Tag Archive for 'ed vaizey'

Everything should be made as simple as possible. . .

Published on July 3, 2011 in Adrian's tech blog. 6 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

The debate about what’s going wrong with the broadband policy is becoming quite complex, messy and somewhat emotional.

For me, the key policy of making the UK the best “superfast” (meaning > 24 Mbps) broadband market in Europe is the right one. Delivering that in tandem with the bill and while supporting SMEs couldn’t be better. These are all things that get my total support – and I hear very few detractors (quite the opposite).

The rub for many people seems to be in the delivery – a matter of policy implementation and interpretation. A key example (totem?) is the framework which contains what appears to be little more than lip service to the policy – an opening few paragraphs that give the appearance of supporting the policy followed by a long list of qualifying criteria which, one by one, chip away at the goals until there is almost nothing left – even the stated objective of super-fast broadband seems to have been discarded, or at best re-framed, along the way.

There have been conspiracy theories that this is a stitch up between and BT but I don’t support that for one minute. To begin with, I suspect that the framework isn’t something BT would prefer to support but will pragmatically go along with as its what’s on offer.

Einstein is quoted as saying:

“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.“

For me this is a case of a very complex problem that’s been reduced beyond the possible degree of simplicity – the framework assumes a level of homogeneity of technology, scale, business model, financing, risk, partnership and so forth that just isn’t possible – BUT it is much simpler to manage.

The original policy objectives appear to have got lost in a drive to find the optimal process – or at least the one that’s the least bother to oversee.

This isn’t a time for a difficult u-turn – this is a time for politicians to crack the whip and make sure the policy is implemented as stated.

There are very good people inside BDUK, and they didn’t suddenly switch off. Something has happened that group at the top – whether it was the change of management or the influence of KPMG but it is something that can be corrected – but time is not on anyone’s side. One or the other or both need refocussing, and very soon.

NGA closer to home

Published on June 28, 2011 in Adrian's tech blog. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Over the past six months or so I’ve been sitting on Oxfordshire’s Broadband Working Group considering how we might make the best of our broadband landscape. Oxfordshire is the most rural county in the South East, making it challenging for broadband, yet it also generates many more high-technology start-ups than most – not an easy balance to achieve, especially when you realise that, unlike Cambridge with its science parks, many of these small business that will lead the UK out of our economic woes are as likely to appear in converted barns in Cotswold villages as they are in the  dreaming spires.

The process, similar to many up and down the country, has taken the County Council into new territory and has required much scratching of heads, but it now feels like the group is close to a strategy which is ambitious both for the public sector and our economy,  making the most of the county’s resources; not the least of which is smart people. Hopefully the draft strategy will soon be published and you can judge for yourself but at the moment I’d have to say that if the council leadership approve the last draft I saw then they will be one of the council’s to watch.

While this was going on at a county level, communities were beginning to come together to work out what they wanted to do – when broadband was being deployed the first time around the county spawned more than its fair share of broadband programmes and networks. Blewbury, a village with long standing broadband problems, was one of the first to put its head above the parapet this time, winning the “Race to Infinity “, shortly followed by Chipping Norton and its hinterland.

At Oxfordshire’s recent Digital Summit, the County Council’s Deputy Leader David Robertson gave his support to projects that build on the ’s ‘’ ideals, and the Chipping Norton ambition certainly embodies that. “Chippy” has looked at its options and decided, for economic and social reasons, that while FttC  may fix the town’s problems for the time being, it won’t help many of the villages that rely on the town, and that ploughing ahead on its own would make a marginal business case for investing in the surrounding area impossible.

Take the small village of Chadlington in the Wychwood Forest and just outside Chippy – it has its own small telephone exchange but all the homes and businesses (including the Prime Minister’s) are connected straight to the exchange – there are no cabinets in Chadlington so FttC is not really an option. And rather than condemn villages like Chadlington to a broadband wilderness, the group is looking to install fibre optic network all the way to every home and business across the entire hinterland.

