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Communications The Internet United Kingdom

The Farmer Who Built Her Own Broadband (bbc.com) 157

An anonymous reader writes from a BBC article: "I'm just a farmer's wife," says Christine Conder, modestly. But for 2,300 members of the rural communities of Lancashire she is also a revolutionary internet pioneer. Her DIY solution to a neighbour's internet connectivity problems in 2009 has evolved into B4RN, an internet service provider offering fast one gigabit per second broadband speeds to the parishes which nestle in the picturesque Lune Valley. That is 35 times faster than the 28.9 Mbps average UK speed internet connection according to Ofcom. It all began when the trees which separated Chris's neighbouring farm from its nearest wireless mast -- their only connection to the internet, provided by Lancaster University -- grew too tall. Something more robust was required, and no alternatives were available in the area, so Chris decided to take matters into her own hands. She purchased a kilometre of fibre-optic cable and commandeered her farm tractor to dig a trench. After lighting the cable, the two farms were connected, with hers feeding the one behind the trees. "We dug it ourselves and we lit [the cable] ourselves and we proved that ordinary people could do it," she says. "It wasn't rocket science. It was three days of hard work."
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The Farmer Who Built Her Own Broadband

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  • by Anonymous Coward

    You would be arrested and thrown in jail for endangering the livelihood of some mega corp.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      The cable or phone company would come after you for violating the terms of service. Or it would be too expensive to get the service and start a small ISP here. Even if it was possible, it would be tough to find enough neighbors that would be willing to try a small ISP anymore.

      • by darkain ( 749283 ) on Tuesday December 27, 2016 @01:21AM (#53558623) Homepage

        Very much this! I've personally looked into doing this in my neighborhood. For what ever reason, getting "business" gigabit internet where I live is in the range of $3000-10000/mo. But for what ever reason, the EXACT same company can provide "residential" gigabit internet for only $79/mo. It is literally the same wires going to the same data center in town. The only difference is the terms of service.

        • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

          by Anonymous Coward

          You are paying for the ratio of users to data capacity. The ISP has a uplink to the rest of the internet at a fixed capacity (T5 link = 480 Mbps), which is then shared out between customers. Business customers get exclusive use of their share, but have to pay the full cost. Residential customers get a discount because not everyone is using the internet at the same time, so the ISP can have 2 or more customers "sharing" capacity because not everyone is reading Email or web surfing at the same time. The more

          • by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Tuesday December 27, 2016 @07:29AM (#53559205)

            Residential customers get a discount because not everyone is using the internet at the same time [...]

            That's bullshit, and everyone who has to "share" his bandwidth knows it. Over here you can get "up to" bandwidths, which means that you're clinging to some cable that you share with others. What this essentially means is that you take the maximum bandwidth the cable allows, divide by the number of subscribers you share it with and that's what you can reasonably expect from your cable.

            And no, we're not talking about people leeching bittorrent dry. We're talking about Mom and Pop Randomsurfer. With webpages bloating from more and more bandwidth-swallowing ads and everyone and their dog watching videos on YouTube and using Netflix instead of TV, everyone is using as much bandwidth as they possibly can.

            So please spare us that "but we can oversell because customers don't use that much in reality" bullshit. Yes, you oversell like crazy, but actually your bandwidth is well saturated outside the 1 to 6am time slot when everyone's sleeping.

            • Typical oversubscription ratios pre Netflix and YouTube era was around 20 to 1 now your lucky to do 7 to 1 in the wireless isp world. So ya fiber to POP will be necessary in the very near future. I would like to see some improvements in the regulation area for smaller players to be able to enter. This would help in the last mile approach and allow more bandwidth per user

              • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

                You're thinking is is almost right. The infrastructure is where the problem actually lies. What is needed is a way to avoid the last mile issue being the monopoly /oligarchy model that we've been running for the last 30+ years or so. Stop viewing the last mile as a "Franchise agreement" and start treating it like a road, where anyone can deliver the packages (FedEx, UPS, USPS ...).

