Norfolk is the UKs first county to get superfast broadband

[jillR]

Christmas came early in Norfolk today as it was made the first county in the country to get superfast broadband in a £30m deal.

http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/norfolk_is_ ... _1_1750819

jill

[Oddfellow]

I think some of the comments following this EDP Cut'n'Paste sum it up rather well.

24Megabits? Super Fast? In comparison to what? Super Slow?

Aiming to double the number of homes and businesses is all very laudable but there aren't many with a really good connection in the first place. Half of nothing or even twice nothing is not really worth having.

It's like 3G. How long has that been a standard? Still can't get it outside main areas in Norfolk and now EE is peddling 4G.

The facts of the matter are that it costs too much money for these companies to roll out these services across the country. So, they stick to the major populous areas where there's a greater chance of recovering investment and turning a profit. Sadly, though, the profit rarely gets re-invested into rolling the service out to the wider landmass, and then the next best thing gets launched and focus returns to the major conurbations. Then, there's opportunities for BT and others to spin their way out of it by "partnering" with councils and so on in order to plough public money into providing a service that will turn more profits for the investors.

[MBA Marine]

you are all speaking a language that I do not understand.

the current little mouse that picks up my messages, puts them in his satchel and runs across the phone line is indeed rather slow, so whats the answer? Rip up Norfolk and spend how many £B's in cables, or can we instead of that poor little mouse down the wire go to a carrier pigeon that flies more direct through the air.

I refuse to spend money on sky, but is it not time the BBC gave up then we could spend that tv licence fee on something else, is it possible for us ruralites to have a satalite dish to receive all our media and data?

As I was driving a week or two back, I was thinking about how are landscapes looked a few generations ago, without electric and telegraph poles across every eye line.

[Oddfellow]

I would guess that that relies on a slow phone connection for up-stream data?

According to postcode checkers, our new location in Thorpe should be capable of getting a fibre connection. I bet they'll want me to pay for the fibre line across Thorpe Marshes though! Probably more chance with rolling my own from some GRP mat.

[Oddfellow]

Jonzo, it's not.

Mobile phones have a very small transmitter. The roll out of the celular network relies on the overlapping of "cells" so that data can be passed from one cell to the other without loss and so that you can pass between cells and keep a connection.

If the cells around you are not capable of transmitting and receiving the 3/4G signal, you could have the Crystal Palace antenna hooked in, but it wouldn't make any difference you wouldn't be able to increase the power output of the mobile device.

Andy

[Oddfellow]

you are all speaking a language that I do not understand.

...

I refuse to spend money on sky, but is it not time the BBC gave up then we could spend that tv licence fee on something else, is it possible for us ruralites to have a satalite dish to receive all our media and data?

Receive, yes. Send, no. You can't bounce data up to a satellite with the same kind of simple tech that receives it.

Lots of people don't understand it. This is why spin like this can easily be believed!

I won't pay for Sky either, largely because there's more than enough crap on the terestial channels anyway and there's no real need for it. As for the BBC. I'm not sure that there's ever going to be an truly unbiased journalist (difficult to see how there can be) and hence a truly unbiased news organisation, but just imagine what our current affairs reporting would be like if it were all controlled by meglomanics like Murdoch. The BBC is the best there is and that's because of it's independence (such as it is).

It's easy to bemoan the license fee but the alternatives are very unattractive.

[MBA Marine]

The BBC may be unbiased but that leaves them spending most of the time sitting on the fence and concentrating on not advertising a brand and broadcasting little of interest, the fee does not go down and as they have lost the rights to most of the sport that people want and have let go many popular shows, local BBC radio has started sharing none prime time shows across the counties. so you are getting less and less for the money, they may have more TV channels than they used to but they fill those with re-runs of what they have already shown.

Personally I would happily loose 90% of the BBC leaving 10% for a news channel, I could then use the 90% saving to subscribe to some things i would like to watch and still have the channels that you do not have to pay for that fund them selves through advertising.

