Welsh community builds FTTP 1Gb broadband network to leave 4Mb speeds behind
Michaelston-y-Fedw is now the fastest village in Wales
Published: 11th July 2018 | Source: MYFI Wales |
Welsh community builds FTTP 1Gb broadband network to leave 4Mb speeds behind
Michaelston-y-Fedw is a mere 10 miles away from Cardiff and lies on the outskirts of Newport, though sadly this area of the country has remained largely forgotten by major internet service providers, leaving villages 300 citizens stuck in the past with almost unusable internet speeds.
The community decided that enough was enough, starting a Community Interest Company (CIC) to deliver the infrastructure required to bring their village into the 21st century. The company quickly raised £150,000 by selling shares to local so, who had grown frustrated at the communities lack of high-speed internet.
The CIC, which is known as the Michaelston-y-Fedw Internet CIC, quickly applied for every grant that they could get their hands on, including those from the Welsh Government and Access Broadband Cymru, which offers vouchers to homes and areas that are not covered by BT's Superfast Cymru project.
Thanks to these funds, the Michaelston-y-Fedw Internet CIC plans to bring their Gb service to over 175 local premises sometime this Autumn, connecting each property free of charge while also offering their first year of service for free for early adopters. After this initial rollout period, residents will be charged £30 per month to access the network, which is exceptionally cheap for 1Gbps services.
Below is a comment from David Schofield, the Director of the Michaelston-y-Fedw Internet CIC, as provided to ISP Review.
Ultrafast internet is now a reality in Michaelston y Fedw. This has been achieved through a huge amount of effort by local volunteers who have turned out in all weathers to help build our network. Without them, the support of landowners, the village hall, local investors and the Welsh Government grant schemes this would never have got off the ground. We now have internet speeds that are world class, and this makes all the effort worthwhile
Below is a video which showcases the laying of Fibre cables when connecting Druidstone House to the network.
With an average internet connection speed of 4Mbps, residents of Michaelston-y-Fedw were unable to take full advantage of one of the 21st centuries' most useful commodities. Online gaming was impossible, services like Netflix were unusable, and debit card machines ceased functioning when the network was being overtaxed. Now, things have changed entirely.
The move to a community made fibre service has been transformative for those who are already connected to the service and will continue to change the lives of more residents moving forward. Today, Michaelston-y-Fedw is now one of the UK's internet success stories, quickly transforming from one of Wales' slowest regions to one of their fastest.
You can join the discussion on the Welsh community that built their own FTTP 1Gb broadband network on the OC3D Forums.
Most Recent Comments
It's great that they've put their own money into doing this but the economies don't work, not long-term anyway - as they don't for 'Big ISPs' - DSL rollout is limited by physics and economics, which are universal.Quote
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Originally Posted by Chopper3
There's 365 people live in that town, if 100% of households there pay £30/month then they'll repay that £150k investment in about 4 years or so - this won't including ongoing maintenance costs, upgrades and may not include actual external bandwidth costs - which can be significant depending on how much they're buying. If they're only buying a 1Gbps (LES) line then that could fit into their budget but would mean each household getting around 10Mbps, not the fastest village in Wales then. If they're buying 10Gbps links this will not fit into their budget, in fact it'll double it, and they'd get 100Gbps each - which today would make them one of the fastest, but far from the fastest, village in Wales.
It's great that they've put their own money into doing this but the economies don't work, not long-term anyway - as they don't for 'Big ISPs' - DSL rollout is limited by physics and economics, which are universal. |
DSL rollouts are limited to the fact that DSL is relying on the copper wire infrastructure which is pretty poor in more areas then you would think - analog signals are much more forgiving about interference then what a digital signal like xDSLs are.
Fibre is literally the most economic technology to roll out en-masse. The Australian government could have saved $40B+ by continuing their fibre rollout instead of having a "we crapped all over it and now we need to do something different to justify our position" change to VDSL. Sure the VDSL was quicker to rollout but it will be obsolete by the time it is done.Quote
A supposed large chunk of the price we pay for broadband in the UK is supposedly because they use it to expand and better the service. IE - they reinvest it to make it better for all. However, as this Welsh village found out if the cost of fitting it returns an eggy investment (IE not massive profit) then companies like BT simply don't bother. It's the same reason why my mother's broadband was crud for so many years and why there is no cable down here at all, anywhere.
So when you think about it it just shows that greedy lying side of human nature all the more
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The woman who by the sound of it taught herself how to splice fibres, if she get's qualified will have a nice new career option is she want's it.
The big ISP's should take note, although I know most are going to be looking to role these sort of speeds out over the next few years anyway.Quote