back to article Sleepy North Yorkshire village is first to get gov-subsidised BT fibre

After a long delay, the Ministry of Fun has finally signed off the first BT broadband cabinet - supported by BDUK funds - to deliver download speeds of up to 80Mbit/s to residents in a North Yorkshire village. Broadband minister Ed Vaizey paid a visit to Ainderby Steeple today to show off the first such cabinet that some have …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Evans Business Park, York

    How about they get that business park more than a 2mb connection first, eh? I mean, it's only a couple of miles from York City Centre for fucks sake.

    Dozy bastards.

    1. Ragarath

      Re: Evans Business Park, York

      It's like I said previously, they have been trying to get all this funding (because they can't / won't sort out a proper model themselves) and so are leaving the viable options until last so they can secure the funds. The more viable options they can do with their own money in their own time as the return is better.

      We need a new standard of service introduced to these companies.

    2. Phil E Succour
      Flame

      Re: Evans Business Park, York

      Spot on – it pi*ses me off that these “middle ground” exchanges – too large or not rural enough for subsidy but too small to attract LLU or FTTC – get left behind in all this. There’s no competition to drive BT to do anything , so we’re stuck.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Evans Business Park, York

        Ask yourself why there's no competition. It can only be that there's not enough money to be made for the investment required. That probably means that the demands people have for higher bandwidth services is not matched by their desire to pay for them.

    3. IHateWearingATie
      Stop

      Re: Evans Business Park, York

      Surely the owners of the business park should have sorted that themselves ages ago? I think the York exchange is a WBC one, and it can't cost more than £20k to get a nice fibre cable and associated kit to provide a decent service to their customers (i.e. the businesses paying them rent in the business park).

      If not, then why do businesses choose to site themselves in the business park at all?

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: Evans Business Park, York

        >and it can't cost more than £20k to get a nice fibre cable

        Through BT's ducts ? Or by getting planning permission to dig up every road and right of way across dozens of bits of private property to run their own ducts?

        We used to pay more than this/year for less than ISDN speeds from a BT leased line. There was the M11 in the way and BT had the only duct that crossed it.

        1. IHateWearingATie

          Re: Evans Business Park, York

          The OP mentioned that it was only a couple of miles from York town centre, so was assuming the £20k would be mostly the ECC (excess constuction charge) that Openreach might apply to extend the cabling that is bound to be around there if it is only a couple of miles from the town centre (don't know York, was going on what the OP said)

          Of course on top of that you'd have service charges etc, but my post was about getting service to the site, not then connecting all the businesses up and paying their service charges (they would be responsible for them).

    4. This post has been deleted by its author

    5. LarsG
      Meh

      YORKSHIRE!

      With their reputation I can't see any of them actually spending any money on it even if it is subsidised.

  2. Alan Potter 1

    I have to say that El Reg's ongoing "if they're rural, they must be thick as pigshit" tone is getting really old...

    1. diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

      What gave you that impression?

      C.

      1. Ragarath

        I'm rural and tbh I don't mind, I know I am not and the reg has a big red banner at the top informing you not to take what they say to seriously.

        They also call other groups lot's of stereotypical names.

        Here have a pinch of my salt.

      2. NoneSuch Silver badge
        Thumb Up

        Cannot speak for the poster, but the sub-title of the article is:

        "90 bumpkins get speeds of up to 80Mbps"

        bumpkins plural of bump·kin

        Noun - An unsophisticated or socially awkward person from the countryside.

        Saying that, I do think the article was fair.

        1. diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

          Ah, I had a feeling it was the sub-head. Be assured it's all tongue in cheek; we try to be snarky about everybody. One day it'll be something that's a little too close to home, but we can't please everyone all of the time.

          C.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Happy

      Don't worry about it...

      ..we all know they are bunch of southern, city dwelling pounces that go into meltdown when the shops close for more that 24 hours at Christmas. You're talking about the same materialist townies that riot when a new Ikea opens, FFS.

      Come the Zombie invasion, they'll be turning to the bumpkins to protect and feed them.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Don't worry about it...

        Most 'bumpkins' are parasitic ex-townies who move to the country to get away from urban stuff but still drive to major shopping centres. Bumpkins should stick to using the village shops and stop cluttering the urban settings they so despise.

  3. Thecowking

    Doomsday eh?

    Mayan or Biblical?

    How did they even hear of small Yorkshire settlements?

    1. dogged
      Trollface

      Re: Doomsday eh?

      It's probably that place in the PlusNet ad.

    2. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge

      Re: Doomsday eh?

      > How did they even hear of small Yorkshire settlements?

      IIRC a new King sent his tax collectors a-counting. Those were the days when civil servants actually did something, instead of waiting for the plebs to fill in forms and do their jobs for them.

      1. Thecowking

        Re: Doomsday eh?

        Wasn't that the Domesday book?

        I'm pretty sure that this is the town where the end of the world will begin.

        1. NomNomNom

          Re: Doomsday eh?

          ah yes the good old Dark Ages.

          I remember when we used to have proper plagues, not the pissing and moaning about minor colds we get now.

          1. Thecowking

            Re: Doomsday eh?

            Would you accept a snow crash epidemic as a modern substitute?

            Which is probably why they need the fibre.

  4. HamsterNet
    FAIL

    At least thats a valid target

    BT/Openreach are also being subsidised to do Cambridge, which already has 100mbits Virgin fibre.

    So basically the Tax man is subbing BTs roll out to complete in a Virgin cable area rather then putting it in another area which doesn't get either, like all of the surrounding area and towns.

