Upload speeds

We think something may be a little awry with our uploading capacity: upload speed ought to be 256kbps, but tests on some occasions are showing speeds from 50-90kpbs. The answer may simply be to try again later: if too many of us are uploading simultaneously then inevitably there will be problems. The alternative possibility is that somehow our telecoms or our network control equipment is not working correctly - and we are investigating these possibilities.

Last Friday some of our equipment was replaced in the hope this would iron out some wrinkles in the system. We will keep you posted.

National exams

Qualifications & Curriculum Development Agency is concerned about the risk of unlawful publication of National Curriculum test questions on the internet in advance of the tests on 10th May. We would like to remind users that this may constitute a breach of our terms and conditions.

Lingen in the News

Not only did Lingen Community Broadband make it onto BBC Tv's Midlands Today on 30th March, but we made a guest appearance in the House of Commons during the pre-election budget debate on 25th March.

Bill Wiggin said: "Broadband is another example of rural communities being badly left behind. Towns and villages in my constituency that are not connected are suffering. Only 58 per cent. of households in the rural west midlands have fixed broadband connections. According to the Commission for Rural Communities, 42 per cent. of rural England can currently only access speeds of 2 megabits per second or below. I have written to Ministers, whose answers show that the Government have no idea of the percentage of business and residential properties in Herefordshire without access to the 2 megabits per second envisaged in Digital Britain. I met representatives of BT the other day to discuss the issue, and they were keen to help, but BT is a business too. It has shareholders, and faces challenges of its own. I am extremely worried that the Government's policy will not work."

Lingen currently has no broadband provider. A company called QiComm used to provide it, but can no longer do so because the service is not commercially viable. Members of the community joined forces to get a service up and running themselves, with the support of the local council. There are 36 users, whose broadband service will be operational from 1 April. That demonstrates what can be done when users get together. However, if they are to pay tax on their phone bills, they will be paying for something that they used not to have but went out and acquired for themselves. I do not think that the Government's 50p tax on fixed-line telephones will deliver the changes that we would all like to see."

You can find the debate at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmhansrd/cm100325/debindx/100325-x.htm

First Members' meeting

Early warning that our first members' meeting - equivalent of a shareholders meeting - will be on 10th June 2010. Members' will get a formal agenda very soon but it is likely to include a financial update and an opportunity to elect directors.

Making the service more reliable

As users will know, we've had some glitches thanks to the unhappy arrangements at our network hub in Leintwardine. We're taking urgent steps to put those right and this includes arranging for Central Networks to install our own, separate, metered electricity supply. It's another cost we'd not bargained for - there seem to be quite a few of them - but once it's done we'll have removed one big chunk of uncertainty and unreliability. We're hopeful this will be completed before 1st May.

Ofcom

We're just finalising our OfCom registration: a few points to resolve, but all fairly straightforward. Contact David or Judith if you'd like the details.

Company Secretary

We've now completed the legal formalities, so Judith Phillips is now company secretary for good and proper.

Our first glitch

Having completed all the complicated stuff it was inevitable, really, that something fiddly should trip us up: we thought at first that some of the customer data on the network management device was input incorrectly - or a line of software code had got garbled - but we now think it was simply that the customer units on some of the houses hadn't quite digested the software update they were all given earlier in the week. The customer units were (remotely) given a second dose, and now all seem to be working. A big thank-you to Rob, who lost his Bank Holiday Friday morning whilst putting our network to rights.

Success!

6.25 pm, and the service is working. And I'm getting a nice strong signal and excellent bandwidth.

Drama on Day One....

This isn't the place - and I'm absolutely not in the mood - to go into the details, but if you bump into me (or into Brian in the pub) don't forget to ask about today's drama. A story you would not believe. Honestly. Fraught isn't the word.

Suffice it to say that QiComm and our ADSL provider both did us proud and share no part in the blame for the astronomic rise in stress levels. The network control equipment and router turned up wonderfully early at 9.30 am - although for reasons known only to the parcels delivery service it was addressed to Lingen Methodist Chapel. Certainly not QiComm's fault - we think someone at the parcels firm with a postcode database and not much common sense was responsible. Fortunately I was looking out of the window and we intercepted the parcel. As for the ADSL connections we needed, the service went live at about 2pm, with users gradually added to the network from late afternoon onwards. To find out exactly why it was as late as it was, you'll need to catch me or Brian, or perhaps Steve or Monica, all of whom have the full story....

....and now we wait

The service is now down. We're awaiting the delivery this morning of the two pieces of hardware - a router and a network manager - that connected into the system at our Leintwardine hub. Once they're here our engineer, Rob, will perform his magic tricks. Then we wait for our ADSL connections to go live. That could be in a few minutes, a few hours, or not until 10pm-ish tonight. Anxiety levels are high... fingers crossed.