Does this mean everyone in Blackpool is leaving cleo?

[dezt]

Just seen this on bbc, are Blackpool currently on cleo network? This says things are to change

BBC News - Blackpool Council to provide its own broadband to public buildings

[Geoff]

Blackpool is a unitary authority (Blackburn is too IIRC) and not part of the wider Lancashire County County which CLEO covers, so no.

[dezt]

Oh, so that doesn't explain the massive price hike then.

[Dos_Box]

Yup. Blackpool has never been in CLEO IIRC. As a unitary authority they did their own thing. It always make's me smile on my way out of Blackpool when you see the 'Welcome to Lancashire' sign.

I do like this bit:

 

She said the framework would "allow for at least six other Lancashire councils to collaborate and join the network".

 

Does that mean 'It's very expensive and we'd like others to help out with costs'?

[Geoff]

Well yes, economies of scale say if they pool together with other Lancashire councils they are all going to save a bit of cash. The logical conclusion is that this sort of infrastructure provisioning should be done at County level though isn't it?

[Dos_Box]

BT Now run all of the LCC IT infrastructure. Perhaps some people don't want them as their service provider?

[bossman]

@Geoff:

 

You would certainly think so, unfortunately in this world of economics LA's cannot compete against the big boys, we asked this question of our LA and they told us that they cannot due to cost factors beyond their control.

 

Unless they are laying in their own dark fibre if they have the certification and the man power to do so and even then they cannot price match against the likes of BT Openreach and VirginMedia etc etc!

 

Our LA did exactly this and still haven't been able to match the top 5 ISP's for price and service.

 

It is an unfortunate state of play but this is the real world and profits have to be made even in the LA.

[ConradJones]

how does laying fibre work? Do virgin media lay through ducting owned by open reach.

[ConradJones]

It is an unfortunate state of play but this is the real world and profits have to be made even in the LA.

 

Especially now they are outsourced and run by private companies.

[Geoff]

how does laying fibre work? Do virgin media lay through ducting owned by open reach.

 

Yes, BT willl let anyone do this.

 

http://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home/products/ductandpolesharing/ductandpolesharing/ductandpolesharing.do

 

Virigin doesn't let BT at it's ducts though.

 

Ofcom UK Shuns BT Demand for Virgin Media to Open its Broadband Cable Ducts − ISPreview UK News

Edited May 17, 2013 by Geoff

[r0bins]

Hi all, just stumbled across this. Being involved with TNP, I can shed some light:

 

 

Regarding the above article - yes, this only relates to Blackpool and some other unitary and local authorities named on the procurement, not the larger Lancashire piece which as you'll know, has been BT Oneconnect/LCC since it was taken over from Lancaster Uni back in 2011. Part of the point in this procurement is to try and avoid the kind of price hikes being seen across the LCC region by offering more flexibility to Blackpool (and others).

 

 

RE some of the terminology above - regarding suppliers not being able to match BT Openreach - BT Openreach is a regulated network operator (by Ofcom), it doesn't sell services directly to customers at all (hence Local Authorities not being able to use them directly unless they spin off their own commercial operation). Any supplier registered as a communications provider with Openreach can use Openreach fibre at the same cost as anyone else, BT retail/wholesale included. That's the whole point in Openreach not being a part of BT Retail/Wholesale/Global, Openreach just runs the underlying network assets and the pricing is a level playing field to all. So yes, smaller operators can and do undercut BT (and Virgin Media). Of course, it's also possible to lay Dark Fibre and use Microwave where appropriate.

 

 

Cheers,

Robin.