B4RN The Movie. A New Fund Raising Idea?
This is a bit of a light-hearted post as a result of a short video made by one of the team. She’s getting quite good at it. With each new video there’s an extra twist. This video is a compilation of some of the more recent activity entitled “B4RN”. If there’s anyone out there interested in buying the file rights? You know how to get in touch Feel free to suggest who would play the lead...
Read MoreExtreme Digging
Residents of the Lower Lune Valley have taken up a new sport – Extreme Digging. This is a little known sport but it’s one that has some unique requirements:- Some remote, picturesque hills in an Area Of Outstanding Beauty. A digger. Some extremely committed community members working towards a single cause. A wet, miserable British summer, preferably one that has not been along for 100 years or so. Luckily this perfect mix came along just recently so off the B4RN volunteers went to dig a major part of the core network. It has been no secret that the poor weather has hampered the...
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 MoreDigital Parish Hubs
Well what a week that was! Lots more deliveries, including all the fibre for the whole core route. Sponsored metre has seen lots of people contributing a fiver to get their name on the fat ducts, and there is still time to get your name, or the children’s or your business name on some of the fat stuff. Photos of the names are now online, and those people are now members of our people’s network. Thank you all. The hubs landed on Thursday, and by Friday the main one at Quernmore was installed on its plinth. We debated about the colour but green won… It looks like a cabinet,...
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 MoreBBC’s “The One Show” B4RN Feature
Yesterday’s The One Show included a great report on B4RN. The film crew were in the area for the whole day and they have compressed the footage into a 5 minute report, which for prime time TV is a sizeable slot. The report features interviews with Andrew Metcalfe, a local farmer. Christine Conder, B4RN Committee Member. Brendan Dick, Managing Director, BT Regions at BT. Barry Forde, CEO B4RN. It also features clips from the Inaugural Dig Event made by local film producer John Hamlett. BT’s Brendan Dick, who was interviewed on top of Jubilee Tower overlooking the B4RN area said...
Read MoreB4RN Digging IT
Latest video from this week’s activity. (May 2012) Siloing nearly done on a few farms now, so if you are ready to dig let us know and we’ll deliver your ducting.
Read MoreOur first B4RN highlight video
A lot of people in our community network can’t stream video, so we have made a CD for them and have put the highlights on a little Youtube video for everyone else to see. The footage was taken whilst out and about at the various dig locations, it’s amateur footage but it gives a taste of what we are doing this month. The money from the shareholders has financed the purchase of enough stock to complete the whole core route of phase 1. We are still accepting investments from the public to finance the remainder of this phase. Details on how to do this can be found here. Here are some...
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