Super Fast Broadband Manchester & Salford

[WingTips]

Manchester aims to be in the top 20 digital cities by 2020

Thursday 16 February 2012 14:48:26 by Andrew Ferguson
Manchester has outlined a bid for some £12 million of government funding, to help make the city a super connected city. With the £100m fund being split ten ways, any authority asking for more than a tenth will have to have a very good plan to justify another city getting less.

The Manchester plan talks of ultrafast broadband, which seems to be the new phrase for describing services of 100 Mbps or faster. The aim is to make this sort of service available to some 235,000 premises across the city by 2014/2015. In addition high speed wireless connectivity in key public areas and along transport corridors.


The project is also planning to address not-spots and slow-spots around the city, and improve take-up of broadband and digital services in the more deprived areas such as Wythenshawe and East Manchester.

As with the BDUK projects cities are expected to match fund what they receive from central funding, as well as commercial operators contributing their share. The ambition to get Manchester into the top 20 digital cities around the World is ambitious as EU funding is going to help boost most EU cities - including those in the UK

2020!


http://www.thinkbroadband.com/

[roobarb!]

Originally Posted by thecityofgold

Talk Talk and I get 3Mb/s on a very good day. It's ironic that I can see Media City UK from my windows but often can't get BBC iPlayer to stream properly. From past experience Virgin is the way to go.

Totally agree with that. The broadband around the Quays is very variable. I have a BT phone line with Virgin ADSL - up until a couple of weeks ago I got a steady 7Mbps, but it would seem to have dropped to 4Mbps after BT installed a new fibre cabinet at the end of the street. Oh, the irony. Especially when Virgin are supposed to be doubling speeds (for cabled customers).

Looks like June for BT Infinity to be enabled at the Trafford exchange.

Shame that Nynex / NTL / Virgin didn't install cable into the Quays when they were building the place. Seems like it would have been a very sensible thing to do. Had NTL cable broadband a few years ago and it was superb.

[WingTips]

'Third of UK postcodes' have slow broadband speeds


A third of homes in the UK have broadband speeds well below the national average, according to research from price comparison site uSwitch.

While half of addresses get broadband speeds of 6.7Mbps or above, a third struggle to get speeds above 5Mbps, 1.7m speed tests found.

The East Sussex village of Winchelsea was the slowest, with an average speed of 1.1Mbps, according to uSwitch.

Hereford was the slowest city, with average speeds of 3.1Mbps.

The government wants to see super-fast broadband as the gold standard in most UK homes, and has pledged to make the UK the fastest broadband nation in Europe by 2015. By that time, it also promises to make sure that all homes have speeds of at least 2Mbps.

The uSwitch data - based on 1.68 million speed tests carried out over the last six months - suggests that there could still be some way to go.

UK'S SLOWEST POSTCODES
Winchelsea, East Sussex - 1.1Mbps
Menstrie, Clackmannanshire - 1.2Mbps
Askam in Furness, Cumbria - 1.25Mbps
St Bees, Cumbria - 1.38Mbps
Ripley, Surrey - 1.5Mbps
Newbiggin-by-the-sea, Northumberland - 1.6Mbps
Pembroke, Pembrokeshire - 1.65Mbps
Johnstone, Renfrewshire - 1.8Mbps
Lampeter, Ceredigion - 1.8Mbps
Watchet, Somerset - 1.8Mbps


"Britain might be riding the wave of a super-fast broadband revolution, but for 49% who get less than the national average broadband speed, the wave isn't causing so much a splash as a ripple," said Julia Stent, director of telecoms at uSwitch.

"And what's really surprising is the number of cities and towns such as Hereford and Carlisle that are suffering from slow broadband speeds, dispelling the view that it's just rural areas and small towns that have issues with their broadband," she added.

Other towns and cities to offer average broadband speeds of below 5Mbps include Kilmarnock (3.2Mbps), Dumfries (3.6Mbps), Canterbury (4Mbps) and Shrewsbury (4Mbps).

Fast pipes

The government has provided £530m to help local councils fill in the UK's blackspots. Cumbria, which has several areas in the top 10 slowest postcodes, received the biggest amount, with more than £17m to cope with its 96% of homes eligible for subsidies.

