APPENDIX 14
Memorandum submitted by D-Tec (S24)
A. INTRODUCTION
1. The object of D-Tec is to advance the
education of the public in the use of digital technology. Coincidental
with the announcement of a new enquiry by the Environment, Food
and Rural Affairs Committee into the provision of broadband in
rural areas, D-Tec had itself set up a Working Party to campaign
for broadband connectivity in Holderness.
2. The Working Party is operating under
the banner of Broadband4Holderness and details of the campaign
appear on our web site at: www.d-tec.org
3. Holderness is a sparsely populated rural
area with a population badly hit by the downturn in rural employment
and desperately searching for new opportunities to diversify.
It is typical of areas most in need of good communications.
4. It is the deliberations of its Working
Party that D-Tec hopes the Select Committee will accept as their
submission.
B. TERMS OF
REFERENCE OF
D-TEC WORKING
PARTY
1. D-Tec Executive set up a WP at their
meeting on Thursday 13 February 2003 to campaign for broadband
connectivity at reasonable prices to the community of Holderness
in the geographical area south and east of a line from Hedon to
Hornsea.
2. The WP was set up because a headline
and supporting article, in the local press in November 2002[2],
did not maintain claims in the SRB feasibility study of 1999 that
"In the medium to long term, connectivity is unlikely to
be an issue".[3]
3. The area is well documented as one of
isolation and social deprivation[4]
so, terms of reference were left open to examine all possibilities
including grant aid from agencies charged with regeneration as
well as possible alternative forms of broadband delivery.
C. IDENTIFYING
THE NEED
1. Business
(i) Enquiries have elicited that there are
many more businesses in Holderness using on-line facilities than
we first thought and there is a need for us to set about determining
where they are and who they are.
(ii) At Stone Creek, with a few coastguard
cottages on the banks of the Humber, there are three Internet
based businesses, a textile business, an accountant and an engineer[5].
(iii) On Sunk Island there are six/seven
more Internet based businesses. One of these, a LANTRA on-line
tutor[6],
suffers difficulties because the students will not tolerate the
slow download times, sometimes difficulty in getting connected
and the frequent loss of connection thereafter.
(iv) At Ottringham, where D-Tec is based,
accessing services is often impossible on a Saturday morning because
of the weight of traffic and does not become possible until sufficient
people have logged off in the afternoon. Other users report similar
difficulties between the hours of 7 pm and 9 pm.
(v) There is also anecdotal evidence that
businesses are not readily diversifying in the absence of good
communications between the constituent parts of the enterprise.
2. Residential
(i) The plight of an ageing population in
the countryside is deteriorating with an inexorable decline in
public services. There is constant pressure to reduce or abolish
bus services, Post Offices, telephone kiosks, schools and village
shops etc.
(ii) There is a need to replace these lost
services with an alternative means of maintaining contact with
the outside world and broadband should be considered as a utility
as important as the water and electricity services. As one of
our members put it "All the young mums go out to work, because
this is the only way they can afford to socialise, adding to the
rural exodus".
D. WHAT DEMAND
IS THERE
FOR BROADBAND
IN RURAL
AREAS
1. This is difficult to answer because the
majority of people in Holderness do not know what broadband is
and at present there is no means of demonstrating the benefits
to them.
2. The bulk of the money for regeneration
that has been allocated to IT has gone to school facilities rather
than community access points.
3. Although some of the schools have become
publicly accessible there are severe restrictions on their use
depending upon the local headmaster and the caretaker. Often this
is quite costly. Access is rarely available in the school holidays.
In addition there is a marked reluctance for a substantial minority
of people to attend at school premises.
4. There is obvious frustration when one
member of the family monopolises the single "dial-up"
telephone line for Internet access. Broadband allows the use of
the telephone and the Internet at the same time. [7]
5. It is also anticipated that demand will
grow as more people come to appreciate the difference between
a "dial-up service" and the broadband advantages of
being constantly on line.
6. Our aim must be to ensure there is at
least one broadband access point in each centre of population
open to the public on demand. We can then give the community an
opportunity to see the benefits first hand. As another of our
members put it "It is surely preferable to have a single
van load of groceries coming to the village rather than 20 motor
cars travelling twenty miles to a supermarket." We believe
first hand experience will lead to a rapid uptake of the facilities
providing the price is right.
7. The changing attitude to IT may be gauged
from a repeat survey carried out after five years by a Probus
Club in Minehead. Five years ago, at an average age of 74 years,
only one member had a computer. Today, with substantially the
same profile, 50% have a computer or word processor in their home.
[8]
E. WHAT OBSTACLES
ARE THERE
TO THE
PROVISION OF
BROADBAND IN
RURAL AREAS
1. Broadband is not publicly available in
Holderness at this time with the possible exception of some addresses
in Hedon where ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) is available
and at some schools.
2. Fibre Optic cabling is now being laid
and should reach Withernsea in the near future, probably the summer
of 2003. This is a first step only and a prerequisite for the
cable delivery of the ADSL form of broadband connectivity.
3. This will be followed by an upgrading
of local exchanges that will not take place until BT assess there
is an economic number of potential subscribers, ie subscribers
within 5.5 kilometress of the exchange. Beyond 5.5 kilometres
of the local exchange ADSL will not be available. In the sparsely
populated areas of Holderness this will still exclude those most
in need from the benefits of broadband. [9]
4. Alternative methods of delivering broadband,
eg line of site radio beams, create conflicts between the local
authority and their policy regarding dishes on public buildings.
Holderness is ideal for this system as it is so flat.