The group are also being both innovative and realistic when it comes to investment. This is a major project in a hard to reach area, and any funding from BDUK is like to amount to no more than perhaps 5% of the sum needed. They recognise that a venture such as this needs all the stakeholders to help in anyway they can, not just the telecoms industry and the public sector, but also local people and businesses. So the group is looking at how their plans for  a wholesale open access network can be owned and financed in part by the local community.

The group has already attracted financial support from the INCA’s Big Society Broadband Fund to carry out the initial feasibility study – some of their findings will soon appear in the Knowledgebase. They are now looking to gain wider public support and, in partnership with the City, raise community investment for the project.

Led by an old friend of mine who lives in the town, Neil Homer is a social entrepreneur with an urban and rural planning strategy background, the contributors to the project draw on the wide range of sage expertise you find in villages in this part of the world, including my old colleagues from Oxfordshire Rural Broadband  who delivered the first generation of broadband to west Oxfordshire (the group cut his broadband teeth on when he was an MP-in-waiting).

This is the big society writ large, and very different from the pioneering projects in Alston and Wray – this isn’t a community that would find it easy to dig trenches but they bring a whole lot of other things to the party which make next generation broadband possible.

With a County Council preparing what I hope will be an ambitious strategy for the county and the likes of Chipping Norton taking a lead, it feels like Oxfordshire may be something of a waking broadband giant. Fingers crossed!

Transition Chipping Norton is hosting a public meeting on 6th July at 7:30 in the Town Hall to explain to the communities in and around the town just how they can benefit and how they can get involved.

Localism, innovation – and national frameworks?

Published on June 22, 2011 in Adrian's tech blog. 4 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

I think it was Cisco’s John Chambers that once said that big companies can’t innovate, as he refocussed a large part of their R&D budget to nurturing and developing partnerships with small companies that could. Today we are seeing a similar trend in the pharmaceutical industry, where large internal research labs are being replaced by smaller external research companies.

And it is smaller, more nimble companies that are developing innovative business approaches, technologies, and service delivery models in broadband; not just in the UK but across Europe. Heavy Reading predicted that around 60% of European fibre connections would be delivered by non-incumbents, with the largest sector being local municipal networks led by smart, small-scale innovators.

While the pattern in the UK is a little different, we too are seeing innovation growing just as it has across the continent, but these companies need space and support to develop in order that their impact can be felt, their promise can be assessed, and for the main industry players to construct partnerships or acquire the best of them. So with this in mind, the ’s policies for supporting SMEs in public procurement exercises and the wider agenda are both smart and well timed if the UK is to genuinely deliver “Europe’s best superfast broadband market by 2015″.

Few sensible people would argue with the policy – but there appears to be growing concern over the implementation.

The announcement of BDUK’s intention to procure a national framework seems to have simultaneously divided the industry and undermined the Government’s policy objective. Having spoken to industry players that say they’ve seen drafts of the procurement plan, they tell me that it will require revenues of at least £40m generated in at least the last two consecutive years, excluding not just SME’s but many of the established players in the industry as well.

Nobody doubts that delivering such an ambitious plan will be very hard, but side-lining the most nimble, innovative players won’t make it any easier.

Let’s hope the rumours and grumblings are ill-founded!

Mixed Ambitions

Published on May 28, 2011 in Adrian's tech blog. 24 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

Or why this isn’t an IT project.

Last year, when announced the BDUK competitions, I commented at the time that it felt like ambition was back on the agenda.

A year on, is really beginning to play out – or perhaps more accurately, a developing understanding of what it might mean is beginning to grow  as local authorities construct their broadband strategies. This process has created a space for communities, the public sector and the telecoms industry to have a dialogue.

As with any organic and new process, progress is far from uniform – in some places communities are developing a stronger voice; in other the local authority is taking a stronger lead; and some parts of the industry have been more receptive than others. In some areas progress has been rapid, and in others painfully slow.

If there is a criticism of the new localism agenda, it is this.

Local authorities have spent more than a decade increasingly micro-managed. There has been little reason to consider risks in their corporate strategy as they were largely told by how and what to prioritise. There has been little reason to open a dialogue with local communities because there was little scope to adapt to their needs.

Localism has put this process sharply in reverse – local authorities now need to consider their appetite for risk and to match it with their communities ambitions and needs – yet these skills no longer come easily to many councils. This isn’t a criticism of councillors or council officials – its simply a reality.

