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Question 1: Who should do it?
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Once you realise that a substantial proportion of your street, village, town etc cannot get broadband, and you decide there must be a better way to solve this problem if you JFDI, then the first question you need to ask yourself is:
Do we do it ourselves, or do we get someone in to do it?
Answering this question honestly will solve you a whole heap of problems in the future.
There are pros and cons to each solution, and there is NO right answer, nor magic formula to work out whether your village can DIY or whether you know how to choose the right provider.
If you DIY, then you will need a good core committee/group to manage everything, and processes to ensure you meet all legal requirements for taking money from others for providing a service. You will need to ensure that the village is behind you, but inevitably you will be given some leeway for 'best endeavour' whereas a commercial provider will be expected to give 100% quality of service.
You need to make sure that volunteer fatigue does not set in, preferably by ensuring that from the outset, all services are clearly defined and that those services which cost money to provide are charged for. It is quite possible to create jobs for local people with a CAN, and that should ultimately be the aim.
The money generated will be needed to pay for backhaul, equipment, maintenance, admin - billing etc, and any wages. However, some of the profits will be available to spend within the community because many communities actually turn out to only need a very little paid help from outside.
If you use a third party to provide the solution, then you will avoid all committee meetings and the arguments that these can generate, but you are reliant on the company being solid, secure and stable. If they go bust, you are back to square 1. Also, they are unlikely to be happy to plough profits into the playgroup, or for village fireworks each year.
However, an existing company with a good background may well be able to bolt on additional services from their portfolio which would otherwise take a long time to develop 'in-house'. This will then free up those within the community who are enthusiastic to develop 'in-village' services that generate funds for local businesses or organisations, rather than having to spend their energy and enthusiasm and edxpertise on keeping a network running.
Do we do it ourselves, or do we get someone in to do it?
Answering this question honestly will solve you a whole heap of problems in the future.
There are pros and cons to each solution, and there is NO right answer, nor magic formula to work out whether your village can DIY or whether you know how to choose the right provider.
If you DIY, then you will need a good core committee/group to manage everything, and processes to ensure you meet all legal requirements for taking money from others for providing a service. You will need to ensure that the village is behind you, but inevitably you will be given some leeway for 'best endeavour' whereas a commercial provider will be expected to give 100% quality of service.
You need to make sure that volunteer fatigue does not set in, preferably by ensuring that from the outset, all services are clearly defined and that those services which cost money to provide are charged for. It is quite possible to create jobs for local people with a CAN, and that should ultimately be the aim.
The money generated will be needed to pay for backhaul, equipment, maintenance, admin - billing etc, and any wages. However, some of the profits will be available to spend within the community because many communities actually turn out to only need a very little paid help from outside.
If you use a third party to provide the solution, then you will avoid all committee meetings and the arguments that these can generate, but you are reliant on the company being solid, secure and stable. If they go bust, you are back to square 1. Also, they are unlikely to be happy to plough profits into the playgroup, or for village fireworks each year.
However, an existing company with a good background may well be able to bolt on additional services from their portfolio which would otherwise take a long time to develop 'in-house'. This will then free up those within the community who are enthusiastic to develop 'in-village' services that generate funds for local businesses or organisations, rather than having to spend their energy and enthusiasm and edxpertise on keeping a network running.
As a JFDI group who have done it I would also like to point out that the main problem with the diy approach is that if there are no resident techies then the learning curve is a hard climb.
chris
www.wraycomcom.org.uk