                My solution is municipal owned Fiber Plant, brought back to a COLO facility where you have the choice of providers to bring cont

          • by Bengie ( 1121981 ) on Tuesday December 27, 2016 @08:08AM (#53559261)
            Close but not quite. Residential customers get a discount because residential users as a group have a different bandwidth profile. It's not even just this simple. ISPs costs are typically based on peak usage, which is driven by residential customers. Bandwidth used outside of normal residential peak hours is virtually free. Around here, businesses actually pay the same residential users for the same service.

            Key words there, "same service". My ISP makes no real distinction between business and residential. Both can get static IP blocks for cheap, uncapped dedicated bandwidth, individual strands of fiber back to the CO. If you want an SLA, prepare to pay through the nose.
        • Sorry, no. It's not exactly the same.

          Within the same telco, the business fiber and residential fiber might use different strands, different routers, offer dedicated vs. shared bandwidth, etc. They are quite different.

          For multi-thousands per month, a business customer is paying for dedicated bandwidth. They know that another customer is not going to slow down their access rate. This type of service also offers the option of redundant entrance facilities, diverse routes back to the C.O., etc. For some busines

        • When a residential user reads Slashdot over a gigabit connection, here's what happens:

          1) The browser requests the 150KB web page.
          2) At 1Gbps, that 150KB is transferred in 0.00015 seconds.
          3) The user reads the page for 15 seconds.
          4) GOTO 1 for next web page.

          So it's 0.00015 seconds using the connection to fetch a page, 15 seconds looking at the page, 0.00015 loading, 15 seconds reading. You're actually using the connection only 0.001% of the time. During the 99.999% of the time that you're not loading a page

          • by darkain ( 749283 )

            I guess I should have clarified. The "home" connection is allowed to run a home based business on it. I have an entire server rack at home connected to it and run several TB of data a month over said connection.

            • I'm curious which ISP that is. Most don't allow servers* on a home internet plan. Some block ports 25 and 80, some just disallow it by written policy but don't enforce it.

              * Where "servers" means business-type use, not just anything that accepts a connection.

              • My ISP explicitly allows me to do whatever the hell I want* with my connection. Port 25 is blocked by default, but they'll unblock it for you right away if you ask.

                *Assuming it's not generating complaints, e.g. sending spam or something.
    • by SirSlud ( 67381 ) on Tuesday December 27, 2016 @12:54AM (#53558573) Homepage

      No you wouldn't. In a related note, hyperbole is universal. Maybe what you meant is that they wouldn't let you connect it? And who is they? The US is pretty big. Your ability to do your own last mile varies based on where you are. Americans often don't seem to know or even appreciate that different parts of America are different.

      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Tuesday December 27, 2016 @05:12AM (#53558981) Homepage Journal

        In this case note that they had to connect a local university network. The main broadband providers in the UK, basically BT and in some areas Virgin, won't supply service to people who lay their own fibre. I know because I asked. Their green boxes, where their fibre terminates and they go back to shitty old copper, are fairly close to my house. Even if I lay in fibre to the cabinet myself, they won't allow it to be connected.

        • They refused because even if you are a qualified and registered telecommunications installer, you're replacing their cable and they still have to have their PCIs to verify that you did it right. They'll do it for large installations, such as for a building where it connects to their network, for a hefty fee, but it's too much hassle for them to give permission to screw around in a box they own and have an engineer come out and check your work. Remember how long it took for third (major) parties to be able t

          • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

            Oh, I offered to pay to have them terminate and plug the cable in and all that. I just offered to lay it, which is apparently the expensive bit that they don't want to do.

    • by Dutch Gun ( 899105 ) on Tuesday December 27, 2016 @02:15AM (#53558683)

      You would be arrested and thrown in jail for endangering the livelihood of some mega corp.

      Correct, this could never happen in the US [arstechnica.com]. Definitely, never in a million years [vice.com].

      Or, you could JFDI.

