Updated December 2023
"Not in my life-time" - a term often heard in the rural backwaters of England since the beginning of the 21st century. What we are referring to is, of course, is half-decent broadband. But in middle-England there are those of us who would not take this state sitting down. In the village of Abthorpe, a 120-house ”Royalist” Stronghold in the upper Tove valley in Northamptonshire, we decided to change the face of broadband delivery in the area for ever. Dial-up connection to the internet at 0.024Mbps was improved dramatically in 2003 with a community supported satellite data connection to Belgium and provided "always on" broadband at 1.0Mbps download and 0.25Mbps upload. This served 50 houses distributed across the roof-tops by 2.4Ghz WiFi. Cantennea (had to be Scotch cans), Fish-fryers (3-foot mesh reflectors) and commercial antennae were used in an effort to maximise radio connection and reduce interference. Lots of fun with RG-142 co-ax and SMA connectors! However, we did have to train Google that we were English, not French! In 2007 BT enabled the not-so-local exchange for ADSL so we changed from satellite to 4 land-line business connections which allowed us to distribute the service to our now 60 members. Each line provided about 2/0.5Mbps. [and ADSL is still therabouts in 2023]
In 2013 we expanded the community group to include 5 more villages, even co-operating with ”Parlimentarians”, and fed the main point of presence with a 100/100Mbps fibre backhaul courtesy of the local schoool, 6degrees and BT wholesale. We upgraded our equipment at premises to integrated 5Ghz antenna-radio-ethernet Ubiquity units and utilised radio pipes at 100/100Mbps between the villages. Our membership increased to over 200. This model worked very well but within a year, the radio pipes were beginning to heat the surrounding air and, with increasing membership, contention on the service was only going to get worse. In 2014-2015, with the aid of £108K from government and £170K loans raised in the communities, we laid more than 12km of 24-core fibres over farmland, under streams, across roads and into radio access points in each village. These access points are hosted on churches, a school, farm buildings and homes - even a grain silo. Our backhaul was changed to a direct Telehouse connection with a 1,000/1,000Mbps service. To keep our principle of DIY wherever possible, we chose GPON architecture which allows us to extend our fibre network with in-house expertise. By April, 2015 we had a very fast high-bandwidth supply to each village with some low-volume radio extensions to other neighbouring villages who wanted to join our enterprise. We were delivering between 30 and 100Mbps symmetrical broadband service by radio to the majority of 700 members.
In 2019 we embarked upon grant-aided projects to deliver fibre to the premises (FTTP) with a full 1,000/1,000Mbps connection. We are among the top world rankings for average and peak speeds experienced. To support this expansion, our backhaul was increased to 10Gbps symmetrical and we retained the original, but now 1Gbps backhaul as an automatic fail-over backup connection.
By the end of 2023, from a total of over 700 Members, we have nearly 500 connected directly to 1000Mbps capable symmetrical fibre-optic broadband and 200 Members on radio delivered broadband at better than 30Mbps. All connections have no restrictions and are charged at £15/month. There is plenty of real evidence that this service has greatly helped the economy of the area with increased employment and expanding population. With our super-superfast broadband, streaming TV and films and VOIP telephone services replacing landlines, the average spend on all communication services, excluding mobile phones, is less than £20/month – previously the cost of just a line rental. Abthorpe Broadband Association Limited (ABbA) is a not-for-profit limited by guarantee community company approved for State Aid. In total, we have been granted in excess of £709,000 through the auspices of DCMS. The 2015 Superfast project was supported by the Rural Development Programme for England, for which Defra is the Managing Authority, part financed by The European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development. Grant value £108,000. The DCMS Gigabit Voucher Scheme providing grants for FTTP connections in rural areas has been used to compliment our FWA network. Grant value in excess of £600,000. ABbA's contribution has been in excess of £66,900 Because of our not-for-profit and community volunteer manged status, we are saving more than £250,000/year for our members compared with commercial costs of broadband delivery. This is even more when VOIP services over our network is factored in.
The infrastructure cables are rodent proof 9mm corrugated steel armoured outer containing a loose tube of 12 fibre-optic strands. Any strain on the outer tube should not damage the fibres - at least that's the theory. We bury the cable between 0.5 and 1.0m deep depending upon the ground use and sometimes more for special circumstances. With 3" of soil pushed back over the cable, we lay a green tape, then re-fill the trench, finally seeding the surface. It is generally not possible to see where we have been within 4 months of the construction. At strategic points we construct an inspection chamber which eventually contains fibre junctions and feeds to properties. We have a variation of cables availble to feed the properties from thin tuff cables to water pipes and drainage ducts which can contain fibre cables.
If you have any questions or would like further detail not found in these pages, please use the Contact Us form.
Directors: Eric Malcomson; Philip Berry; Keith Fenwick; Peter Watkins; Richard Tomalin; Oliver Essame. Treasurer: Frank Hunter. Secretary Dave Long.