Cost per mile of FTTC and EU funding for high speed broadband in remote areas

The European Union recently announced an enormous amount of funding for
infrastructure developments, including subsidies for the provision of good
quality broadband to those who at present don't have broadband at all or
have low speeds (that's my paraphrase of what was announced).

I live in a village, most of which is more than 3 miles from the exchange
and in consequence the quality of ADSL varies from fair to poor and, in some
cases, unavailable.

Does anyone know the kind of cost per mile (say) involved if BT (or someone)
were to lay a fibre optical fibre cable to the village (presumably using
existing ducting and poles)?

My thought is that local users should get together, obtain a realistic price
for the provision of FTTC and associated equipment/connections/reconnections
and submit a bid for the funding of this work to the EU, payable from its
infrastructure improvements budget.

Any thoughts, ideas, approximate costings, suggestions?

Gratefully yours!

--
--
Paul

Paul wrote:

> The European Union recently announced an enormous amount of funding for
> infrastructure developments, including subsidies for the provision of good
> quality broadband to those who at present don't have broadband at all or
> have low speeds (that's my paraphrase of what was announced).
>
> I live in a village, most of which is more than 3 miles from the exchange
> and in consequence the quality of ADSL varies from fair to poor and, in some
> cases, unavailable.
>
> Does anyone know the kind of cost per mile (say) involved if BT (or someone)
> were to lay a fibre optical fibre cable to the village (presumably using
> existing ducting and poles)?

If they did that it would probably cost minimally more to lay the cable than a
new copper cable.

Then you need a 'kerbside box' at your end to convert the optical connection
back to copper for the last stretch. That'll be moderately expensive I reckon.
Plus the possible equivalent in the exchange, depending how it's already
configured.

Graham

Paul wrote:
> The European Union recently announced an enormous amount of funding for
> infrastructure developments, including subsidies for the provision of
> good quality broadband to those who at present don't have broadband at
> all or have low speeds (that's my paraphrase of what was announced).
>
> I live in a village, most of which is more than 3 miles from the
> exchange and in consequence the quality of ADSL varies from fair to poor
> and, in some cases, unavailable.
>
> Does anyone know the kind of cost per mile (say) involved if BT (or
> someone) were to lay a fibre optical fibre cable to the village
> (presumably using existing ducting and poles)?
>

Well laying underground 11KV power cables cost me around £30k for 600
meters..thats £50k a kilometer, although I only paid half.

Id guess at around about £3-5k for overheads. so 43 miles= 5 km = £15-£25k.



> My thought is that local users should get together, obtain a realistic
> price for the provision of FTTC and associated
> equipment/connections/reconnections and submit a bid for the funding of
> this work to the EU, payable from its infrastructure improvements budget.
>
> Any thoughts, ideas, approximate costings, suggestions?
>

I have installed a few kilstream/megastream links. And wifi hotspots.

Its doable, but not cheap. You cant use BT cable cots tehy wont let you,
so the killer is the last half mile. But a good wifi whip on the local
church tower/steeple, plus a a megastream in, nets you pretty good
bandwidth.


> Gratefully yours!
>

The Natural Philosopher wrote:

> Paul wrote:
> > The European Union recently announced an enormous amount of funding for
> > infrastructure developments, including subsidies for the provision of
> > good quality broadband to those who at present don't have broadband at
> > all or have low speeds (that's my paraphrase of what was announced).
> >
> > I live in a village, most of which is more than 3 miles from the
> > exchange and in consequence the quality of ADSL varies from fair to poor
> > and, in some cases, unavailable.
> >
> > Does anyone know the kind of cost per mile (say) involved if BT (or
> > someone) were to lay a fibre optical fibre cable to the village
> > (presumably using existing ducting and poles)?
>
> Well laying underground 11KV power cables cost me around £30k for 600
> meters..thats £50k a kilometer, although I only paid half.
>
> Id guess at around about £3-5k for overheads. so 43 miles= 5 km = £15-£25k.

Considering fibre is tiny, I'm sure it could be done for less than that. The
kerbside box is another matter.

Graham

Andy Burns wrote:

> Eeyore wrote:
> > The Natural Philosopher wrote:
> >
> >> Id guess at around about £3-5k for overheads. so 43 miles= 5 km = £15-£25k.
> >
> > Considering fibre is tiny, I'm sure it could be done for less than that. The
> > kerbside box is another matter.
>
> I've been involved with BT fibre connections between 9 sites in the past
> few months, the installation charges have often been over £10K for each
> end of the connection (A recent one was £15K for 1.8km from site to BT
> exchange where all but the last 100m was in existing BT duct) the rental
> is over £20K/year, this is for site-to-site connections, not Internet
> connections.

