The last seven days has been a very hectic time for B4RN follwing the Open Day at Arkholme. The day went beyond expectations with extensive media coverage on the day with further global media coverage over the following days. We also had many people come through the doors at Arkholme so see what B4RN was all about. Here are some highlights:-
- Extensive coverage by the BBC by Rory Cellan-Jones featuring a recorded segment and several live reports on BBC Breakfast, BBC News at One, BBC News 24, BBC Radio 5 Live and Radio 4.
- Additional radio interviews on BBC Radio Lancashire.
- Well over 400 people passed through the doors at Arkholme Village Hall.
- Over 1000 cups of tea were consumed
- The B4RN web site recieved over 41,000 visits on the 14th February.
- The companies demonstrating the kit, laptop, tablets, YouView and IP TVs were extremely impressed with the network performance. There were six devices streaming video all day, and at the same time an average of 150 people through the day had devices connected and they reported not one glitch or buffer on the streams. The network had to be turned off at one point whilst more repeaters were put in the hall to cope with the numbers. The hall only has a normal home connection and not many homes need to support over 500 IP addresses!
- Reports have cropped up around the globe in the USA, Canada, France, Germany, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand and others.
- Interest in the community has increased significantly following the Open Day.
- The B4RN Facebook page has been very active over the past week as people continue to be connected and customers express their delight with the new service.
- Extensive discussion on the Reddit forum.
- Behind the scenes of bbc breakfast and speedtest
Quite a week really. Some of the reports are below in case you missed any. Many thanks to all who contributed to the Open Day making it a huge success.
BBC Report
ITV Report
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Well done, please keep reporting your premises passed and connected numbers and the costs per connected premise. At FTTH2013 it was reported you total connection cost is £1,000 per premise. These benchmarks are essential inputs.
We don’t ‘do’ premises passed Mike, nearly all the premises we pass are premises connected. Out of a row of about 40 houses we have connected 32, 2 have taken a connection but not the service and four have put the ducting in ready for a future connection. Only two weren’t interested, and other routes are looking very similar. After the granada report where a lady pointed out why she wanted a connection (to get audio files for her blind husband) another two residents on another route who had said they didn’t want a connection changed their minds once they realised it isn’t just about computers and machines, its what the internet can do for you, and age is no barrier. The average connection for this highly rural upland area will be £1k, with the villagers subsidising the farmers, and the farmers getting the connection to the villagers that they couldn’t have afforded on their own. It is big society in action, with neighbours helping each other, and its what we knew would happen when you enable a community to help themselves. We have always said we are building a network of people, not machines. It is building even more cohesion in an area which was being left behind and threatened with becoming even further behind, now it is setting an example to others which is totally replicable with grit, fibre, commonsense and determination and will leave a lasting legacy for future generations.
Hello B4RN Peoples,
Perhaps I’m preaching to the converted, but you might note as Chris has said that your infrastructure is capable of supporting 500 computers on a domestic service costing you £30.00 per month. Another aspect you probably haven’t grasped yet is the fantastic upload speed which just isn’t available to anyone not on fibre anywhere. Chris hasn’t mentioned that the Granada team edited their piece in Arkholme which then usually takes up to TWO HOURS to upload to their offices. Even the professionals were astonished to find it completed within TWO MINUTES ! This is one of the major advantages for all businesses in particular. Contrast that with the costs to a business for their own private fibre link from the monopoly. A school here has been forced to accept installation costs probably over £100,000 to get a reasonable internet access for all the classes.
You might be interested to know I am trumpeting your successes on the vital (for the rest of us) web site:-
http://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php/topic,12212.msg230770.html#msg230770
Apart for those technically interested you have no need of that web site as fibre doesn’t suffer from distance and noise problems that the creaking twisted pair Public Switched Telephone Network cannot avoid.
Keep up the good work and jump The Lune as soon as you can !