Conquering the broadband divide

June/July 2002

Broadband Internet access is becoming essential for the survival of many small businesses. But a ‘broadband divide’ has come about because the new generation of broadband services is not available in many rural areas. For everyone to benefit from the new generation of high speed services, this situation must be resolved

A ‘broadband divide’ has arisen because DSL and cable modems are not available in many rural areas and are unlikely to be available for the foreseeable future. It is currently uneconomical to provide widely affordable broadband infrastructure in areas of sparse population density. Nevertheless, creative ways are being found to overcome the broadband divide. Surveys indicate that demand for bandwidth from consumers and nearly all small business sectors is set to rise by a factor of about 5 to 10 over the next 3 to 5 years.

‘Broadband’ is usually taken to mean a downstream to an individual PC of at least 500Kbps with the upstream or ‘return channel’ bandwidth being in some cases less. Equally important is the flat-rate tariff and the technology’s ‘always on’ characteristic enabling that the hop from a document to a website to be immediate.

Supply and the shortfall

Telcos are gradually extending the coverage of DSL by reducing the capital cost of DSL-enabling local exchanges and increasing the reach from the exchange; but this will take years. The main urban competitor to DSL are cable modems, however, the coverage of cable TV networks is almost exclusively urban and suburban - and this is unlikely to change.

Bi-directional satellite services are also increasingly being deployed, offering speeds of about half that of entry-level DSL at typically twice the price. Additionally, hybrid satellite services are just beginning to be trialled at ADSL prices - but the jury is still out as to whether they will be fast and seamless enough for small business use.

Fixed wireless access technologies such as Spread Spectrum and Mesh Radio are rapidly evolving and promise to provide a cheaper solution for semi-rural areas than satellite, with rapid deployment being possible. In the meantime, a lower speed solution could be Basic Rate ISDN. Two basic rate (64Kbps) ISDN channels on one local phone line can be aggregated to give a 128Kbps channel.

While not broadband this can be useful since flat-rate, always-on tariffs are available. Alternatively, leased line costs may be the same per kilometre in rural and urban regions but users in rural regions are likely to be further from their ISP’s Point of Presence (PoP) than their urban counterparts. However, capital investment in optical fibre trunk circuits and routers can ensure that Points of Presence are located nearer to the rural regions.

Partnerships for sustainability

For economic sustainability, investment in infrastructure solutions has to be made in a way that does not require on-going subsidy by either private or public sector. A number of ways to ensure this include:

• Investing in initial network build, rather than subsidising service charges
• Co-ordination to pool demand in a region
• Stimulating demand by campaigns to raise awareness among users of what is available and the benefits
• Stimulating demand by offering bargain start-up packages, including supply of PC
• Providing an e-business support and training network for small businesses.
• Regional development and small business support bodies have a key role to play in partnership with private operators to ensure provision of broadband. They can greatly assist demand stimulation and can invest European or national regional development funds in a sustainable way.

Some case studies illustrate the point.

A well-proven regional partnership: UK Highlands and Islands - The regional development agency Highlands and Islands Enterprise in the north of Scotland has been applying European regional development funds in joint investment partnerships with telcos for well over a decade. This has been accompanied by education and support of small businesses to ensure a critical mass of demand.

The partnership ensured that the whole of the Highlands and Islands had ISDN before most of the rest of the UK; that mobile phone service covers 95 per cent of the population and that the Islands have not run out of trunk bandwidth. They are now addressing broadband by ensuring that ADSL is installed in the main towns, trialling fixed wireless access and offering a low cost start-up package to attract users to the BTopenworld bi-directional satellite service.

A new regional partnership: the Act Now project, Cornwall, UK - A joint project was recently set up between British Telecom, the South West of England Regional Development Agency, Cornwall County Council, Cornwall Enterprise, Business Link Devon and Cornwall and Cornwall College to roll out ADSL broadband communications in rural Cornwall, accompanied by awareness-raising and support for small businesses.
An advantageous advice and support package is offered to the 3,300 participating businesses. This comprehensive package includes all the necessary equipment and communications, training and advice.

Local entrepreneur: small ISP in Swedish Lapland - A small company in Swedish Lapland has set up line-of-sight fixed wireless infrastructure and thus provided Internet access for dozens of local small businesses. Tommy Johnsson is the owner of two small companies with a total of five employees. As no broadband infrastructure was available, the company installed its own radio access network. It covers 30 square kilometres with a total of 15 transmitters. The equipment is to the IEEE 802.11b standard, with antennas from a local Swedish manufacturer. They are using existing masts and other high objects as transmission points.

Mesh radio trial in Frankfurt, Germany - Equipment supplier Radiant Networks and European broadband wireless operator STAR 21 NETWORKS, Frankfurt, Germany, have signed an agreement under which STAR 21 will trial Radiant's revolutionary architecture in Germany. The trial will be a key component in STAR 21's initiative to develop and deploy broadband networks, using the most efficient enabling technologies. Radiant will deliver a fully-supported two-phase implementation, which will be deployed and evaluated jointly by both companies.

About the author: Michael Griffith is a consultant in broadband access and technical manager of the European Union collaborative project FlexWork www.flexwork.eu.com FlexWork advises rural businesses on ways to adopt more flexible methods of working using information and communications technologies.