In fact, to their credit, many councils have risen to the challenge – at times it may be faltering but nevertheless localism is happening and I suspect it feels rather liberating.

But in some areas it has proved harder – the tools with which to form a dialogue with communities have been harder to muster, and the risk associated with taking risks has been too difficult to contemplate.

A common theme among these areas is that they typically draft in the IT department to lead their bid, assuming that developing a broadband strategy is a technology process which can be developed from the centre and in isolation using their specialists. Its not!

  • Broadband plans are about the local economy and competitiveness,
  • Broadband plans are about how local services are delivered,
  • Broadband plans are about people and businesses.

Local authorities who hand their broadband strategy over to their IT department will ultimately be as disappointed as if they had handed teaching or social work over to them.

IT is an enabler that helps to solve real world issues; broadband is just a tool they might use that cuts across every possible policy area. The strategic basis of a broadband plan must be in the hands of people who deal with those real world issues.

Look to . Ed is a multi-faceted person but he’s not a technologist, he doesn’t surround himself with geeks, and yet he fully understands the impact a good broadband strategy will have on the creative industries and media, rural areas and the wider economy.

has seen the benefits of localism and the impact broadband could have on his rural constituency without resulting to a discussion on bits, bytes and symmetry.

The certain disappointment of not following their lead may be hard, expensive and slow to rectify as well.

If neighbouring areas solve this problem better then rate-paying businesses will begin to migrate, making the rural areas a place to retire to rather than grow a business.

If businesses migrate, younger people will migrate to find the work.

And an area with relatively poor infrastructure means even elderly people will slowly migrate as the services which would keep them in touch with their families and allow them to stay in their homes longer won’t be there.

The risk associated with avoiding risks is much higher than developing a measured appetite that allows local ambitions to be met.

Being ambitious for your locality is the less risky path to tread.

The (broadband) world is changing

Published on May 15, 2011 in Adrian's tech blog. 11 Comments Tags: , , , , .

I’ve just finished a week of very different conferences and workshops which have led me to a what feels like an exciting conclusion – the broadband world in recent weeks has shifted.

My evidence? On Friday CPEND, a partnership in rural North Dorset, hosted an event to report the findings of their broadband study. There have been many similar events over the years, looking into the nature and possible solutions to rural broadband problems. But this was very different.

The event hosted in Blandford Forum’s community hall was well attended by local people, parish and district politicians, with local MP Bob Walter putting his full support behind the work – very good to see but not something that shakes the world. However, attending in equal number were senior industry figures – people who make the decisions about where, when and how to invest in broadband.

This has been building since the autumn when hosted his blockbuster event in Cumbria, but the Blandford event wasn’t promoted as a  major headline grabbing affair – it was an event organized by a local group that had done some deep research and difficult thinking – not the sort of thing a year ago would have attracted key industry names like Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson and Geo.

All three events this week – Jenden’s investment workshop, NextGen roadshow, and the CPEND event – showed how the three essential stakeholders (industry, public sector and community) have now found the langage and the common ground on which to engage with each other in a way I’ve not seen before – a constructive dialogue has begun, exploring how all three can work together in a common cause.

Almost entirely absent from these events were the unreasonable, one-sided demands from communities expecting someone to fix the problem for them, or the rather superior pronouncement from industry dismissing any solution other the one they had in mind, or the rather dull and unambitious public sector statements.

The last few years, since first generation broadband became established and mainstream, have been something of a roller-coaster ride but at the moment I’d have to say I’m more optimistic that we’ll solve this – together – than at any time.

Why waiting to bid for BDUK may be the smartest option . . .

Published on April 15, 2011 in Adrian's tech blog. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

. . . at least until after the 9th of May.

This advice is probably too late for some local authorities so apologies for the unhelpful suggestion to those who’ve sweat blood in the last few weeks and put together a submission to BDUK already. But if there’s any doubt in your mind that your bid isn’t quite what it might be then take my advice, submit an Expression of Interest and delay.

made it quite clear at Peter Aldous’ Suffolk broadband event last week – the money doesn’t run out next week – there is funding available for many more bids after next week’s closing date – and its far more important to get it right than get it early.

