Network Startup Could Offer Broadband To BT Boss’s Neighbours

UK start-up Sharedband has said it could provide broadband to people in the rural village of Hambelden, struggling with dial-up while their neighbour BT chairman Sir Michael Rake has a 1Mbps line.

For customers outside normal broadband coverage, Sharedband combines lines together so that, for instance, two 500kbps lines can be added up to make a 1Mbps connection, for an additional cost of £10 per month, on top of line rental from BT or a competitor.

The experimental BET technology BT has used for Sir Michael’s broadband also bonds together phone lines but uses a more complex technology, said SharedBand business director, Richard Roberts.

“Sharedband would love to provide its solution to customers such as Sir Michael Rake’s neighbours, particularly as it would cost considerably less than the solution that Sir Michael is trialing,” said Roberts.

According to the BT Broadband site, phone lines in Hambleden can get a broadband speed of 256kbps (we used the phone number of local pub, the Stag and Huntsman as a benchmark), so Sharedband could in theory provide a 1Mbps line to anyone who takes up four BT lines.

Sharedband currently only bonds up to two lines in its domestic offer, and a four-line solution would have to be provided under its “business grade” package at £20 a month per line, so the total cost of a 1Mbps Sharedband line would be £125 a month, including four BT landlines at £11.25 a month.

Urban surfers who can get 4Mbps broadband for maybe £10 a month may think 1Mbps at £125 is outrageous, but it’s better than the £38,000 connection fee one of Sir Michael’s neighbours was quoted for a leased line.

And Sharedband is considering extending its domestic rate to allow more lines, Roberts told eWEEK Europe, so Hambleden residents might then get broadband for only £85 a month.

Sharedband doesn’t currently have customers in Hambleden, but provides its solution to customers “on the wrong side of the Digital Divide”, in Scotland, Lincolnshire, Wales, Cornwall and the Lake District, said Roberts.

The government has promised to provide a universal service of 2Mbps to all citizens, but the technology to provide it has been controversial, with BT criticising proposals to use wireless in rural “not spots” . Some rural communities have clubbed together to get their own fibre link.

Opposing plans from Labour and the Conservative party are likely to leave rural broadband in limbo until the next general election, commentators have said.