FAQs - Next Generation Broadband to rural areas

Can Rutland Telecom help communities suffereing from poor broadband speeds?
We will help if we can. We are a small company currently inundated with requests from other areas of the UK following publicity of our project in Lyddington, Rutland. We are confident we can provide Next Generation Broadband to most rural areas in the UK. If there is sufficient interest in an area we may install equipment at our cost. Alternatively we would ask for a contribution to our capital costs. If there are businesses in your commuinity they may be willing to contribute to the installation since fast broadband might bring them significant benefits. Do not be put off by costs - there are often solutions like Regional Development grants. We recently costed an installation in the South East at just £50 per household based on 50% takeup. This communituy currently has broadband speeds around 300kbps and our solution will deliver speeds up to 40Mbps from street cabinets.

How come Rutland Telecom can help and BT cannot?
We specialise in rural broadband solutions using a combination of exchange unbundling, subloop unbundling, fibre-optic and wireless backhaul. More importantly, we are willing to work closely with the local community. A typical situation would be a presentation from us in a village hall and then working together with village activists to develop a viable solution.

BT are a huge organisation with no local management structure. It is not economically viable for them to focus on small communities, and we understand they would not be able to adopt local pricing meaning the ongoing viability of supplying rural premises might not be profitable. They would also have to make their network available to competitors so, having invested in a solution, they might not benefit from it in the longer term as major ISPs could step in and offer cheap packages using the BT network.

Rutland Telecom has the same access rights to the national network that BT has. The only difference is that Rutland Telecom is willing to deliver a solution to a rural community because it is in our business interests to do so. We are evangelical when it comes to rural broadband. We have unique experience of street cabinet technology and long-range wireless as applied in a rural location.

How quickly can Rutland Telecom deliver a solution?
If it is just a case of unbundling your local exchange, then about 3 months. If your community is still too far from an exchange, even when it is equipped with NGA technology, and we need to install a street cabinet, then the timescales will depend on surveys and local planning applications. We would estimate 3-6 months as being typical.

What are the indicative costs?
We would aim to deliver a 40Mbps single-cabinet solution to a community for between £20,000 & £50,000. For a community of 500 premises that is just £100 each! A far cry from the Digital Britain report which quoted up to £1750 per rural home for NGA.

Ongoing costs: Delivery of a solution is vialble for us, providing we get 50 customers per cabinet, at £30/month including line rental, fast broadband and low-cost calls.

What do I need to do to get Rutland Telecom to help?
In the first instance you should contact us with a summary of your situation and we will give a free no-obligation initial response to say if we believe we can help. We specifically need the following information:

1. The location and population size of the community interested in a fast broadband solution
2. 1 phone number and post code of a property in the community
3. A screen shot from www.speedtest.net showing your current broadband speed and ISP
4. Details of any businesses in your community which might benefit from fast broadband
5. Any information about what has been tried so far e.g. is there a local activist group who are already working together to lobby BT etc?

We would stress that the key to success is working together as a community. This can be exciting and rewarding. Like Lyddington, you will have a sense of achievement that a solution has been reached against the odds (BT won't deliver a solution, Lord Carter's Digital Britain says it is not economically viable to unbundle rural areas etc.).

The above information does not constitute an offer or any guarantee that Rutland Telecom can or will deliver broadband and telephone services to a specific community. The information is provided for guidance only and should be taken in the spirit it is given - to give an indication that fast broadband services are a possibility in UK rural communities.