BM Rural Outlook - Flipbook - Page 35
32 | Rural Outlook Issue 21
Telecommunications | 33
The way forward? Starlink
Another option that may offer a solution
to the rural connectivity black hole is
“Starlink”, an array of Low Earth Orbit
(LEO) satellites deployed by the Space X
mission which communicate in a similar
way to a mobile phone network.
Because of their low orbit,
latency is much better than
standard satellite connection,
which means Zoom or
Teams calls are viewed in
close to real time, with good
audio and visual reception.
Rural connectivity
With the Government’s rural gigabit connectivity
programme having ended, there is considerable
interest in what happens next, as many parts of rural
England struggle with internet speeds that would be
considered a joke in our larger urban areas. At the
moment there are two ways of persuading British
Telecom to bring high speed internet to your hamlet,
but both are eye-wateringly expensive.
Under the telecoms giant’s universal
service obligation, BT has to survey your
requirement and, if your download speed
is below 30 megabits per second (mbps),
is duty-bound to come up with a plan for
your area – one they are obliged to action
if you can stump up the cash.
The good news is that it is possible to
persuade your county council, in most
cases, to come up with a grant. The bad
news is that the £1,500 grant I was offered
towards the quoted £54,000 cost of bringing
fibre 3.5 kilometres from the nearest
exchange to my part of the North Downs
wasn’t large enough to be persuasive.
The other option is to go down the
“Community Fibre Partnership” option
via Openreach. That involves the same
fibre route – just 3.5km, remember –
but apportioning it amongst more local
homes. That looks good on paper, but
the quoted cost of £167,000, even when
spread amongst 20 neighbours, still
equates to more than £8,000 each. I
could have taken advantage of a £7,000
grant towards the total cost, but even that
minimal support is no longer available.
The £1,500 grant I was
offered towards the quoted
£54,000 cost of bringing
fibre 3.5 kilometres from
the nearest exchange to my
part of the North Downs
wasn’t large enough to
be persuasive.
It is also hard to persuade Openreach to
come up with a figure, especially where
the number of premises set to benefit
from the new connection are lower than
Openreach would like.
If you do want to pursue the community
broadband option, it’s probably best to talk
to your parish council in the first instance
and ask them to liaise with Openreach
as part of a parish wide initiative –
apparently the option Openreach prefers.
UK Fibre Connectivity
Meanwhile connectivity remains a
serious issue. At the end of March 2021,
the proportion of UK premises enjoying
30mbps, which means fibre to the
nearest cabinet and copper the rest of
the way, was 97.2%, while those with full
fibre to the premises was just 20.2%.
And this is not about downloading
the latest movie or playing real time
games. When most farm businesses
need to submit paperwork online, lack
of connectivity means they struggle
to do the job efficiently. Slow and,
equally importantly, unreliable internet
connections are quite simply holding
back farming.
It’s something that needs to change,
and we can only hope that the next
iteration of the Government’s rural gigabit
connectivity programme will begin that
change. In the meantime, write to your
MP or your local council to lend your
weight to the cause.
Space X has been launching 60 of these
satellites every fortnight, and with around
1,500 or so already in orbit it is suggested
that there could be as many as 40,000
hovering above our heads across the globe
by the time the system is fully deployed.
Because of their low orbit, latency is much
better (35 milliseconds or better in many
cases) than standard satellite connection,
which means Zoom or Teams calls are
viewed in close to real time, with good
audio and visual reception.
The system is currently in “beta”, which
means it is still on test, with firmware
upgrades etc, a reality for the time being,
but, with drop outs becoming fewer and
the service becoming more stable, the
expectation is that speeds may reach the
1Gbps speed at some time in the future.
Monthly costs are relatively high, at
£89 plus an initial outlay of £439 for
the dish, connector and router, but
having downloaded the Starlink app and
checked to see whether a window is
available, you simply place the dish on
your lawn, run the cable to where you
want your router and power up, at which
point the app walks you through the
setup in the way apps do.
It takes a bit of time, but once the system
beds in the difference is staggering, with
speeds at times reaching more than
300mbps download and up to 30 mbps
upload. Stability appears to be improving
steadily, and I have to say, my experience
has been extremely positive.
There are some supply issues, with every
package being delivered from California
and reports that some people who put
down deposits in February of this year
were still waiting several months later,
although this appears to be more about
coverage than about the availability of
product, with supply expected to improve
as more satellites are launched.
Conclusion
Having a fixed and dependable fibre line
between your premises and the exchange
has to be the preferred option.
However, with the absence of FTTP
and the likelihood of rural communities
falling short of sufficient funding to make
it a reality, I firmly feel it is prudent to
look for options beyond the traditional
solutions of 4G/5G routers and Geo
Stationary Satellite.
I have not been disappointed with my
Starlink experience and while there will
be issues such as periods of outage
(although in my case, not major), the
upside of obtaining significantly faster
upload and download speeds has far
exceeded these minor interruptions.
Starlink is an example and there are
others, such as Virgin Galactic, One Web
and Project Kuiper. If struggling with
poor internet speeds, these LEO, satellite
options may be the solution you have
been looking for.
Andrew Mallard
a.mallard@batchellermonkhouse.com
Space X is launching 60 low orbit satellites every fortnight