Sunday, 11 February 2007

Local broadband co-operative 3-C helped finance a visit to Neunen in Holland, small town which has pioneered "fibre to the home" technology. 80% of the community now uses this technology. Could "fibre to the home" be developed for Hebden Bridge and other towns in the Upper Valley?

What is fibre to the home (FTTH)?

Fibre to the home (FTTH) is the supply of telecommunications services to customers’ premises using optical fibre instead of traditional copper cable. FTTH allows a range of communications and entertainment services to be offered, including:

• high speed broadband
• television
• interactive two-way video-based services
• voice over IP telephony (VOIP) - free calls using the Internet

How is FTTH different to existing technologies?

FTTH's has the ability to offer very high bandwidth. The quality of service, unlike with copper wires, does not deteriorate over distance. To some extent it is a 'future proof' technology - once FTTH infrastructure is installed, future advances in services should be easily possible.

This would be a major project for Hebden Bridge and would involve the laying of fibre optic cables throughout the town. According to those who visited Neunen, there is a serious possibility for funding for such a project.

The Hebden Bridge Web helped lead the campaign to bring broadband to this area in October 2003. At the time, we stated that it was important to keep Hebden Bridge at the forefront of future developments in technology. With fibre to the home Hebden Bridge might once more take the lead.

See 3-C website for more details of this technology and the trip to Neunen.

More on broadband from the Hebden Bridge Web