Why delay? In recent weeks there have been a number of significant announcements and movements in the broadband landscape that need to be carefully considered, and which could have a fundamental impact on your bid.

Up until the last week or so much of the discussion surrounding many local authority bids has focussed on (PSNs), regional backbones and digital village pumps. This was always only half of the story – a very important half but never enough to make a successful bid to BDUK.

The really hard bit is the access strategy – how do you get from the village pump to homes and businesses?

Strategies which simply delegate this responsibility to a locally unaccountable multinational is at best a fairly risky option, especially when we are in a new world of  and the .

Wishing to hand over responsibility for the access strategy is understandable – its complex and costly, a long way outside most people’s core competence. These are the holy trinity of criteria traditionally used for outsourcing. And certainly these are very good reasons why most if not all local authorities should not be attempting the access network themselves but the traditional options aren’t necessarily the only ones on offer.

There isn’t a business case for a top down deployment of next generation broadband for good reasons – and its not just about cash. Its certainly true that its very expensive to put fibre in the ground, regardless of how deep into the access network it reaches, but that isn’t the only, or even perhaps the biggest, reason a top down approach doesn’t work.

The demography and landscape of the UK varies tremendously; the desires, aspirations and capabilities of the UK’s communities vary tremendously. These factors naturally suggest more than one technical solution and more than one investment profile. A traditional top-down telecoms model only works where a common solution can be applied to the widest possible population. So delegating the access strategy to company offering a traditional approach is likely to result in a lowest common factor solution rather than an optimal solution which unlocks the more ambitious in your economy.

Three good reasons are emerging which mean there are now alternatives and mean you should delay bidding to BDUK.

The most obvious perhaps has been Fujitsu’s announcement that it intends to build a fibre to the home (not cabinet) solution to 5m homes and businesses in rural areas. Their press release suggested this was not just a traditional top-down steam-roller deployment:

“The collaboration will actively support the involvement of local broadband groups, enabling dynamic and flexible solutions in rural communities for the first time”

At the moment it isn’t clear what that involvement will mean but the approach so far  has been much more inclusive than other major announcements by the industry – something anyone developing a BDUK bid needs to at least contemplate.

Secondly, the Big Society Broadband partnership’s knowledge-base, offering advice on how to approach rural broadband, will soon be published. Work put together by a wide array of experts including INCA, the Plunkett Foundation and ACRE. Plunkett’s experience of sustainable rural enterprise is being joined by ACRE’s network of rural community councils and the collective knowledge of INCA members’ of delivering next generation networks.

And finally, but certainly not least, city institution Jendens, have been beavering away behind the scenes for some months looking at scalable models which the City can be comfortable investing in while delivering that rich tapestry of local solutions.

While they may not be a name your have heard of, their knowledge of franchise structures, large-scale investment, and the telecoms industry makes their announcement very significant, bringing a fresh and exciting new approach to solving the final third problem. Their approach cracks the knotty problem of  how marry top-down and community-up approaches into a nationally deliverable, sustainable, and flexible model.

Jenden’s have released a document which describes their approach of enabling local authorities to create a menu of options for their county, allowing each community to enjoy a broadband solution that closely reflects their needs, capabilities and aspirations; the franchise structure can then attract local and national investment, and match the right organisation to build and operate the network in partnership with the local authority and community. The commonality of the franchise model makes it scalable and attractive to external investors and the service provider market while the flexibility of local franchise companies ensures solutions support local conditions.

The franchise model and the Big Society Broadband partnership’s approach have a lot in common, and together offer a new perspective on delivering a county-wide access strategy. This and Fujitsu’s announcement mean that if you have any doubts about your bid to BDUK then delay.

Jenden’s are co-hosting an event with INCA and the Big Society Broadband partnership on the 9th May in London

If you’re directly involved in developing your BDUK bid, click here to reserve your place.

The broadband landscape just got a lot more exciting!

What’s happening to the Big Society in broadband?

Published on March 25, 2011 in Adrian's tech blog. 5 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

For many who’ve been campaigning to get better broadband into the UK’s rural areas the ’s  policy agenda is a very welcome opportunity to really make a difference, to fix this problem once and for all.

