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UK Lifeguards Dig Their Own 100Mbps Fiber-Optic Link
MJackson writes "The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) in Humber, a large tidal estuary situated on the east coast of Northern England, has just become one of the UK's most remote-rural locations to have a next generation 100Mbps Fibre Optic FTTH broadband link installed. The deployment is being sponsored by FibreStream and amazingly the groundworks were completed by the lifeboat crew literally digging their own fibre. We'd do the same on our road, but the government would probably object."
What happened to social responsibility and volunteering? Most people want great service, but just expect someone else to do the work. In the current economic environment, lets hope to see more local projects like this.
sudo mount --milk --sugar
They probably felt the need to do this given that all of Hull ISPs are crap.
There is nothing interesting going on at my blog
Lifeguards are hunky guys (and gals) in swimming costumes who save swimmers (or, rather, non-swimmers!) at beaches and swimming pools. The RNLI is the Royal National Lifeboat Institution: note "lifeboat".
Only 100mbs? And how is this "next generation"? Our company has a 1go fibre-optic connection straight into the web backbone. If you're going to do all that digging yourself, you might as well lay some decent cable and connections.
No, no sig. Really.
ThePromenader
This lifeboat station is a bit remote ( 53 34'34.34"N 0 6'39.69"E - take a look in Google Earth - it's quite a place). According to the station website it is 16 miles to the nearest shop, God knows how how far to a telephone exchange, so ADSL was never an option. Next, the RNLI is a charity supported entirely by money received from the public. They get nothing from the government, which is a Good Thing for the efficiency of the service; but does mean that there was no way to afford the horrendous install fee for 16 miles of cable.
All the crews and their families live at the station - imagine that as a way of life.
"Cock Up Your Beaver" does not mean what you think. This sig is intended to clog filters and annoy do-gooders
You must remember that our national life boar service (RNLI) is a CHARITY and receives NO government sponsorship whatsoever. They get all there cash by collecting in the streets, collecting tins in shops and charity events... They are a truly amazing charity and save hundreds of lives . All there members are highly motivated volunteers who have ordinary jobs but when called upon drop everything and go and save lives what ever the weather. So my point is that it is not so amazing that they dug there own fiber link, they do after all maintain all there own kit and are out to save as much cash as possible because they don't have that much of it in the first place. http://www.rnli.org.uk/rnli_near_you
but the government would probably object.
It got hog-tied in red tape.
Thats great - i'm currently in South Africa (working) and it's like going back in time. Still paying $$$ for 64k circuits etc.. i'll get my shovel.
www.redcu.be
We'd do the same on our road, but the government would probably object.
That's just an assumption and has no relation with the rest of the summary.
There are similar projects in Sweden, where companies give the option to customers to bury their own fiber (with periodic oversight of course). This eliminates the initial expense of FTTH installation for the cash-strapped small ISP, and as a by-product apparently significantly reduces churn, as people become emotionally attached to the fiber they dug into the ground. It's a win-win for everyone. Of course in America the incumbents don't actually want everyone to have fiber, as they prefer to charge hugely inflated prices for substandard internet connections that require little to no provisioning of bandwidth.
For the americans on here who are quite rightly confused about who and what the RNLI are, they're like the US Coastguard. They go out in boats in insane conditions and save people from sinking. They don't have any helicopters (our navy do that), but aside from that they're pretty much the same. With one minor exception: They receive no funding from the Government whatsoever. Insane though it sounds, they get all their funds from charity donations. Give generously.
The truth shall always be free: Boris Floricic is Tron.
I, for one, welcome our new fiber-digging lives-saving overlords.
PS: captcha = parade
We'd do the same on our road, but the government would probably object.
Somehow this struck me as being seriously fucked up aka government gone wrong.
I mean of all the people in the world, the ones that own this street, are the ones that live in it, payed the taxes to build it, and own the government that "officially" owns it.
It's very literally your street. And everyone in the local community should be happy that you show so much responsibility and involvement in it.
