Overview of B4GAL Community Broadband Superfast Broadband for Glencaple and Lowther Pronounced “bagel” Amanda Burgauer, Community Broadband Scotland, Aviemore 24/4/2013

Project Beginnings  Lack of connectivity identified in 2010 as an issue by local community, but considered out of our control (Glencaple and Lowther Local Community Led Plan)  Brought forward again as top priority at community consultation in April 2012 (Elvanfoot Residents Association)  Broadband project initiated June 2012  B4GAL Community Broadband established Oct working group of Glencaple & Lowther Development Group

Remote Rural Southern Scotland Nearest Town > 10,000 pop is Hamilton, about minutes away

Our Area – Glencaple and Lowther  Nine villages: Abington, Crawford, Crawfordjohn, Elvanfoot, Lamington, Leadhills, Roberton, Wanlockhead, Wiston  Moorland with settlements along the River Clyde and hilltops, mostly remote rural  Population around 2000  About 700 houses  Most work outside the area

Our Connectivity  4 local BT exchanges serve 9 villages: Crawford, Crawfordjohn, Elvanfoot and Lamington  Varies even within the same village  Elvanfoot Activate Exchange max 512 kbps download  Crawford and Leadhills exchanges max 8 Mbps but only a few can get it  Many isolated homes with NO connectivity  More than 6 km spread around each exchange

Community Engagement  Questionnaire  Posters and door to door  Public Meetings average one per month for past 12 months  Mapping names & addresses  Events

Technology Choices  Evaluation of technologies  Superfast, next generation  Sustainable  Future proof  Optic Fibre Consultant hired to create network map  Backhaul identified  Costings complete

The Offering  Superfast broadband  Internet access  IP Telephony  IPTV  Security cameras  In future:  Training, Telemedicine, Education

The Business  Application for charitable status – OSCR has accepted charitable purposes  Company limited by guarantee with Board of Directors  All profits to be spent within the Community  Business Plan created showing sustainability  Funding applications started

Next Steps  Fundraising: £1.47 million  Request for Proposals from civil engineering contractors  Procurement with community benefit, i.e. training opportunities  Digging in the optic fibre  Creation of pilot studies with NHS and UWS  Monitoring of social and economic benefit

Broadband and community resilience: Measuring impact Fiona Heesen Pioneering Communities Seminar, April 24, 2013

Outline  Background  Resilience  Community broadband and resilience  Impact  Evaluating broadband

Background PresentFuture Rural resilience Digital services EconomicsGeography Rural Planning Community led broadband research Past

Resilience  What is resilience?  The ability for a community, group or individual to adapt to change Fig 1: Transitional ruptures, readjustment and recovery From Wilson, 2012, p. 57

Community broadband  Two key stages to community-led broadband 1.Designing and developing the network 2.Implementation of technology  Relationship with resilience? 1.Use of Internet 2.Process-based capacity building

What is ‘impact’ and how do we measure it?  Impact can be broadly defined as:  ‘the demonstrable contribution that a process or innovation makes to society and the economy’  Measuring?  Understanding impact metrics

Evaluation I  Understanding ‘real’ impact  Process  Developing your outcome areas  Taking control of your research agenda and your story

Evaluation II Community Scale SocialEconomic Individual Scale SocialEconomic

Research Process Background Context Setting Using secondar y data, set the context for each case study (rural context, socio- economic classes etc) Pre-connectivity Interviews Users Identify a range of adoption types (early, late, non-adopters) and focusing on three themes (organisational structure, rural life, and internet behaviour) identify a baseline of the community, its expectations of both the organisation and the inclusion of superfast broadband infrastructure Governance Identify skills needed, used, gained throughout the pre-connectivity process as a broadband initiative Post-connectivity Interviews Users Through the lens of multiple adoption types, analyse the potential resilience attributed to the inclusion of superfast broadband Governance Identify characteristics from the process of implementing superfast services that influence resilience of that community Users Identify a community’s expectations of both the organisation and the inclusion of superfast broadband infrastructure Governance Identify skills needed, used, gained throughout the pre-connectivity process as a broadband initiative Pre-connectivity Interviews Post-connectivity Interviews Users Analyse the potential resilience attributed to the inclusion of superfast broadband Governance Identify characteristics from the process of implementing superfast services that influence resilience of that community Background Context Setting Using secondary data, understand context (may involve surveys and so on) Heesen, F. 2013

Community Broadband Scotland  Evaluating the CBS programme  Importance of playmakers

Questions?

Uses and Options

 Anything is technically possible.  If you can afford it…….  Elementary……

 People tend to think of fibre like this…..

 You can add it yourself  1Gbps relatively cheap (per port)  10Gbps not so cheap  100Gps very expensive  Or you can rent the whole thing as a fibre based “product”  10Mbps  100Mbps  1000Mbps “the Gig”

 It has very high capacity (it’s fast)  It is very reliable.  It is immune to electro-magnetic interference.  It is not affected by weather.  It is future proof.

 There is not much of it about (that is usable).  It is expensive to install.  The equipment that is needed to terminate and use the fibre is expensive.  This equipment must be housed somewhere

 It is deployed commercially where there will be a return on that high investment.  Core Networks (pretty much universal).  Backhaul (Except in rural/remote areas).  Access where the investment can be made.  There is a technology called PON used for high density deployments – but we will ignore that for now……

 Crudely speaking - the more fibre the better.  You probably wont have a core.  It’s excellent as backhaul  Equally good mixed with high capacity wireless  Wonderful for access  If you can afford it

 Assume you have a wireless access network  Adding fibre backhaul will make it fly. So where can I get some?

 Dig in you own? ◦ From your network to where?  Or rent from a communications provider? ◦ BT? ◦ From your network to where?  Share with someone else? ◦ A current CBS challenge ◦ Where !?!!!

 A commercial operators Point of Presence (PoP)  A local business who might want to share? ◦ They could share the cost of install and rental.  A public sector site?  A work in progress! There’s lots to do here.

 They have all the Broadband Ingredients ◦ But no Cake. ◦ The ingredient you want is Ethernet Access Direct ◦ 10, 100Mb – 25KM radial distance. ◦ 1000Mb - 35KM radial distance ◦ But you’ll have to find the other ingredients…..

 Go to /or_qq_frames.drawframe ◦ Enter the products you want and the postcodes of the a end and b end. ◦ The Installation price is subject to survey. ◦ But the rental is the key element with respect to sustainability.

MPLS Cloud www VPN Business VPN Business Internet www 100 Mbps fibre Community8Km Host Building

 A rare (but beautiful) form of community project….  Is relatively future proof  Has a more challenging business case….  But is generally viewed as “Future Proof”  A good example is B4RN in Lancashire  Or the developing B4GAL project in South Lanarkshire