Back to the Broadband speed. Most of us receive more than we send Im assuming this is how sky tv works but would it speed us up without the need for major cable additions to receive with a dish and send data with the phone line?

[Oddfellow]

A very personal opinion, Mark. We watch probably upwards of 70% BBC channels. I don't give two hoots about sport and feel that if you want it, it's available elsewhere, often without subscription. For example, Horseracing is now Channel 4 only. Well, that surely means that the BBC is paying the racing community nothing more from the public funding and so helps deal with spending cuts. Racing enthusiats can still get their fix though without putting cash Sky's way. So, everyone's a winner then.

See, a very different view to yours. Not necessarilly right or wrong but based on what we like to watch.

But, looking at the channels that are freeview, how many are actually that good? It's only ITV and Channel 4 that are remotely worthwhile with any sort of quality programming. ITV 2 & 3 are vacuous and whilst the likes of Quest are entertaining, Mythbusters is hardly essential viewing. Channel 5 is only just beginning to be decent (some 15+ years after launch). Dave gets a good deal of my time too, but only because it's repeating quality BBC programming!

And, advertising revenues are falling.

Sky has two huge bites of the cherry. It charges you to watch advertising that it's charging the client for!

I don't like paying £150 or whatever it is each year any more than you. But I'd rather give this to a world respected, publically owned broadcaster than an Austrailan who'll change his citizenship simply in order to buy another company (Fox).

[Hockham Admiral]

We live out in the wilds about 7 miles from any significant town (Thetford, Attleborough) and rely on our broadband through BT's wires. Just tested our speeds and we're getting Download speed: 6.7Mb and Upload speed: 0.4Mb.

I completely agree with previous comments and whoever pays BT are not going to put fibre-optics into Great Hockham!

So we'll just have to put up with our speeds which I find completely acceptable after ADSL!

[Brian]

I have BT Business Broadband, claiming 7 Mbps my Arse !!!

its around 1 Mbps ! the Whole of Rackheath gets the same slow speed, its rubbish

2 years ago i was getting 7Mbps, problem is everything is `on line` constantly downloading updateing and picture syncing, backing up, Apple has a lot to blame ! lol !

If i stand on the Roof i can see the Exchange !!!

1 mile towards Norwich there is Cable, they get over 40Mbps ! grrrrrr

[MBA Marine]

I have BT Business Broadband, claiming 7 Mbps my **** !!!

its around 1 Mbps ! the Whole of Rackheath gets the same slow speed, its rubbish

2 years ago i was getting 7Mbps, problem is everything is `on line` constantly downloading updateing and picture syncing, backing up, Apple has a lot to blame ! lol !

If i stand on the Roof i can see the Exchange !!!

1 mile towards Norwich there is Cable, they get over 40Mbps ! grrrrrr

Brian your almost a city dweller in Rackheath (I do joke, I love it around there) I'm equidistant between North Walsham and Cromer, We have huge gas pipe running through the land a mile away but does our village have gas?.......er no!

I love Norfolk and doubt I shall ever leave.

[Oddfellow]

Only half of Bacton has gas and that's got a little more than a gas pipe running through it!

If you have line of sight, you could set up a microwave link to the 100mb connection rather than ethernet.......

[Brian]

I'm about a mile from you... We can get 100mb. Have you got a long ethernet cable?

[mbird]

We've had BT infinity in Lingwood for 3 months now! I signed up as soon as it was announced and now get speeds in excess of 40mps with no problem at all. We have also gone for the YouView TV from BT (£4/month tied in for 12 months - but the Humax box is free which normally retails at £299) and I have to say it is excellent. We used to try to watch iPlayer etc through the PS3 but with speeds of about 2mbs it proved almost impossible. Now we happily get HD telly streamed no problem at all, and what's more, the BT Infinity was no more expensive than the normal Broadband we previously had.