    • You would be arrested and thrown in jail for endangering the livelihood of some mega corp.

      Or for running your cable trench through a muddy patch of ground that the EPA retrospectively declared to be "waters of the United States."

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Post Hole Digger.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Scratching itch, with a ditch witch and a switch...

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by blindseer ( 891256 )

      Would a few lines from "Firefly" be out of order?

      Dr. Simon Tam: River, b- uh, be careful with that, that's, um... What is that?
      Kaylee Frye: That's a post holer. You dig holes. For posts.
      Dr. Simon Tam: It's, uh, it's dirty and sharp.

      Many people are just afraid of things that are dirty and sharp so they leave that to other people. Turns out if the other people are uninterested, either because they are also afraid of things that are dirty and sharp, or they see no profit in it, then things don't get done. Ci

      • Many people are just afraid of things that are dirty and sharp so they leave that to other people. Turns out if the other people are uninterested, either because they are also afraid of things that are dirty and sharp, or they see no profit in it, then things don't get done. Civilization was built by those that wanted to make their lives better and weren't afraid to do the work themselves. A lot of times that means working with tools that are dirty and sharp.

        I was part of a comedy duo back in college called

    • by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Tuesday December 27, 2016 @05:41AM (#53559027)

      For some reason we have the idea that farmers today are some dumb hicks. While modern farming is very advanced. They had self driving tractors for decades. They use big data to help analyze weather and crops. Robotic cow milking... I am a Tech worker and I don't have nearly as much technology to play with than what most farmers have.
      Hey look at that web form I made on your phone see how much more sufficated and advanced we are over our rural neighbors. In many ways our city life in terms of technology skills are behind the farming life. Who needs advanced technology to survive and keep up. While in the cities we can still operating with faxing or just giving a letter to a carrier to send to the next office.

  • by Cyberpunk Reality ( 4231325 ) on Monday December 26, 2016 @11:34PM (#53558391)
    I mean, really, someone has to put a stop to this sort of thing, or next thing you know everyone will be doing it and then where will the monopolies and the billionaires be?
    • I mean, really, someone has to put a stop to this sort of thing, or next thing you know everyone will be doing it and then where will the monopolies and the billionaires be?

      Out on their tractors listening to their favorite music being streamed to them over the internet?

      Reminds me of an old joke, do you know the definition of a farmer? A man out standing in his field.

      • by buss_error ( 142273 ) on Tuesday December 27, 2016 @12:03AM (#53558471) Homepage Journal

        Reminds me of a joke about farmers:
        What's the fastest way to become a agribusiness millionaire?
        Start as an agribusiness billionaire.

        Internet isn't the only choke hold business has on Americans. Some seed providers (who shall remain un-named by me, as I'm no fool and I don't want any more torts from that company) sues it's own customers, and even farmers that never used their seed. If a single seed blows over from another field and sprouts in your field, this company can (and does) sue the farmer down to his toenail lint. Then turns around and transfers the property to it's own farming conglomerate. Doesn't matter if they win, because in the long run that farmer they sued will likely end up bankrupt from the tort.

        Same thing is going on with chicken and hogs. You can't raise your own stock anymore, you have to buy it from the packers, buy the feed they demand from distributors they specify, then once mature, sell it to only the packer that you bought the livestock from, all at prices the conglomerate sets.

        If a farmer or rancher doesn't want to work that way, they are left with finding their own stock in a market that is all but dried up, and hope to sell on the spot export market because they won't be able to sell to national chains in the US.

        Now, let's turn to our President Elect - will he do something about these inequalities? Doubtful. While he doesn't engage in agribusiness himself, I seriously doubt a serial bankrupter and contract violator will welcome any sort of increased oversight or reform.

        I'd like to be wrong on that though.

        • Re: (Score:2, Troll)

          by SirSlud ( 67381 )

          Monsanto. Also, it would be nice if you didn't imply to be something that you're not.