Councils will have to put some of their own money towards the costs, and some have been slow to get the projects off the ground.

For those in well-connected postcodes, the news is much better.

Both Virgin Media and BT have recently turned up the speed dial on their broadband services.

Virgin announced that broadband with speeds of up to 100Mbps was now available to 10 million homes, while BT pledged to offer some homes speeds of up to 300Mbps by 2013.


At least we dont appear to fall into this category.

http://www.bbc.co.uk

[Fortun3]

Originally Posted by thecityofgold

Talk Talk and I get 3Mb/s on a very good day. It's ironic that I can see Media City UK from my windows but often can't get BBC iPlayer to stream properly. From past experience Virgin is the way to go.

Originally Posted by roobarb!

Totally agree with that. The broadband around the Quays is very variable. I have a BT phone line with Virgin ADSL - up until a couple of weeks ago I got a steady 7Mbps, but it would seem to have dropped to 4Mbps after BT installed a new fibre cabinet at the end of the street. Oh, the irony. Especially when Virgin are supposed to be doubling speeds (for cabled customers).

Looks like June for BT Infinity to be enabled at the Trafford exchange.

Shame that Nynex / NTL / Virgin didn't install cable into the Quays when they were building the place. Seems like it would have been a very sensible thing to do. Had NTL cable broadband a few years ago and it was superb.

City of Gold - you live in City Lofts too?!

I called up sky and had a moan about my speed, the guy used BT line checker to measure the distance of the length of the line between the City Lofts apartments and the exchange... 735km.

Yes you read that right, KILOMETRES...!! I made him triple check it and I still think it's insane, I reckon we're about 2 miles from the exchange, 800m ish as the crow flies.

Either way, my point is that BT infinity only works up to a certain distance, and the buildings on the Quays might be too far from the exchange even once they switch it over to Infinity. Don't get your hopes up.

I'm still going to email Virgin to try and get them to run a cable down our street (road is "the Quays") - My rough calculations are 800 apartments in just the City Lofts, NV and Millenium, nearer 1000 if you include Imperial and Sovereign Point, not to mention the low-rises & houses.

[iheartthenew]

Lol. Your exchange is in the Scottish highlands, just south of Thurso at that distance!

Oh and Virgin rocks. I only have phone and broadband but my TV is Internet ready and connects directly with iPlayer. Been watching in HD on iPlayer and it works really well, and using the laptop an iPhone on the wifi signal at the same time no problem.

[WingTips]

So where is your exchange?

[jrb]

Man Con.

Manchester Is Europe's Riskiest Online City

Norton points the finger at our 'high incidence of Wi-Fi hotspots'

WE'RE top of the league in more than football.

When cyber security company Norton teamed up with research firm Sperling’s BestPlaces to uncover the top 10 cities in Europe they found we are the capital of risky online behaviour.

Manchester is ranked No. 1 - apparently because we have the highest incidences of Wi-Fi hotspots and malware attempts.

The 2012 Top 10 'Riskiest' Online Cities in Europe are:



No 1. Manchester, United Kingdom




No 2. Amsterdam, Netherlands




No 3. Stockholm, Sweden




No 4. Paris, France




No 5. London, United Kingdom




No 6. Dublin, Ireland




No 7. Milan, Italy




No 8. Rome, Italy




No 9. Barcelona, Spain




No 10.Berlin, Germany


Sperling’s BestPlaces determined the per-capita rankings by examining several consumer behaviours – from the prevalence of PCs and smartphones, to social networking and accessing potentially unsecured Wi-Fi hotspots, among others.
Manchester in the UK earned the number 1 spot in European region, with the highest incidences of Wi-Fi hotspots and malware attempts. It also had high percentages among its population for prevalence of computers and Internet access, as well as social networking use.
London’s levels among the cybercrime data hovered near the twenty-fifth percentile, and although London’s cybercrime data was low, its high levels of Internet use, social networking and computer prevalence raised its overall risk factors for an average ranking at 5.

The following risk factors were measured:
·Cybercrime data

o Bot-infected computers within a specific city

o Attempted malware infections within a specific city

o Spamming IP addresses within a specific city

o Web attacks originating within a specific city
·Consumer lifestyle data

o Number of places that offer Wi-Fi connection to the Internet

o Prevalence of computer use by residents

o Prevalence of Internet use

o Use of smartphones

[WingTips]

Begs the question why?

