTTP into the village. The project is viable because the villagers themselves are doing most of the digging. It can be done.
I’ll be posting more on this project but in the meantime you can catch the video on YouTube here. You can also read Ed Vaizey’s answers online at Hansard here.
PS It’s the Ashby De La Launde Fete this weekend. I’m going. See you there?
One reply on “@tom_watson @andrewpercy Questions to @edvaizey on Broadband Miscellany #finalthirdfirst #digitalbritain #FTTP”
wish I could get there! It would be great to meet up with the villagers prepared to dig for victory, well done to them all. Enjoy the fete. Just hope the local MP goes and finds out more about it. The majority of mps have secretaries and clerks, they don’t know the hassle us ordinary rural mortals have to get a connection. I was hoping Ed would help. I guess he will if we keep proving how much we need it. Ashby is a shining example of grit. But not all villages are like them, some will want to see it working before they invest time and effort. Thank goodness we will soon have a working prototype. Power to the People.