Though broadband penetration in Great Britain enjoyed a breakout year in '08, with 14 million households (and 9 in 10 at-home internet users) enjoying high-speed connections, connectivity is still less mainstream than UK residents would prefer.
Tired of waiting for the big ISP's to launch faster network service, a number of rural communities are jerry-rigging their own methods. Some 40 local broadband projects are currently underway, according to the Communications Consumer Panel, a national advisory body.
Community-owned fibre schemes are popping up in the Cumbrian town of Alston, South Hampshire, and Birchills — an area outside Birmingham — in an attempt to replicate the Netherlands' successful OnsNet scheme.
OnsNet is a community-owned high-speed fibre network that enabled 7500 Dutch homes to get online within three months, resulting in broadband penetration of 97% in its first year of operation.
To run the fibre to individual homes, UK-based villagers gleaned financial support from local councils and their Regional Development Agencies. Some funds were also contributed by the European Social Fund, writes the BBC.
And the European Commission, which recently considered calling broadband internet access "a universal right," may also become a potential source of financing for larger projects. If the local connectivity hustle proves successful, it will bring faster internet to 550,000 homes in the South Yorkshire area over the next three years, with first houses wired by the second half of 2009.
Community-based efforts are no replacement for the plans of the big operators, however. They must find a way to exist side by side, remarked Roger Darlington, author of the report.
Just because the community is wired doesn't mean the connection will be particularly speedy: a Nielsen Online study of UK connection speeds in April found 52% of online Britons surf the web at speeds between 512Kbps and 2Mbps, one-third are connected at a speed between 2Mbps and 8Mbps, and just 3% are cruising at over 8Mb per second.
Globally, South Koreans are the fastest on the wild, wild web: 64% of connections occurred at 5 Mbps or greater, Akamai reported in June '08. Japan, Hong Kong, Sweden and Belgium rounded out the top five.
In the US, the House Appropriations Committee directed $6 billion (of an $825 billion stimulus package) to the development of broadband networks in rural areas, working toward a goal recently voiced by President Obama of giving "every child" access to the web.