Like a 'leased line' you mean ?

Graham

Andy Burns wrote:

> Eeyore wrote:
>
> > Like a 'leased line' you mean ?
>
> Yes, in this case the presentation to the customer at each end is 100Mb
> Ethernet, they will do 10Gb if you've got deep enough pockets.

100Mbps ?

I wonder at what practical contention ratios that could serve X customers
at say 4 Mbps.

Obviously 25 at zero contention. Was it Datastream you could get at
typically 20-50:1 contention ? Let's target better and say 15:1.

That could serve 375 end users very nicely when all they have now is
dial-up !

So £10k / 375 = £27 per end user. Looks financially do-able.

Graham

Eeyore wrote:
>
> The Natural Philosopher wrote:
>
>> Paul wrote:
>>> The European Union recently announced an enormous amount of funding for
>>> infrastructure developments, including subsidies for the provision of
>>> good quality broadband to those who at present don't have broadband at
>>> all or have low speeds (that's my paraphrase of what was announced).
>>>
>>> I live in a village, most of which is more than 3 miles from the
>>> exchange and in consequence the quality of ADSL varies from fair to poor
>>> and, in some cases, unavailable.
>>>
>>> Does anyone know the kind of cost per mile (say) involved if BT (or
>>> someone) were to lay a fibre optical fibre cable to the village
>>> (presumably using existing ducting and poles)?
>> Well laying underground 11KV power cables cost me around £30k for 600
>> meters..thats £50k a kilometer, although I only paid half.
>>
>> Id guess at around about £3-5k for overheads. so 43 miles= 5 km = £15-£25k.
>
> Considering fibre is tiny, I'm sure it could be done for less than that. The
> kerbside box is another matter.
>

The cost of the cable is almost irrelevant as is any fibre. Its the
amount of hassle involved in getting teams of fibre pullers, fiber
terminators and ultimately diggers, maybe needing permission to trench
across roads etc. Often BT will give you a private microwave link instead.



> Graham
>

Andy Burns wrote:
> Eeyore wrote:
>
>> Like a 'leased line' you mean ?
>
> Yes, in this case the presentation to the customer at each end is 100Mb
> Ethernet, they will do 10Gb if you've got deep enough pockets.
>
And the rental on that is?

Eeyore wrote:
>
> Andy Burns wrote:
>
>> Eeyore wrote:
>>
>>> Like a 'leased line' you mean ?
>> Yes, in this case the presentation to the customer at each end is 100Mb
>> Ethernet, they will do 10Gb if you've got deep enough pockets.
>
> 100Mbps ?
>
> I wonder at what practical contention ratios that could serve X customers
> at say 4 Mbps.
>
> Obviously 25 at zero contention. Was it Datastream you could get at
> typically 20-50:1 contention ? Let's target better and say 15:1.
>
> That could serve 375 end users very nicely when all they have now is
> dial-up !
>
> So £10k / 375 = £27 per end user. Looks financially do-able.
>
No. Thats the EASY bit. Now how are you going to get it TO the
customers. Where is it terminated? Its the last half mile that kills you.

Ultimately BT will start to do stuff in its street cabinets, but its not
there yet..


> Graham
>
>

Andy Burns wrote:
> Eeyore wrote:
>
>> So £10k / 375 = £27 per end user. Looks financially do-able.
>
> http://www.serviceview.bt.com/list/p.../1309_d0e5.htm
>
>
> For 100Mb
>
> £3300 for each end to be installed (but they have a nasty habit of
> slapping on "excess construction charges" which are usually several
> thousand per end, especially if you're talking about somewhere in the
> sticks that's not well served by existing broadband)
>
> £4375/year rental for each end
> plus 70p/metre/year rental between the ends (distance as measured
> between the exchanges, not including distance *to* exchange)
>
> limit of 25km between ends (including distance *to* exchange) 35km
> available on faster lines for more money
>
> then you've got to purchase 100Mb of internet transit (it'd cost about
> £1500/month in docklands, good luck finding it within 25km out in the
> sticks)
>
> and get it (via wireless?) into your 375 premises
>
> and buy routers/switches
makes you wonder how anyone can do it for 15 quid a month....