Tony Blair polishes up his pledge!

In his speech to the Labour Party Conference this week, Tony Blair made broadband policy part of the 10 new pledges. Here’s the full text of that pledge:

"Our country and its people prospering in the knowledge economy. Increasing by one billion the investment in science, boosting support to small businesses and ending the digital divide by bringing broadband technology to every home in Britain that wants it by 2008."

While it’s great to see that this issue is important enough to be part of the Government’s "Top 10" – we have serious concerns about the speed the UK is moving. ABC continues to urge the Government and industry to seek an aggressive agenda for true broadband roll-out for all in the UK. We believe that the UK targets are not ambitious enough.

Our aim is to propose a basis that will enable the UK government to set an important target for 2010 – the UK must aspire to be the cheapest place in the world to move data within. Erol Ziya is leading the thinking for ABC on this – we’ll have more to say in due course!

Happy Birthday CBN!

To celebrate the formation of the Community Broadband Network as a new and independent cooperative, we are sending you this newsletter jointly with CBN.

Malcolm Corbett says: "At the beginning of 2003 . . . out of the blue I received a letter from Stephen Timms. He suggested that I might like to get involved in supporting social enterprise approaches to broadband" . . . CBN has recently become an independent cooperative and the story of CBN so far and Malcolm’s thoughts about the future are here.

The press release announcing CBN’s new status can be found here.

ABC has worked very closely with CBN and other partners in helping to establish the organisation – and the formation of a new social enterprise is a key outcome of the project. We congratulate Malcolm and the whole team on the work so far and look forward to continuing to work with CBN in future!

Not content with content - by Lindsey Annison

"Although the problems of access are by no means solved, it is compelling content, which will drive the take up of broadband. Judging by the national take-up stats for broadband of only around 17%, the content just ain't there yet"... Full article here

Mentored to Success! Helen Anderson Helen writes

"Since attending a CBN Mentor day back in January and joining the CBN, South Witham Broadband are speeding onwards. A not-for Profit- limited company based in South Witham deep in rural Lincolnshire, SWBB operate a community wireless broadband service based on innovative Mesh network technology, delivering high speed broadband access to five villages, an area of approximately 20 sq miles. SWBB now have over 100 users!" Full story here

CBN Mentor Service

Could your community broadband project benefit (like South Witham!) from having the support of a mentor to move it on to the next stage? Do you live in rural England? If yes, please call 0845 456 2466 or visit the website for more details of the CBN Mentoring Service at: www.broadband-uk.coop

Unintended Consequences - Goodbye to the 'LittleNets'?

Many of you will be aware of the current turmoil among the smaller ISPs following an Ofcom decision. We put out our views in a release mid-month: "A decision by BT in response to a ruling by Ofcom seems to be threatening the future of the UK's 'LittleNets' who provide internet services to consumers and small businesses. BT is proposing a price hike of up to 30% on certain broadband products that the 'LittleNets' buy from BT and resell to their users. This should be of grave concern to consumers, Government, and suppliers, said the Access to Broadband Campaign". Full text is here

www.Cybermoor.tv  – Broadband brings local entertainment home Cybermoor has been developing local broadcasting services running over its broadband network. Here’s an update from Daniel Heery on progress: "Cybermoor.tv has 3 main objectives:

Economic – to drive demand for broadband to access local content which people are discussing in the local pubs. We also aim to create a feeling that if they don’t have access to broadband then they are missing out.

Social – turn people from passive consumers of TV into creators, making their own videos and sharing them with people in their community. This will reinforce links within the community and help to build social capital.

Learning – using video and audio equipment to get people interested in technology who would not have been interested before. This moves away from “dry” training in word processing to video editing, lighting, screenplays, sound recording and develops other skills. The project has now been underway for a year and though it has been quite hard to get people involved, people are beginning to get into it.

Young people have produced animations, businesses have made short promotional films and we have covered local events. Cybermoor.tv  is changing attitudes about media by empowering people to contribute their own stuff, however, it is long process and we are only just beginning…" See www.cybermoor.tv

Don’t forget Aviemore! (as if you would . . . )

As you will know if you have been keeping an eye on the “Powering up with Broadband” programme … we are delighted to have Peter Cochrane speaking at the conference. An article by him from Silicon.com is well worth a look: Peter Cochrane's Uncommon Sense: VOIP spam - it's coming....

We also have Rene Carayol MBE, Malcolm Matson founder of Colt Telecom, Bob Downes Director of BT Scotland, Stefan Agamanolis of Media Lab Europe plus Dr Mark Parsons of the University of Edinburgh speaking, not to mention the Deputy First Minister for Scotland - Jim Wallace all lined up to address you during the two day conference at Aviemore. On the sponsor /exhibitor front, you will be impressed with the line up and we suggest you review the latest programme here…

Stop press – following the site visit on 27th September

The Aviemore resort is a brand new and large site for the conference and our events manager Andrew Macdonald has negotiated two important offers…

For delegates – As registrations have exceeded expectations, he has made more space available taking capacity to over 350, this means we can extend the early bird discounts to 15th October to ensure as many subsidised seats are taken up by those that can benefit from attendance. So register here now and don’t let him down, he’s has been negotiating hard on your behalf!

For Sponsors- A late withdrawal and changes to the programme mean that spaces for one more sponsor and two more exhibitors remain open until 8th October. This situation could change very quickly, so if your company wants to rub shoulders with Microsoft, BT, Thus, Acal, Scottish Coop, Adit Northeast etc then you need to contact Piers Bearne without delay. Details below.

Reminder about travel - get it booked now - flights/trains are still cheap

Competition

As a run up to the conference which is just 4 weeks away we invite you to send us good examples of BB confusing terminology (funny or sad) or, better still! Issues our delegates can get their teeth into sorting out for you.

Challenge our panellists to come up with a workable solution to your problems! The best entries will be rewarded with a free delegate place and the opportunity to interrogate the panellists on their proposed solution for you!

Entries to the ABC office below please.

News round up

CBN Support for Rural Communities

Countryside Agency money available now. If you think your community project could benefit contact the programme manager Richard Williams at RWilliams@ruralnet.org.uk  

Click http://www.ruralnet.org.uk  for more info on Broadband at the Ruralnet 2004 Conference Malcolm Corbett of CBN will chair the Broadband Supplement at the Ruralnet 2004 conference on 13th-14th October in Maidstone More info...

Boundless in Lewisham

A new urban community broadband project is emerging in Lewisham, South East London. Starting in the comparatively deprived area of Deptford, a pilot wireless mesh network of 20 nodes has been set up funded by Lewisham Council under the Government’s Nomad programme. http://www.boundless.coop/  

From all at the ABC and the CBN we hope you enjoyed this round up of what is happening in the world of Broadband.  

We look forward to seeing you at one of our events: - Book now

www.abcampaign.org.uk

 www.broadband-uk.coop

Link to the registration pages...

For more information: 

The ABC CBN office
Richard Rymill +44(0)1937 541 553
Gwen Rymill +44(0)1937 529 362
Fax +44(0)8701 99 1111
Abc-office@rapidresponsemarketing.co.uk

For sponsorship and exhibition opportunities:

Piers Bearne: Rock Media
T +44 (0) 20 8365 3824
F +44 (0) 20 8365 4614
M +44 (0) 7884 494181
Piers.bearne@rockmedia.biz