5. Price is an obvious deterrent to low-income
families and we believe access to broadband connectivity should
be free at the point of delivery to at least one publicly accessible
community facility in each centre of population. In this context
the East Riding County Council Library Service is giving excellent
service but this is restricted to the main towns and does not
apply to the villages and smaller centres of population. [10]
6. Newspaper and TV advertising appears
to have thoroughly confused public perception of the value, cost
and accessibility of broadband connectivity.
F. WHAT ALTERNATIVES
TO BROADBAND
EXIST OR
ARE BEING
DEVELOPED THAT
MIGHT BE
OF RELEVANCE
TO RURAL
AREAS[11]
1. Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL)
(i) ADSL is the predominant and best-known
form of broadband available to the public and business communities
in the UK. The technology delivers digital and therefore rapid
download speeds over an existing copper telephone cable far in
excess of the speeds available to users of dial-up and ISDN services.
(ii) The Asymmetric nature of the service
means that although the user has 512kbps, one Mb or two Mb of
bandwidth to download from the internet, the bandwidth available
to upload to the internet is limited to 256kbps in all three cases.
(iii) This asymmetric nature can severely
limit the usability of the service. Where, for example, online
gaming is concerned ADSL suits the purpose well. Where a business
uses the technology to connect two or more sites together, they
will be limited to 256kpbs of connectivity.
2. One-way Satellite DSL
(i) Offers internet access at around 500kbps
to the user. It is available within the UK but at costs of close
to £200 per month plus set-up and connection charges in the
region of £400 could hardly be considered as viable. Note
that it only offers download not upload services. BT has recently
concluded a trial with a promise of a new trial if sufficient
demand exists.
3. Two-way satellite DSL
(i) This is said to be at the design stage
within BT. There is no date set for a trial so far as we know.
4. Wireless DSL
(i) This is said to be at the design stage
within BT.
(ii) There is a wireless DSL offering from
Firstnet Services Ltd of Leeds, UK.
(iii) DSL wireless seems to offer the best
opportunity to bring broadband to Holderness at commodity pricing.
(iv) The geography of Holderness is ideal
for a service that, by its nature, requires line of sight.
5. Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line (SDSL)
(i) SDSL provides the same bandwidth for
both uploading and downloading information. It is understood that
trials have taken place in the UK but it is not yet commercially
available. It is said to be commercially available within the
USA and many European countries including Belgium, France and
Germany.
G. CONCLUSIONS
1. The main political issue raised by attempts
to create `Broadband Britain' is affordability and the real possibility
of creating a digital divide.
2. The "traditional" broadband
provision involves a telecommunications provider laying a cable
and then recouping the cost by designing a charging structure
to recoup the cost. This takes no account of the need for universal
access and whilst delivering the service to a large proportion
of the population, alienates many of the rural areas.
3. In the rural areas we need an alternative
financial model to deliver affordable broadband access whilst
also giving a return on investment for the provider(s). This is
complicated by the need for a variety of delivery models and solutions
for different areas and a more holistic approach is required to
ensure equitable provision of broadband countrywide.
4. We see lack of broadband connectivity
as the biggest obstacle to regeneration in rural areas, and it
is essential to the remote disadvantaged areas, such as Holderness,
that they do not fall on the wrong side of the digital divide.
5. The digital revolution has necessitated
a cultural shift in the use of technology and the convergence
of information technology and communications technology will not
be complete until all our citizens have access to broadband as
a utility as essential as water or electricity.
D-Tec
25 February 2003
2 Holderness Gazette Thursday 28 November 2002. "Why
Holderness won't be banding together. . ." "East Riding
will not be joining the high-speed superhighway in the near future-IT
experts at the East Riding Council are predicting." Back
3
SRB feasibility study for Withernsea and Southern Holderness SRB-ICT
Group page 8 "The current estimation is that 80% or more
of UK households will be connected to the Internet by 2005. In
the medium to long term connectivity is unlikely to be an issue.
Consequently, connecting low-income families and people in remote
rural communities to the emerging I.T infrastructure is a short-term
issue. . ." Back
4
The feasibility study carried out for the SRB in the autumn of
1999 and the ERYCC application for Phoenix Development Fund Round
Two refer in detail, particularly to southern Holderness. Back
5
All these businesses are beyond the present 12km limit of ISDN
and must use a dial-up 56Kbs modem. They would be outside the
5.5km limit for ADSL even if BT upgraded the local exchange. Back
6
Mrs Sally Osgerby at Shrubbery Farm Sunk Island, who is attempting
to diversify into teaching, is beyond the 5.5 kilometre limit
for ADSL even if BT upgrades their local exchanges. Back
7
School homework can often be assisted by the results of an Internet
search. In distance learning, downloading some programmes takes
several hours in the absence of broadband. Back
8
Probus magazine Spring 2003 page 21. The average Probus member. Back
9
The BT website at: www.bt.com/broadband gives an automatic response
to the entry of a subscriber's number. It will tell the person
making the entry: the number of people on that exchange who have
expressed an interest in broadband and whether broadband will
be available to them if the exchange is upgraded. So, entering
01964 622 278 reveals the number of subscribers that have expressed
an interest but adds; broadband would NOT be available at that
number as it is beyond the 5.5 kilometre range of the service. Back
10
As at 20 February 2003 the cost of installing and running an ADSL
line is: connection £65, installation £85, special modem
£85, monthly rental £28.99 or £38.99 per month
depending upon the level of service. Back
11
Technical information provided by Martin Perry, Northstar Solutions.
Email: martin@northstar-solutions.co.uk. T.N.01964 630 684 Back
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