        • by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Tuesday December 27, 2016 @01:46AM (#53558653)

          If a single seed blows over from another field and sprouts in your field, this company can (and does) sue the farmer down to his toenail lint.

          Not true. This accusation has been made many times and in many places. It is a myth, and has been repeatedly debunked. Monsanto has never sued anyone for unintentional cross fertilization. The myth first started with the wildly inaccurate "documentary" David vs Monsanto.

          Monsanto has sued for deliberate and repeated cross fertilization. The most famous defendant was Percy Schmeiser [wikipedia.org]. He was warned several times, and openly admitted that he had isolated, copied, and benefited from the patented Monsanto gene, but claimed he had a right to do so. Several of his co-workers and neighbors testified against him.

          • by Anonymous Coward

            You must be a stockholder, since your claims are false, they can and do regularity sue for as little as 1% cross polenation:

            http://www.cbsnews.com/news/agricultural-giant-battles-small-farmers/

            http://naturalsociety.com/monsanto-sued-farmers-16-years-gmos-never-lost/

            https://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2016/01/04/gmo-patent-controversy-3-monsanto-sue-farmers-inadvertent-gmo-contamination/

            http://www.fooddemocracynow.org/blog/2014/sep/6/monsanto_has_sued_farmers_16_years_never_lost_case

            • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 27, 2016 @04:09AM (#53558873)

              Good job! None of those links support your statement that Monsanto sues farmers "for as little as 1% cross polenation [sic]."

              In fact, one link says the exact opposite. From the Genetic Literacy Project link:

              "To conclude this series, I have found no evidence that farmers are sued by Monsanto for inadvertent contamination. The lawsuits that I examined were for cases where farmers knowingly and admittedly used Monsanto seeds without licensing contracts. The fact that seeds are patented is not exclusive to GMOs: as outlined in the first post, many other traditionally bred seeds are patented. For some seeds, both genetically engineered and traditionally bred, farmers sign annual contracts with seed developers. However, farmers have many choices and in no way are forced to plant these seeds or sign these contracts."

          • by Solandri ( 704621 ) on Tuesday December 27, 2016 @04:58AM (#53558959)
            Have you actually read the Canadian Supreme Court decision against Schmeiser [lexum.com]? It's a complete repudiation of all of Monsanto's claims except for their claim of patent ownership of the seed. And that claim was later disproven.
            • The lower court judgement against Schmeiser was reduced to just $1. Why? Because (and the Monsanto apologists never tell you this) Schmeiser never used Round-Up on his crops. He only used Round-Up to kill weeds in the gulleys between his crops and the road. Never on his crops. As such, there was no way for him to benefit from using Monsanto's patented gene (and in fact no incentive for him to steal it).
            • He "acquired" the seed when he noticed that some stray canola which was growing in the gulleys survived his anti-weed spraying of Round-Up. Since his canola crop was not Round-Up-Ready, the only way the Round-Up-resistant canola could've gotten there is by falling off a passing truck (the explanation the Court decided was correct), or via natural cross-pollination of his crop with a neighbor's Round-Up-Ready crop (the explanation Schmeiser gave for his behavior).
            • The Court decided for Monsanto (5 to 4) because Monsanto claimed it was impossible for the gene to spread by natural cross-pollination as Schmeiser claimed. The Court took Monsanto at their word and decided in their favor because Schmeiser "ought to have known" that any canola which survived spraying with Round-Up was Monsanto's patented seed, not the result of natural cross-pollination.
            • Monsanto's argument was disproven a decade later when researchers found the Round-Up-Ready gene could spread to weeds via cross-pollination [nature.com]. Basically, Schmeiser was right and Monsanto was wrong. The gene could spread through cross-pollination, meaning the Round-Up resistant canola he found next to his fields may very well have been the result of natural cross-pollination, and not Monsanto's patented seed. And the only reason the Canadian Supreme Court decided in Monsanto's favor was erroneous.
        • When they tried that shit in Italy, they got countersued by the farmers for contamination. Who do you think the judges sided with, a foreign company, or people who had been owning their farms since medieval times?
        • Slavery made the Roman Empire great, slavery makes the American Empire great. So no, not much chance of Donald changing anything, especially something that is making America great again. It is what people voted for no?

