Vaizey launches Alston community superfast broadband

Remote Cumbrian parish rolls out self-installed next-generation fibre network

Minister for communications Vaizey switches on superfast broadband for remote parish of Alston

Remote communities have long had to face the problem of broadband rollout to their area not being considered commercially viable by big telecoms firms.

However, a community based in Alston, Cumbria has resolved the problem by building, and more recently upgrading, its local network to optical fibre, making it the first community-driven optical fibre network in the UK.

The network was created by Alston Cybermoor, an organisation set up in 2001/02 to initially provide wireless coverage to 35 per cent of the population using local resources.

The same organisation extended the network and co-ordinated the upgrade to optical fibre using largely local resources which saw farmers dig the trenches and utilities companies and local experts give advice on how best to build the infrastructure. It also employed technology consultants to advise on the technical aspects of the build.

Funding for the project came from broadband subscriptions and the NHS, which was able to provide finances for e-healthcare.

Ed Vaizey, minister for communications, opened the optical network, which links the remote moorland parish of Alston with the nearby village of Nenthead, last Saturday.

The network will provide 1,000 families with fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) capability offering bandwidth speeds of 20Mbit/s initially, on both download and upload links.

According to North Cumbria’s local paper News & Star, Alston Cybermoor's project manager Daniel Heery said on the launch: "Today is a significant milestone and we hope it will be an inspiration for other communities.”

Heery has been working on the upgrade to an optical fibre network for the past two years.

Independent Cooperative Networks Association (INCA) chief executive Malcom Corbett said: "The first part of the project was the link between Alston and Nenthead but the project will see further links for all the villages next to Alston in time."

"It's all about reducing costs. If 70 per cent of the cost is around digging holes and filling them in again, the key message is that it's possible for communities to answer the rural broadband connectivity problem by doing this themselves," said Corbett.

As well as switching on the new fibre network, Vaizey was the opening speaker at a Broadband Conference at Rheged organised by Penrith and the Border MP, Rory Stewart.

During a keynote, Ed Vaizey said: "Government is committed to removing the barriers to community broadband, and must free up public sector broadband infrastructure for community use."

Dr Stuart Burgess, who chairs the Commission for Rural Communities, also spoke at the conference.