Our mission: To build and operate a sustainable community owned high speed fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband network for the Colne Valley in Pennine West Yorkshire. Future-proofing our community, enabling it to compete on a level playing field, and delivering the social benefits that similar networks have been shown to deliver elsewhere.

Why Ultra-Fast Broadband is Essential for the Colne Valley

We are on the verge of a new "digital divide" here in the Colne Valley, as in rural communities across Europe, the US and elsewhere. And guess what, we are on the wrong end of that developing divide. For anyone annoyed by the long delays in getting first generation broadband up and running locally, and the less than ideal performance many of us currently enjoy from our "up to 8Mbps" service, the next few years are likely to raise your blood pressure as ultra-fast (100Mbps symmetric, for those with a taste for technology) high quality fibre optic broadband arrives on the horizon.

More BBC coverage of rural broadband issues - this time in Japan

Thu, 28/05/2009 - 13:52 — Graham


Rural fibre hits the headlines

Wed, 27/05/2009 - 07:11 — Graham

The BBC has been up in Cumbria talking to the fibre activists. Here's the clip of Rory Cellan-Jones interviewing Daniel Heery, Alston's fibre champion.


BT Simply Not Up to the Task

Sat, 18/04/2009 - 22:42 — Graham

Following the Digital Britain Summit - the high point of which from my reading was Peter Mandelson not ruling out public sector intervention (whoop di doo!) - the main fallout seems to be the increasing realisation that BT is simply not up to the job.

News Update March 2009

Fri, 13/03/2009 - 15:58 — Graham

Lots of activity recently to update readers:

We have received some positive feedback about our Grassroots Grants funding application, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we will see a positive outcome on that in the next few weeks. If so that will really enable us to move forwards much more quickly.

I presented the project to the councillors and community representatives on our local area committee the other day, and the feedback was really positive. I now need to follow that up with some concrete proposals about how they can help us to deliver the project.

Calder Valley Our Net wins seedcorn grant funding

Sun, 16/11/2008 - 09:24 — Graham

Our sister project in Calderdale - Calder Valley Our Net - has been successful in winning a bid for £5000 in grant funding from the Grassroots Grants scheme. As with our project here in the Colne Valley, the strategy of the Calderdale project is to first build awareness and support at a grassroots level while scoping the key issues and challenges of the locality in order to make a strong bid for second round funding to enable a full scale feasibility study to go ahead.

Taylor Review indicates urgent need for improvements in rural broadband

Fri, 01/08/2008 - 14:40 — Graham

The Taylor Review of the Rural Economy and Affordable Housing, commissioned by the Prime Minister and published late July 2008, states that while "Growth in the proportion of knowledge intensive business services between 1998 and 2005 – largely reliant on ICT infrastructure – has increased by 46 per cent in rural areas compared to 21 per cent in urban areas" the performance of broadband in rural areas is markedly poorer than that in urban locations: "recent research also suggests connectio

BBC reports on the rise of Community Fibre Projects

On Wednesday July 23 2008 the BBC reported on the increasing interest in community focused, or so-called "DIY" fibre projects across the country. See the full story entitled DIY schemes for super-fast net here. The story highlights several of the key benefits that a high speed fibre network can deliver.

USA: $260 billion benefit (per annum) from FTTx

Fri, 18/07/2008 - 13:40 — Graham

Recent studies estimate that accelerating broadband deployment in the US would have a total annual economic impact of $134 billion. Additional economic impacts show the potential for a further $130 billion across healthcare, education, job creation and retention, environmental impact etc.

(I picked this story up via this link, and as and when I can find a link to the original report/s I'll post that here also.)

BT announces modest first phase investment in fibre deployment

Tue, 15/07/2008 - 15:14 — Graham

BT today announced a £1.5 bn investment in fibre deployment in the UK. This is an important first step in the widespread deployment of fibre networks across the UK, although one has to say that the announcement raises more questions than it answers.

At just 10% of the estimated figure for a national roll-out, BT is clearly hoping and expecting that Regional Development Agencies and/or local authorities across the country are going to offer to partner with them - and put cash on the table - to deliver fibre, especially into rural areas.

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