With ’s programme under way and DEFRA announcing £20m to support rural broadband things seem to be moving in the right direction – but there are some major challenges ahead.

There is a clear sense that politicians are not just espousing the big society principals, they really believe in it - just look to people like , Peter Aldous and Jesse Norman, and of course .

The challenges, to my mind, lie elsewhere.

Generally, public servants have spent the last decade and more centralising – local government had become a delivery body for , spending money as they were told, micro-managed from above.

means the direction of travel between local and central government is being put in reverse; the thinking should now be coming from local authorities in tune with their communities, and with the support of central government

This is very hard if you’ve not done it before

Whitehall civil servant’s natural belief is that they have the big picture.

Local government staff are quite naturally risk averse when confronted with new and difficult decisions which may affect the whole of their community.

It will take some time before Whitehall feels comfortable supporting rather than leading, and it will take equally long before local government feels comfortable sitting in the driving seat, guided by their communities.

In this climate, it is perhaps no surprise that the thinking  influencing some local broadband plans is drawing from the known, and appears to be taking those local authorities towards a traditional that will ensure only the biggest, most traditional businesses win,  and where community engagement is limited to little more than free marketing support.

Perhaps not surprising but it is disappointing given that the Big Society is a key strand of the Government’s policy agenda.

In the way that people like Jesse Norman introduced new thinking which led to a new wave of localism in , there is now a need to adopt some new thinking which will lead to localism in our digital society.

And this new thinking isn’t radical as in hippy – its radical as in different – its tried and tested in countries that have found the will to move on, and its has room in it for big companies, public bodies as well as communities – in a respectful partnership.

Successful local broadband strategies need to seek a balance:

  • Which permits the safety of an established major operator while underpinning the heart and soul of a community initiative
  • Which allows industrial scale investment while respecting the local stakeholders at the helm
  • Which attract the best national and international services while encouraging local services attuned to the community

There is no shortage of communities wanting to become stakeholders their digital future.

There are respected and experienced organisations that can provide the support that can focus that demand into action.

There are organisations willing to help raise funding to support the demand.

All that’s needed is for the processes already in motion to be encouraging of this demand rather the dismissive, and for the industry to try something a little radical.

The reward? A new contract with communities which delivers innovation, investment and opportunities. What’s not to like?

BT showing signs it’s worried about infrastructure competition

Published on January 5, 2011 in Adrian's tech blog. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

BT Wholesale’s Sally Davis was reported as warning the not to waste money on small rural broadband projects as a patchwork effect couldn’t possibly work (ISP Review article here). There is perhaps some irony in the example she gives – of the early railways not agreeing standards so they couldn’t work together, given that the railways did successfully put the canal’s out of business and a century later, with standards, multiple rail operators are still vyeing  for customers everyday.

Perhaps its mischief more than irony – after all, BT is heavily engaged in the NICC’s ALA work and with the BSG’s passive infrastructure group, both seeking industry accepted standards for interoperability.

On a more general point, wouldn’t it be very odd if a whole nation went in search of a solution and without any dissent they all came up with the exactly same answer?

And what is it about the telecoms sector that is so unique that means it can only function with a monopoly at its heart?

Properly functioning markets develop choice and variety. Some of those choices may be small, others large; some risk averse, some daring; some targeting niches, some a wider constituency – that’s what markets do and are.

And that’s why JON Exchange is being created – to provide a marketplace for a competitive market.

What the shift towards next generation broadband represents is the single largest threat to BT’s monopoly in its history. If a region opts for an alternative infrastructure its likely that, without some serious soul-searching, BT’s Openreach will lose that area for at least a generation. This has never happened before, so Sally Davis’ salvo is assuredly the first of many to come.

The Government’s job isn’t to defend one company against threats from a wider and naturally emerging market – quite the reverse. If the Government doesn’t grasp this opportunity with both hands there is a very real risk that it will be held to ransom each and every time the incumbent should invest.

A functioning patchwork market is exactly what we as consumers and electors need; its what the market needs – it just happens not to suit the one with the most to lose.