[Fortun3]

Well I had a reply back from Virgin... not a huge surprise:


Thank you for your enquiry to cable my street.

Our build programme for large areas of unserviceable homes and apartments has been set for 2012, so therefore we cannot consider this area for upgrade at this time.


With areas of New Build homes where we did not have an agreement with the developers responsible to provide our services it is often not possible to retrospectively pre wire the buildings internally and it is very difficult to secure wayleave from the Freeholder/Management Company for external wiring.


Therefore it is with regret that we are not in a position to offer service at this time, but we have a clear understanding of the need for provision in this area. As different ways of serving non-cabled streets and estates within our existing built network change, we will continue to look at technically feasible and cost-effective options with a view to providing service at some time in the future.

I appreciate this is not good news, but be assured our team have investigated this very thoroughly and will continue to look for other solutions that may help us achieve this in the future.

Best regards

Alison


Alison Reid
Cablemystreet Co-ordinator
Virgin Media | 1 South Gyle Crescent Lane , Edinburgh EH12 9EG

[WingTips]

So really all the TV advertising hype means nothing, so where/whom do they supply I wonder.

[WingTips]

Some interesting figures out this morning re BB availability, what is revealing is that towns like Wigan, Derby,Dudley seem well ahead of Manchester in the BB game, and Belfast sets the standard,... incidentally I dont know of anyone who actually has SFBB in the Manchester area...

Given the length of the report I will simply add the link...

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/201...ilability.html

[iheartthenew]

In Virgin equipped areas you'll see a little black (approx 40mm diameter) plastic access point/plate outside each property in the pavement. They're everywhere in my part of Salford. I think most of Irlams on the height has it, Inc me

Having lived in several blocks of flats, some old, some new, I can see that getting their services in there can be an issue. One older block I moved into required the agreement of everyone there (they were joint freeholders too) and some would be awkward and vote no each time. I can't imagine Virgin wiring up a whole new block FOC and on the other hand a developer shelling out any more money than they have too so only put a basic BT line in.

[WingTips]

What speeds do you achieve i?

[iheartthenew]

I have the 10mb broadband which they say is usually 9.66mb. Dunno what we're actually getting but good enough to stream iPlayer in HD and run an iPhone on wifi and wifi laptop doing downloads all at the same time with no hiccups. Will have to test it and get back to you

[WingTips]

at the moment I am getting aout 4mbps using Orange, this is a jump from 2mbps last year when the exchnge was upgraded.

[WingTips]

If you live in a Trafford BT telephone Exchange area...and have one of these...

and then see one of these...



which together look like this...



hold on to your hats cos you are about to become Superfast enabled, (thats the theory anyway) the new cabs ( street talk for cabinet according to the BT engineer I was talking to) the new ones smaller cabs are being installed in and around the Salford area at the moment, as soon as the new cab is enabled its older brother will be removed, so at last it looks like it starting to happen.

[WingTips]

And they`re at it again....


Virgin Media starts doubling UK broadband speeds


Virgin Media has today started doubling the cable broadband speeds of its subscribers, as the firm attempts to solidify its position as "the fastest broadband provider in the UK".

The cable operator announced in January that its 4m customers would have their speeds doubled at no extra cost in a network upgrade programme funded by a £110m cash injection using the "remaining proceeds" from its £339m sale of the 50% stake in pay-TV operator UKTV last year.

Over the next 18 months, subscribers to Virgin Media's current 10Mbps, 20Mbps, 30Mbps and 50Mbps services will see their speeds "at least doubled", while the company's 100Mbps package will increase to a market-leading 120Mbps.

By mid-2013, the network upgrade will have rolled out across Virgin Media's entire footprint of nearly 13 million homes in Britain.

Virgin has now started upgrading the first batch of 1.5 million homes as part of the "double speeds" programme. Over March and April, the following areas will be upgraded: Newcastle, Tilbury, Southend, Ely, Melton, Andover, Poplar, Dover, Ashford, Rawtenstall, Belfast, Solihull, Maidstone, Castlecary, Grimsby, Ipswich, St Mellons, Flitwick, Preston, Dundee, Glenrothes, Wakefield, Doncaster, Barnsley, Cambridge, Cosham, Hemel Hempstead, Mansfield, Oldham and Bedford.

