@cyclotopie @MattMastodon

Again drawing from the #B4RN - there was an initial call for local investors (I am one) & we all worked on the project - digging in the conduits etc.; in exchange for 18months free servcie. Then periodically there is a clll for loan capital form community shareholders, which is always over-subscribed - and of course the whole system runs on user subscriptions (which are competitive if not startlingly cheap). The CIC is governed by a board of directors... with AGM etc.

@cyclotopie @MattMastodon

So as I understand it; as part of the constitution of the CIC, the assets are constrained to only be 'owned' by the existing CIC or another CIC should it take over, but would not be available to a commercial buyer - given in our case there would be no #B4RN without the dug-in conduit network, it precludes privatisation.

@MattMastodon @cyclotopie

yes having an 'Asset Lock' is key.... for #B4RN it allowed them to run conduit across farmers' land (via wayleaves) in exchange for free broadband access & an guarantee the asset (the network) would never be sold - in other words a subsequent purchaser could not get the (valuable) wayleves for nothing....

As many of you already know my #broadband is delivered by a community-based, non-profit provider - #B4RN - which operates across the rural NW.

Once again, I'm going to have to point out that the #community solution to broadband - we have world-class provision & great service - is a lot better than the mainstream providers (as a recent Which report, confirms, again).

Apologies for gloating, but B4RN really demonstrates what locals working together can achieve!

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jul/04/more-than-half-of-uk-broadband-customers-hit-by-connection-problems

@JohnLoader6

Yes our local project had some difficulties around funding & BT trying (and succeeding) in snuggling grant monies... in the end ours was almost completely funded by the community & 'sweat capital' - i.e. we dug the fibre conduits in ourselves!
#B4RN

Oh dear, #VirginMedia #broadband is down with no explanation (again)...

Hardly a day goes by when I am not thankful for the weeks of hard work we all put in round here a decade ago to dig in our community, fibre-to-the-house #broadband... still much better than any of the broadband oligopoly offer & what's more, ours!

#B4RN in the #LuneValley - hurrah

Hmmm... in #Cornwall a community has got together to engineer a community ground source heat-pump rather than individual systems for each house... This looks a lot like the early years of community #broadband & while there were sceptics about that too, its been a massive rural success... I hope the community #heatpump strategy accelerates and is equally as successful.

Indeed, people from Heat the Streets could learn a lot from #B4RN & the community broadband 'revolution'!

If you're interested in the sorts of things that a #community #broadband project gets up to... here's the latest update from #LuneValley broadband providers #B4RN... enabling remote #healthcare in the rural areas of North Lancashire & Cumbria.

https://b4rn.org.uk/about-b4rn/news-events/b4rn-focus-enabling-remote-healthcare

@ChrisMayLA6 If only we could get #B4RN in Lancaster!

What I love about our community #broadband provider #B4RN is that when we failed to be reconnected after the overnight 'routine maintenance', a phone call to the tech-team, where I spoke to a real person, enabled me to find out that mine was one of the houses that needed a different upgrade pushed to the connector box, that they were sorting out right then, and I would be on within the hour.... and I was!

Community broadband beats the socks off OpenReach & the rest of those numpties!

Having now watched two programmes on catch up with #ITVX, I think it safe to say the platform has teething problems; we have buffering, stuttering & in a couple of cases failure - pushing us back to the Amazon Firestick home-page.

Before you say, that's my connection, we have #B4RN community broadband, which gives 1GB symmetrical service (and 60mps on my wifi), so its clearly ITVX not my home connection... added to which All4 & IPlayer are working just fine.

So @itvhub time to get it sorted!

@TheSwiv Yes all sounds very familiar; some year's ago #B4RN agreed with BT/OpenReach to leave the centre of a small valley town to them while covering the rural environs... after a couple of years of inaction, the town's residents gave up waiting & got #B4RN to do the inner areas as well.... given the amount of taxpayers money the monopoly has had to 'reach difficult areas' they should really be investigated for fraud!

For this of you whose interest was piqued by the post on #community #broadband in the #LuneValley a couple of days ago, here's a good over-view of #B4RN's operations, which draws some interesting conclusions.... when you stop waiting for BT/OpenReeach to get off their arse in the countryside & do it for yourself/yourselves, world class connectivity becomes an option via fibreoptic end-to-end connection(s)!
https://www.arc2020.eu/faster-than-nasa-how-a-community-broadband-outfit-turbo-charged-northern-englands-countryside/

Une vidéo qui explique #B4RN https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G880mwmmmmk

Une vidéo qui explique #B4RN https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G880mwmmmmk