    1. IHateWearingATie
      Stop

      Re: At least thats a valid target

      I'd be very surprised if BT was getting public money to compete on a door to doo basis. The EU (whose permission BDUK has recently got) have a concept of Black, Grey and White areas, with (let me get this right) Black areas disallowed as there are already services (such as virgin). BDUK and the EU would not have approved a plan that included Black (or even Grey) areas within the subsidy plan. I suspect they are only subsidising areas that can't get Virgin , although these may be very close to areas that can.

      If nothing else its a huge waste of money by the council, as in the bidding process they would have defined the areas for the bidders to upgrade and should have exluced premises that can get Virgin. In cases where some premises connected to a cabinet can get Virgin and some cannot, there may be some overlap or those premises would be excluded - assume it would be on case by case basis (e.g. percentage that could / could not get Virgin).

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: At least thats a valid target

        The area is white - by carefully defining it as anywhere that doesn't actually cross a vigin fibre.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: At least thats a valid target

      Same with Brighton and Hove where I live. Announced in the budget as "getting superfast broadband funds" yet Virgin installed a network years ago for their customers. (Nynex back in the 1990s dug up every pavement to shove the cables in... blowing up a few gas and water mains in the process... they then went bankrupt... to be replaced by NTL... who became Virgin... who is finally making a profit from it.)

      BT just go to their mates in Government to help them catch up.

      Meanwhile, I have clients just outside of town on less that 1Mpbs. Frustrating and annoying for them. Both business and home clients. And they know they are bottom of the list. They don't even have the 21CN upgrade of broadband to their exchanges!!

      In a city, it is easy to make money back on an investment in hardware. Subsidies should be out in the countryside for the areas. NOT put into areas which already have perfectly good broadband available.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: At least thats a valid target

        Living in the area, what you said isn't strictly true. Nynex worked out which roads let them pass the highest number of dwellings for the shortest dig distance and started with the ones at the top of the list.

        They ran out of money long before they completed those digs. The city centre and areas with lots of flats are well served, others less so.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: At least thats a valid target

          I still live here in Brighton. And a massive percentage of this city is covered. I am a "home callout" IT Engineer and visit a lot of this city as part of my job. They must have hit at least 90% of the place. Not many places without Virgin. (And I certainly don't live in a central area myself)

          What is clearly not covered are places built since Nynex did that work. And getting Virgin to cable them is next to impossible now. They don't like getting the shovels out.

          Back in the Nynex days it was comical as to how they paid ANYONE with a shovel to dig up the roads. Hence the water main being hit next door to my house. I was lucky. My neighbour ended up two foot deep in water in his basement....

  5. gbru2606

    Fees

    Anyone know how much BT will charge customers?

    1. dogged

      Re: Fees

      As much as they possibly can.

      Bastards.

  6. kyza

    Cabinet

    -Broadband minister Ed Vaizey paid a visit to Ainderby Steeple today to show off the first such cabinet that some have labelled as "ghastly" and a blight on the landscape.-

    I'll take one at the end of my road in Zone 2 of the Evil Town for 80Mbit/s instead of the ancient copper we've got, blight or otherwise.

  7. Refugee from Windows

    Suspicious

    It's on a main road, the A684, so it's not that sleepy. It's also adjacent to a railway line, abeit the Wensleydale Railway, and there was the possibility a few years ago that it could have gained a nice fibre optic cable laid along it form A.N.Other broadband provider (*not Outer-Reach). So it's not actually that far away.

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: Suspicious

      It's between the A1-M and the east coast mainline - so convenient for ministers to visit without having to stay oop North for too long

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Bumpkins indeed,

    Enooofff said.

    90 villagers (plebs,bumpkins..whatever) get subsidized Bb and its national news and and minister visit costs.

    Wankers all.

  9. Dr. G. Freeman
    Black Helicopters

    smelling rodent

    So, How many MPs, (or for tax purposes their wives/husbands/pets) have 2nd or 3rd homes in that village then ? or is it the one where the BT "management" go to , to get away from the Proles ?

    Not that I'm cynical or anything.

  10. All names Taken
    Joke

    Nah then

    Nah then.

    Wot thi bludi 'ell z'oop eer?

    Az'tha sin this.

    Ah'll be fookt if ah noz wot bludi 'ell its on abaht

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Nah then

      This is completely irrelevant, but it amazes me how a country the size of Britain still has regional dialects, despite the existence of TV, radio etc. for the last few generations. If you listen to newsreels from WWII, the accents are markedly different from contemporary accents, so they definitely change over time - yet there remains strong regional differences. As an outsider, it seems puzzling.

      1. Terry Barnes

        Re: Nah then

        It's true of all countries. Talk to a Parisian, someone from Nice and someone from Pornic and tell me that they sound the same. Talk to someone from Munich and someone from Frankfurt. We learn basic language skills and the sounds that get used in the womb, picked up by vibrations from the speech of our mothers. Your 'accent', if you like, is well on the way to being set before you've even emerged.

  11. Zmodem

    they are all doomed when the factory they all work in shuts down, they all become unemployed forever, no one pays of their BT bill, if they do get jobs BT wont give them a landline back

  12. TykeTwo
    Holmes

    Hmm, a 'village' only a couple of miles from the County Council HQ in Northallerton and the MP is William Hague. Wonder when they'll get around to delivering to the true villages with no more than 30 homes over a scattered area. I'll not hold me breath

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    El reg DDOS target?

    re: "90 bumpkins get speeds of up to 80Mbps"

    Perpare to be hit by 90x 80Mbps of malformed ICMPs...

    ;-)

    "Bumpkin", indeed.

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