Customers will have their speeds doubled automatically as the rollout reaches their area, and they can check when they will be upgraded by visiting the 'double speed' section of Virgin Media's website.

Virgin Media also said that when the 120Mbps service rolls out, subscribers will also see a "price drop" to the high-end package.

"Virgin Media has driven broadband development in the UK and we're delighted to be boosting our customers' broadband speeds once again," said Jon James, the executive director of broadband at Virgin Media.

"Following our Double Speeds programme, all of our customers will be 'superfast' as standard and ready to access a new breed of high bandwidth entertainment services.

"By continuing to give our customers faster speeds and greater value services, we're committed to providing our customers the best broadband in the UK."

As with most internet service providers, Virgin Media operates traffic management across its network to manage the network capacity and quality at peak times.

The company said that it will introduce new peak time allowances for customers as part of the speed-doubling programme, and it will be trialling a "variety of different approaches" to traffic management over the coming months to make the system "more intelligent and flexible".

Just a pity half of Manchester can`t get it. On reflection whilst other Cities, towns, etc are fighting tooth and nail to get SFBB Manchester and Salford dont appear to be shouting from the roof tops about this.


http://www.digitalspy.co.uk

[andysimo123]

I don't know where you've got this 'no where in Manchester has Virgin Cable access' from. I know that from last month 10 million homes in the UK could get 100mb from Virgin and by the summer it should be around 13 million which is half the number of homes there are in the UK. That news document you posted about availability of broadband over 24mb even stated 78% of Manchester's 209,000 dwellings have access to it. I bet if you type in some random Disbury, Chorlton, East Manchester, Northenden and Wythenshawe postcodes most if not all of them will have Virgin cable access. Didn't you even say, you could have it if you wanted but have chosen not too?

The problem isn't its not available, its that the people who built the big blocks of flats that Fortun3 lives in and many others like it were never planned to have multiple cables systems running throughout the building. You think how just many apartment blocks have never had it installed, and then how many have been built, I'd guess its most of them. My view is they should do but surely thats down to the owner of the building to pay for that to be pre-installed. They normally plan a basic phone line, a joint media connection for sky/tv aerial and thats it. For example in many of these apartment blocks instead of just allowing you to put a dish on the side of the building, they have their own media centre which you pay for. I know Urban Splash did that with Budenberg, it was shit.

So as the email from Virgin said and what I've said in the past pages is Virgin are installing cable to new blocks of flats and new housing. She did say they do have a program. What I'd do Fortun3 is reply back and ask if your apartments can be considered for the 2013 program.

[WingTips]

Just to clarify andy I personally dont know anyone that has it.

[Fortun3]

Originally Posted by andysimo123

The problem isn't its not available, its that the people who built the big blocks of flats that Fortun3 lives in and many others like it were never planned to have multiple cables systems running throughout the building. You think how just many apartment blocks have never had it installed, and then how many have been built, I'd guess its most of them. My view is they should do but surely thats down to the owner of the building to pay for that to be pre-installed. They normally plan a basic phone line, a joint media connection for sky/tv aerial and thats it. For example in many of these apartment blocks instead of just allowing you to put a dish on the side of the building, they have their own media centre which you pay for. I know Urban Splash did that with Budenberg, it was shit.

So as the email from Virgin said and what I've said in the past pages is Virgin are installing cable to new blocks of flats and new housing. She did say they do have a program. What I'd do Fortun3 is reply back and ask if your apartments can be considered for the 2013 program.

Yeah very true, I know the mediacity apartments don't have phone lines, only ethernet running to every apartment and you pay depending on how much bandwidth you want. It's not all bad though as you can choose up to 100mb

City Lofts was built in 2006/2007 and I know there are cable routes into each apartment. Not to anywhere convenient like the living room but you'd be able to get it into each apartment's utility cupboard without any bother. What they said in their reply about being able to get permission from the leaseholder/landlord is probably a more accurate reason for not doing it: our landlord does the bare minimum and I'd be surprised if they'd let something like this go ahead without tenants or virgin media giving them some cash first.