What do you want to happen to Exmoor ? Farmers unable to register their cattle, disadvantaged when competing with farmers in less remote areas ? Tourism businesses who cannot cater for the increasing number of holiday makers who have to keep in touch with work ? I can't holiday somewhere with no internet access. And with the depression biting people need to work harder and stay in touch.
Want businesses to leave Exmoor for more populous places with faster broadband ? Want the value of your house to diminish because people
need fast broadband which you can't get ?
So now people are using and enjoying the benefits of the internet. But what lies in the future ?
Back in 2003 many people asked about broadband said "I don't use the internet much so I don't need broadband."
Only last week one of those, a farmer's wife, said they could no longer do without broadband - particularly since most DEFRA
and HMRC filing needs to be done online - and that's without purchasing, email ... the list grows ever longer.
So what happens if the rural areas accept, where it's even feasible, a speed of 256kbps or even 512kbps ? These households and businesses will be in a disadvantaged spiral. Web access world-wide will increase ; sites geared towards dial-up access are now offering richer and richer content so that a slow connection renders web pages slower and slower. Lost a bid on eBay recently ? Failed to offer a response and lost a deal ? Can't do your homework because it's so slow ?
Broadband isn't an infrastructure which once in place can be left alone. As the rest of the world rushes on with ever faster broadband sites will become richer, content more varied and increased broadband speeds essential.
Let's face it - unless you're in an urban area it is not going to be cost-effective to deliver fibre to the home so BT's latest offering -
fibre to the cabinet is the best you might get. How close to a cabinet are you ? A mile, two miles ... more ? That signal is going to be
degraded over copper, or even aluminium, lines to your property. End result - probably not much faster than the speed you're getting now.
Upgrading it ? Well expensive - re-lay cables, replace poles ... Luxborough had all this done last winter,
. The BT engineer said we still couldn't get broadband despite BT's engineers being here for months. Is this a scalable future-proofed option ?
Wireless broadband is largely unobtrusive - a receiver a fraction of the size of a satellite. It can offer much higher speeds in remote areas
than any other method. Wireless broadband can be upgraded at relatively low cost and quickly as technology advances.
Satellite is constrained by the speed of light. The inherent delay means some services such as Voice Over IP, video conferencing and interactive services will never work successfully over satellite. It's relatively expensive to install and restricted in the bandwidth it can offer by virtue of the technology.