On Thu, 08 Jan 2009 09:59:10 +0000, Peter Scott wrote:

However what really annoys me is that I pay exactly the same as people
who get 4 Mbit/s or better.

I don't like the way ADSL is marketed with the "up to" in a 6pt font or in
a footnote against the 8Mbps or 24Mbps in 144pt. Neither does OFCOM and is
attempting to do something about it.

If it meant that ISPs refused to accept rural connections then the
situation would be out in the open!"

And there would be no rural broadband at all, just like there is no cable
outside urban/medium sized town areas.

Solution is to get off your bum and get a community broadband service
running. Plenty of experienced help available, good starting point:

http://www.broadband-uk.coop/

Fibre DTH is possible, digging up roads is expensive and complicated
legally. So you don't dig up the roads but bring the land owners on board
to have fibre ducts laid under their land. Commercial contractors charge
for digging holes but out in the country there are plenty of people with
diggers, get them involved. There may even be some one with kit that can
mole the ducts through rather than having to cut 'n cover.

Fibre is the way to go if possible, should have life of 20 years or more
and upgrades just mean changing the kit on the ends. Symmetrical 100Mbps
internet connection? See if you can sell bandwidth/services from third
party content providers.

Backhaul rather than local distribution (fibre or wireless) is normally
the hard bit, not sure how much BT want for a gigabit fibre connection
these days. How are your local schools connected? Or hospital, is there an
e-Health initiative happening or in the pipe line? Maybe the community can
piggy back on those connections.

--
Cheers
Dave.