Nextgen neutrality moves the debate forward

Published on November 22, 2010 in Adrian's tech blog. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

The social media channels have been abuzz with debate about and the comments of , the Minister for Communications and Creative Industries. His view that trying to prevent service providers from tinkering with traffic maybe akin to King Canute has more than a little merit. A cursory read of Samknows own report into the quality of broadband (rather than the Ofcom report based on the same data) begins to shed light on the range and depth of techniques service providers use to manage their customer’s use.

Being a supporter of the principal of a neutral internet and accepting that it may be very difficult to achieve are not necessarily mutually exclusive positions – in fact its probably realistic rather than idealistic.

I would go further – trying to create rules which require regulating the configuration of commercial companies complex networks is probably futile. No sooner would a rule be made than a clever ploy found to subvert it. A real world example of the Queen of Hearts – running ever faster just to stand still.

Far better is to shape the commercial landscape such that its not profitable to mess around with customers online experience – or to only do it in support of the customer. And its this that the UK is doing.

Led by Ofcom and adopted by the industry through the NICC, the UK’s next generation connectivity models will create a broadband market which should lead to a market where customers have choices and service providers will need to compete in a more open manner.

The UK has paved that way to shift net neutrality to a more nuanced and mature level through industry standards.

The Active Line Access (ALA) standard adopted by industry requires next generation network owners to provide multiple virtual networks to each home and business – only one of which is likely to be an ISP.

ALA - not over the top

While today if a content company isn’t happy about their treatment by ISP’s there’s little they can do about it but on UK next generation networks, they have the option to take one of the additional virtual networks to deliver their service directly to customers “around the side” rather than “over the top” of the ISP.

When she was at Ofcom, Chi Onwurah championed this, and I was more than happy to support her efforts as the NICC started to formalise the ALA standard. The now member of for Central Newcastle, I think saw this as a way of delivering healthcare and services (which it is and Martha Lane-Fox would do well to understand the importance of that) but it also means if Google don’t like the way Youtube is treated they could launch a service to deliver it through a VLAN which doesn’t go anywhere near a best endeavours internet service. Similarly for games companies, TV aggregators like Project Canvas/Youview, and so on.

Such commercial pressure, where ISPs can no longer monopolise customers’ access to the online world, should start to encourage them to be more supportive of customers choices or risk losing the rich media customers value. If valued content begins find alternative routes to customers’ screens, ISPs will be reduced to mere resellers of other people’s transit – the catch all service for the less used and less valued content.

As the Exchange moves closer to our go live data, we’re at pains to make sure this feature is built into from day one – there is already interest from games companies and we are developing relationships with healthcare companies. In the UK, through us at least, the term Service Provider won’t necessarily be simply synonymous with Internet Service Provider.

The pilots would be a lot more interesting (not that they’re not already very interesting) if other Government departments would commit to piloting services over the projects. The NHS should be planning to pilot healthcare over a virtual network connected to the NHS network so the elderly or chronically ill could stay in their homes longer, or the Department of Education planning to offer virtual networks to children on free school meals in the pilot areas so all children have access to the learning platform at home (this reaches a significant part of the 30% Martha Lane-Fox it trying to address while looking to save money on service delivery).

By Government demonstrating leadership in this, it could light the way for private sector companies to launch their own services, pioneering a UK market where net neutrality is encouraged by commercial realities rather than blunt regulation.

JON heading for launch

Published on November 14, 2010 in Adrian's tech blog. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Tomorrow is a pretty big day – after what seems like aeons the Joint Open Network concept is taking a big step towards reality as the JON Exchange launches at an event in London.

With a good line up of speakers headlined by , the Minister for Communications, and including Cable&Wireless Worldwide, Alcatel-Lucent and Talktalk, the event was quickly over subscribed so we’re already looking to host a follow-up event and have taken the opportunity to speak at the NexGen10 conference in a couple of weeks.

With some key appointments being announced tomorrow and our fairly aggressive time-line towards live dates in the UK and key markets across Europe, it looks like the coming months will be pretty busy.

Thankfully we’re putting together a great team and have some really good support from industry partners – more on that tomorrow!

Exciting times!!

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