          • by Bengie ( 1121981 )
            Slavery is a form of high interest debt. Eventually you pay for it. Like a 15% APR credit-card that you only have to pay down once a century or two. You may make the first few payments, but one of them is going to do you in.
          • Slavery makes nothing great, not economically, not morally, not militarily. Slavery destroys initiative and incentive.
        • If a single seed blows over from another field and sprouts in your field, this company can (and does) sue the farmer down to his toenail lint.

          A single seed? [Citation needed]

        • Monsanto is one of the world's great evils for a variety of reasons, and their toxic debt will never be paid. But so far I haven't seen any record of them suing anyone who didn't turn out to deliberately harvest and re-use "their" seeds.

          Mind you, I think the whole idea is horrible, and you should be able to re-plant anything from seed that you want. Once you buy a seed, the seed and any plant coming from it should be yours. The legal system is twisted beyond any semblance of serving the people. But I still

          • "Mind you, I think the whole idea is horrible, and you should be able to re-plant anything from seed that you want. Once you buy a seed, the seed and any plant coming from it should be yours. "

            What? Next you'll want to be able to watch your DVDs in the rec-room of your retirement home.

        • by wbr1 ( 2538558 )
          I'll say the name. Monsanto. Fuck them.
        • When I was a kid and we would occasionally visit a rural church for whatever reason I always heard the farmers talking about how because of the government and big agribusiness there wasn't any money in farming anymore. Then they all got in their brand-new Cadillacs and drove home.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Incredibly, many B4RN customers had been surviving on dial-up services or paying high fees for satellite feeds. Chris says that some still are.

    Clearly, she's an anti-capitalist sociopath terrorist, depriving the hard-working and honest telcos of their honourable business!

    Exterminate exterminate exterminate!

  • by Tokolosh ( 1256448 ) on Monday December 26, 2016 @11:47PM (#53558429)
    From the Twentieth Century Magazine, Vol II, 1910

    CO-OPERATIVE VERSUS COMPETITIVE TELEPHONES

    A VALUED friend, Mr. Arthur E. Harris, of Boston, has kindly given us the following impressive illustration of the difference between a public utility controlled by a modern commercial corporation, and the same monopoly under co-operation. In the one instance we have avarice as the master spirit actuating the promoters, huge dividends for the favored few and poor service for the people being the result. In the other case we have a fine illustration of fraternalism in business, in which the interest and benefit of the people is the first concernâ€"something that should ever be insisted upon in a government that pretends to represent the rule and interests of the people.

    "Some twelve or more years ago," says Mr. Harris, "in the town of Mercer, Maine, where I was born, and where my father still lives, a telephone system was installed among the farmers as a branch of the New England Telephone Company. Stock was sold and the rent for an instrument and the use of the line was fixed at $10 per year.

    "Several of our neighbors bought some of the stock and took great delight in boasting to the less fortunate in the neighborhood that it was paying 18 per cent dividends.

    "But they were not satisfied with making that profit by the exploitation of their neighbors and began to talk of raising the rental fee.

    "The promoter, a man from an adjoining town who had the line put in and who was a member of the trust, was overheard to say: 'We've got to get this up to $15 before we quit.' ' But,' he was asked, 'will the people stand for it?' 'Of course they will. They like it and can't get along without it. We've got themâ€"now squeeze them.'

    "Well, in the country money does not come easily and some, including my father, felt that they could not afford to pay any more, much as they wanted to keep the telephones.

    "They talked it over and an indignation meeting was called.

    "There were two Socialists present, who organized the farmers and put in an independent line upon a Socialist basis - for use, not for profits.

    "Each member contributed $25 in money, material or labor, and received an instrument which he owned, and was entited to one vote at all business meetings.

