Guest Blog – Leaping into the 21st Century
Another guest post from recently connected Monica Lee from Quernmore near Lancaster. This is another excellent post for prospective customers as Monica goes into detail around subjects such as preparing for the service, receiving the service, using the service, cancelling existing service amongst other things such as a VOIP phone provider and future IP webcam installation. Thanks to Monica for taking the time to provide some valuable feedback. By Monica Lee, 9th April 2013. We live in the fells of rural Lancashire. A few weeks ago we lived without access to mains water and with a...
Read MoreGuest Blog – New Customer Experience
The B4RN community has been busy lately connecting new customers along the ever growing core route. Some great good news stories have been coming out from many of the newly connected customers about how the B4RN connection has affected them. Some have shared their views on the Facebook page and others have sent a few words to our guest blog page wanting to share their experiences with the rest of the community. Many words have been said about the benefits of a fast a reliable connection by the B4RN team and the media but the ones that come from customers who are experiencing first hand...
Read MoreBlowing in the wind and fleeting in the sleet… with Pete.
Yesterday our new blowing machine arrived. This is due to the sponsorship of three B4RN members, who have bought it in memory of Anton. Anton was very proud of the project and wanted to buy something to help it succeed. Well it worked a treat Anton, and we’ll soon get caught up with the farmers digging all the ducting in now we have our own blower. Here is a short 2 minute video of it being tried out yesterday, in appalling conditions. We kidnapped the demo man (Pete) who showed us all the tricks of the trade. He stayed all day, finally escaping once we knew the fibre had made it all...
Read MoreGuest Post – Arkholme Extreme Diggers
Here’s a lovely guest post from David Smith, one of the coordinators and B4RN Team at Arkholme, a rural village in north Lancashire. As regular visitors to the B4RN site will have seen, David and his fellow community members have been working hard come rain of shine laying the core B4RN duct. In David’s own words, here’s how it all started. Arrived home from 10 days in Malta well rested. Within 2 hours Chris Conder on phone, ”we’re starting the dig tomorrow, can you organise helpers!!” Well from that day for two weeks, the community has rallied round and despite...
Read MoreJFDI fibre ducting into the homes
B4RN goes Forth, JFDI FTTH Matters are moving apace at B4RN. Digging of the phase one ducting has reached the outskirts of Quernmore and is heading over to Abbeystead. Houses en route are being connected with ducting of similar thickness to TV cable, ready for the fibre optic to be blown to carry 1000Mbps connectivity. The hub of this activity lies in Quernmore where one of the two nerve centres is sited. This links all B4RN users to the internet via the Geo fibre which runs through this picturesque valley. The green coloured cabinet, which houses all the necessary electronics for this...
Read MoreNarr Lodge Gets Its B4RN Inspection Chamber
Here is another guest blog kindly submitted by a local resident, Tim from the village of Quernmore who unfortunately has a broken leg, (get well soon!). The spare time has highlighted even more than before the fact that the internet connection is inadequate. Anyhow, many thanks for the post, over to Tim. Narr Lodge gets its B4RN 1000Mbps inspection chamber. I suppose one good thing about being intermittently off work with a broken leg (don’t ask!) is that you get to see exciting developments like the digging in of the B4RN inspection chamber serving our group of houses. One of...
Read MoreEric Ollerenshaw Invites Jeremy Hunt to B4RN
Rural Broadband is very much in the news recently, debates are happening everywhere as to what is the best way to deliver the UK’s next Generation Access and there are many different views, all with their supporting arguments. B4RN is currently deploying a 1000Mbs fibre optic network to a deeply rural area East of Lancaster. We have had excellent support from many areas, but one person that has been B4RNstorming in Westminster is local MP Eric Ollernshaw. He attended the launch event where he had discussions with many of the committee members and more importantly the community and has...
Read MoreBroadband Service Speed Test Demonstration Tool
Sometimes it’s quite hard to understand all the megabits and gigabits so a visual representation of what the different broadband speeds and services would be quite useful. Well it so happens that Fibre To The Home Council have created a handy little simulation tool that allows you to enter your current speeds for upload and download then select a scenario for broadband use such as downloading a film, uploading photos and so on. Clicking on the “Start” button will commence a simulation of how fast (or slow) the upload and download will be on the various different services...
Read MoreSponsor a Metre?
Special for Valentines day, sponsor a metre for your sweetheart and get your message on the duct! Update: our first sponsor photos are here – the livestream of the first names is here During a conversation with Ken Fallon on a radio podcast the idea of sponsorship was born. The plan so far, is that for a donation of £5 you can sponsor a metre of our fibre duct. In return we put your name on a metre of duct and take a photo of it. Your metre of the B4RN network with your name on it will be buried on a Lancashire upland farm for posterity, and your generosity will enable another metre to...
Read MoreJoining on a house
Last week Bruce took photos of an installation to a house. This house has dug to the field boundary, and under the fence, and into the main duct. As you can see from the short video from his photos it is hard work but no harder than planting potatoes! If you get the fibre planted you will harvest a fantastic crop… its a gigabit fibre bringing the world to your door.
Read MoreUploads + Data Caps = Rural Business Restrictions.
Here is a guest blog kindly submitted by local film producer John Hamlett of Lunar Multimedia Ltd. As you will read here it’s not only John’s business that is affected by poor broadband. John is an extremely talented film producer as can be seen in his short film noir thriller “The POW”. Over to John….. ———————————– Most people around me in the village of Gressingham near Lancaster seem to get about 2mbps broadband when it’s working properly – not bad for a rural area! However I...
Read MoreThe week when Skype showed its true value
I have been a user of Skype since the early days of it’s creation and have used the free audio and video call facility many times. While I have always known it was a great tool and had huge potential but it was not until this week that I realised it’s true worth. Without going into detail, my wife has recently had some hospital treatment that has meant that she has had to avoid contact with other people. Nothing contagious or anything like that but no close contact was allowed for about two weeks. This meant that our children had to go and stay at their grandparents. Now this...
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