And about laws: They are there to define what would hurt the community, and is therefore not allowed in it.
But I can't see how you laying your own wires in a proper way could possibly hurt anyone on this planet. It could only do good.
So I'd quite simply expect to be able to do it, after informing the local mayor that it is properly planned. Even he will definitely benefit from this, and so will be very stupid to deny it.
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
Who ever was the original poster deserves a good thrashing! Not saying that Lifeguards are not capable, but this was not a group of lifeguards!
"the RNLI is a charity supported entirely by money received from the public. They get nothing from the government, which is a Good Thing for the efficiency of the service;"
I wouldn't say "efficiency of service" is measured as to whether or not you get government money. I have worked for commercial companies that are incredibly inefficient and they don't get a penny of government money. I'd not say "efficiency" is a direct correlation to how much you have to do with a government. Maybe distance from funding source, not giving a damn where the money's coming from and not being accountable?
I personally also find it amazing and shocking that as a small island nation the people responsible for pulling drowning people out of the water, going miles out to sea in huge storms to save drowning sailors and rescue fishermen are voluntary and unfunded.
...a teeny apartment about as large as most people's bathrooms in the US, and pay more for it then what a two story home sitting on a few acres costs here. And twice a day you stand up smashed against other humans, just to go ride back and forth to some office where you can be smashed up against other humans all the work day long.
Much as I would like better internet service, that sort of trade is not a good one. A lot of people just wouldn't like that human termite existence.
With the bodies they probably have from all that rescue work (it IS very hard and risky) and the scandalous absence of funding it's more logical to assume they're *providing* it.. :-)
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Further details about the Humber station:
Its the only station with a fully professional crew. Other stations are either all volunteer (those with only Inshore boat), have one (Mechanic) or two (Coxswain & Mechanic) professionals with the rest of the crew being volunteers (the big All Weather boats) or a largely professional crew supplemented by volunteers (the E Class boats on the River Thames in London).
There are several advantages to using volunteers, one very important one being that its possible to justify having stations that do very few rescues but are there for the rare occasions where someone needs them.
YouTube of the installation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozoA4x5k2Dg
Humber Lifeboat Station at the RNLI website:
http://www.rnli.org.uk/rnli_near_you/north/stations/humbereastyorkshire/?page=2
Humber Lifeboat "Pride of the Humber" - around UKP 2 Million (USD 3 Million) of Fly By Wire All Weather Goodness
http://www.rnli.org.uk/who_we_are/press_centre/photos/photo_detail?articleid=344763
The crews website
http://www.spurnpoint.com/lifeboat.htm
Humber Lifeboat at work
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2WtSPcGpKw
No connection with the RNLI btw, other than they once rescued me and I donate by subscription.
The UK government's scheme for the future is so completely lacking in ambition, that their future plans are obsolete - even by today's standards.
It looks like people will need to take their economic needs in to their own hands, and do what should have been mandated by regulation many years ago. If this means digging up our own streets to get 1Gbit fibre links to every home in the next 1-5 years, this is what we must do, or the UK will be left behind in a technological dark age.
what rubbish. there are far more remote places that have fibre connectivity to their ISP or nearest net-feed (internet router handling their traffic). most of them cant be publically listed of course (just think about remote military bases)
'remote' in the UK translates to 'small journey' in US distance terms ;-)
The Life Guards are one of the regiments in the Household Cavalry.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_Guards_(British_Army)
Now why are they digging holes like civilian labourers?
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
Sometimes doing part of the project yourself will shame the utility company into finishing the job. Here in northern British Columbia, BC Hydro was very slow to bring electricity to Stony Creek, an Indian village about 12km outside of the town of Vanderhoof. The way that they got electricity was that the people of the village went out and cut down the trees and made the poles themselves, then set them up along the road. This shamed BC Hydro into adding the wiring.
I think the incorrect occurrence of "there" was hogging his attention.
100 mbps is not much for fibre, rather steampunkish than next-gen.