    "This amount ($25) from each member of the organization paid all the expense of putting in the new line and left something in the treasury. It was a success in every way and has been running about ten years and costs less than $2 per member each year to maintain it.

    "They bought instruments that were much better than those put in by the trust - in fact, two-fifths better.

    "In the place of six, as with the trust line, 20 could now talk without the use of the switch, and could hear better than the six could with the trust line because of the superiority of the instruments.

    "There are no restrictions upon its use and all are satisfied and contented; whereas with the trust line they were kept in a state of irritation by the mean acts of the managers, who were always on the watch for every penny they could grind out. If company - a visitor or a friend - was heard talking, the question promptly came from central 'Who's that talking?' 'Well, collect ten cents.' Their methods and purpose were like those of all big corporations and trusts - their motto, 'First profits, last use'; or, in other words, the maximum profits for the minimum service.

    https://books.google.com/books?id=v0fZAAAAMAAJ&lpg=PR4&ots=puFXQk-1BD&dq=twentieth%20century%20magazine%201910%20competitive%20telephones&pg=PA364#v=onepage&q&f=true
  • I got a fine from the county for using a CB channel for a radio modem, today someone lays a wire from point A to point B and its the effing transalantic cable

    you know what the sad part is, its still 10x faster than than upper end cable modem connection

    • by Osgeld ( 1900440 )

      ps posting from Tennessee where battles against public networks have been fought for decades now

    • by bmo ( 77928 )

      >CB

      Find a local radio club. Get yourself a Technician class license and do all the packet radio you want, and give the county the finger. You don't need to learn morse code.

      A friend of mine went from Novice (when they still had a Novice class with code) to Extra Class in 9 months, which is one step below Radiotelephone Operator license - the kind of license you need to run a commercial broadcast TV or radio station, for example.

      --
      BMO

      • Find a local radio club. Get yourself a Technician class license and do all the packet radio you want, and give the county the finger.

        As long as it's unencrypted and non-commercial.

        Or at least that's what Amateur Radio was like back when I had a Technician class license. Last I heard it still applied to Ham Packet Radio. Have they changed those rules?

        • Nope, the rules have not changed.

          Send whatever you like, so long as it's unencrypted, non-commerical, and not obscene. Modern-day, it's a bit tricky to do browsing, as so much uses https, which is traffic that can't pass over amateur radio legally.

          '73's.

    • by PPH ( 736903 )

      I got a fine from the county for using a CB channel

      The county? Local governments don't have diddly to say about radio spectrum use. The FCC is a different matter.

      I'm not saying that this didn't happen. But if it did, you must live in one of those places with a corrupt local government that takes a financial kickback for everything. Like California.

  • There's been multiple examples of people deploying their own connectivity solution and starting local broadband services. I think it's awesome when people solve a problem for themselves and their neighbors. Take charge, start a project and don't wait for someone else.
    The examples I've seen were in rural area, and I suspect that helped. In more urban areas, the difficulty is getting a right of way from the local government (who is often in bed with incumbent ISPs).
    • There's been multiple examples of people deploying their own connectivity solution and starting local broadband services.

      It was like that in the early days of the Internet, too. I recall one of the first ISPs in Silicon Valley was a guy with a bunch of equipment in his spare bedroom.

      Instead of actual 19" "relay racks" to hold the rack-mount electronics, he built a frame out of two-by-fours, spaced appropriately, and used wood screws to hold the equipment to the frame. Worked like a charm.

      I used to call th

  • by ChoGGi ( 522069 ) <slashdot@NOSpaM.choggi.org> on Tuesday December 27, 2016 @04:55AM (#53558955) Homepage

    Thought this story sounded familiar
    https://tech.slashdot.org/stor... [slashdot.org]

  • "It wasn't rocket science. It was three days of hard work."

    Best News Quote of 2016, hands down. Or 2013. Or sometime. Still the best.

  • Digging a hole in your own property is no rocket science, digging holes in other people's property is.

Don't tell me how hard you work. Tell me how much you get done. -- James J. Ling

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