Post on 05-Aug-2020
Broadband for the Rural North Ltd Barry Forde -‐ CEO
B.Forde@b4rn.org.uk
www.b4rn.org .uk
2
Design Funding Corporate
100% of properties in parish 1Gbs/1Gbs guaranteed £150 connect, £30/mth
2f per property Dark fibre to Telecity
DWDM scalable
1700 properties 250Km2
173Km trunk duct 137Km spur duct
180m dig per property £1.473M infrastructure Cost per metre ~£4.75
£1.86M to build £1.2M material £0.66M labour
£2M share offer EIS compatible 30% tax rebate
Incentives £1500 free connect and 12 month free
£350K cash shares £660K labour shares £510K RCBF grant
£340K revenue/loans
IPS ComBen
Not for Profit
Design • Detailed Network design completed • 16mm/12mm duct (blown fibre) • Cross county • Build cost is £1.86M
– 100% of properMes – No one too far or too expensive – It’s a community project
• £660K = labour costs – This is work that can be done by community
• £1.2M = materials – This includes work we cannot do ourselves – Road crossing, direcMonal drills
Community Involvement
• Created web site – Over 890 registraMons – 220 have bought shares for cash
• Overall sign up 35% – Most routes >50%, best is 81% – A small number of routes have low take up which skews results
• Need the community to donate labour – Lots of farmers and land owners have signed up to do the work. – Confident that the full work element will be delivered by community members – Surprised how many housewives offering to dig across their gardens to help
us! • Need landowners to grant free wayleaves
– Doesn't seem to be a problem, – Very few refusniks and easy to reroute round them – Community spirit is alive and well in Lancashire....
Skills
• 80% of labour costs are digging ducts and crossing walls and fences – Plenty of people in the country know how to do this – and have the equipment to do it – And are signing up to help
• 20% is down to fibre installaMon and terminaMon. – We have included the cost of training up volunteers within the budget.
– And buying in all the equipment they need – Plenty of people have put their names down
Broadband for the rural North Ltd
• Industrial and Provident Society Act 1965 • Company number 31352R (R indicated an IPS) • Community Benefit Society
– Similar to coop but answerable to community rather than our shareholders, more like a charity in some ways
• One member one vote, not related to number of shares member holds
• Asset lock
Membership
• Minimum investment is £100 • Maximum investment is £20,000 • These are per person limits • Mutual Society so 1 member 1 vote • From year 4 can apply to withdraw investment • Remains a member so long as £100 remains • If all shares withdrawn ceases to be a member • No longer able to vote and determine policy of B4RN
Type “A” shares
• 1,500,000 Type “A” shares – available to anyone who wants to buy them – Minimum subscripMon is £100 – This makes you a member of B4RN and you get one vote
– Buy £500 or more and you become eligible for EIS (Enterprise Investment Scheme)
– tax relief 30% of the value of shares purchased
Type “B” Shares
• We want to encourage members of the community to involve themselves in the network build
• We believe 90% of the labour element will be done by community volunteers
• So 500,000 “B” shares reserved for purchase by those doing work
• sweat rather than swag equity? • This recognises volunteers efforts and allows them to build a long term stake in the project
EIS
• Both “A” and “B” shares are the same for EIS relief purposes
• Purchasers of £500 or more of shares are eligible for EIS tax relief at 30%
• Scheme has been pre-‐approved by HMRC
Core Status
• Village node cabinets arrive Friday 30th • Fibre to Telecity goes live <end June • DWDM kit same date • Working on diverse fibre route • Juniper MX240 into Telecity for end June • ConnecMon to EDGE-‐IX & IP-‐Transit • RIPE –LIR in place • BGP4 peering being designed • Full IP service into B4RN by end June • Go Live date 14th July (BasMlle Day)
Duct status
• Duct and access chambers for core routes in our stores – 1Km reel 7x16mm ducts is 2.2m, weighs 1200Km – 150 tons of material to do 11 core routes
• 11 core routes underway • First 2 due to be completed by end June • All 11 (50Km trunk, 30Km spur) within three months
– 500 properMes • Remaining 32 to follow as funding allows
Project Management
• Lots of enthusiasMc volunteers • Lots of individual land owners doing their own bit
• Dozens? Hundreds? All working on their own small bit of the project
• Each bit is low tech • BUT added together we get something special