The Early Years — No BT? We’ll DIY!
In 1999 Cliff Southcombe came to Robin Hood’s Bay. He had been working from home running his company Social Enterprise and so an Internet connection was important to him. The dial-up service was just about OK but was preventing him from working properly and it seemed it might be years until the village would be connected to fast broadband.
He successfully applied for a business grant from North Yorkshire Council which allowed him to buy a satellite dish and a year’s Internet subscription. Aware that he was probably now the only person in the village with broadband, he started informal chats with Jim Foster and others about how his connection could be shared and how, together, we could hasten the arrival of broadband for everyone. He experimented with sharing by running a cable from his satellite connection to his next-door neighbour, which worked well.
From Bayfair 273 June 2003:
Who is interested in getting Broadband? Cliff Southcombe at Falconhurst, trading as Social Enterprise, already has Broadband and is interested in expanding the service to others in the Parish.
Broadband is a faster, more efficient way of accessing the Internet through your computer.
Assisted by the Business Insight programme, Cliff has a satellite dish that allows him to access websites, email and download files swiftly and cheaply without using the telephone.
It may be possible, using radio transmitters, to link up others to this satellite. This possibility is being explored and Social Enterprise is looking to fund an expert to carry out a feasibility study to check this out.
If this is possible, then we could set up a co-operative that would run the service that is competitive and maybe superior to those offered by companies like BT. It may also be the only way in which we will get Broadband to the village in the foreseeable future. Such co-operatives are already springing up in rural areas all over the UK and they are receiving Government support and backing.
Is there a local demand?
But first we need to know how many residents and businesses would be interested in a Broadband service (assuming that it is feasible and at a reasonable cost). Social Enterprise is setting up a register of those interested to get on the register simply call or email.
If you are also interested in joining a steering group that will carry out the feasibility study and hopefully set up the co-operative please contact either Cliff Southcombe or Jim Foster at Bayfair. C.S.
Jim and Cliff then organised a meeting in the Victoria Hotel on 17 July 2003, open to all who were interested, to discuss the possibility of setting up our own social enterprise for the village using the satellite dish at Falconhurst.
From Bayfair 275 August 2003:
Useful progress was made at the meeting at the Victoria Hotel on 17th July called by Cliff Southcombe (a.k.a. Omar dot.com). Neil Metcalfe explained the basics of Broadband, and the problems of using cable connections.
Wireless Broadband seems the best way forward for Fylingdales, but an application to the July 23rd meeting of the SBC Northern Area Committee for £1000 to fund a feasibility study was deferred until October for more information.
From Bayfair 278 November 2003:
Plans to establish a local Broadband Co-operative in Fylingdales received a setback last month [October 2004] when the Northern Area Committee of Scarborough Council voted unanimously not to support an application for a grant of £1000 for a feasibility study. The application had been made by local resident Cliff Southcombe and had the support of both the Parish Council and the RHB Tourism Association.
At the meeting at Whitby Community College on 23rd October, Councillor Joe Plant spoke against the application, which had been recommended for refusal by council officers, on the grounds that it may set an unwanted precedent.
Disappointed
Cliff Southcombe was surprised and disappointed at this result, not least because the Borough Council’s Economic Development Unit had recommended that an application for funds be made to this area committee, and the Committee had deferred a decision in July for more information. He said that the Borough Council had set the incipient project back by six months.
County Route?
Undaunted however, Cliff is in discussions with representatives from North Yorkshire County Council, who already have a wireless network.
Bayfairs in early 2004 did not have much news about Bay Broadband. But broadband must definitely have been on the agenda with people including James Allanson trying to encourage people to register their interest with BT. By April, registrations were nearly 100 with a target of 250.
From Bayfair 283 May 2004:
With more and more people dissatisfied with using the creaking local BT lines to access the internet, the campaign to bring Broadband to Fylingdales is finally gaining momentum. A group of local people are exploring all the possible options – wireless, cable, satellite and ADSL. Local mesh systems have been installed in similarly remote communities and offer many possibilities – such as clear radio and TV reception, much faster speeds and more reliable Internet connections than over the phone line – as well as freeing up the telephone for normal use, or even bypassing BT altogether!
May Meetings
Two meetings of the Group are scheduled for May, both at 7.00 pm and both in the Victoria Hotel Cocktail Bar. On Wednesday 5th May there will be a presentation and discussion about the type of co-operative or company that could be formed to deliver broadband locally.
The second meeting is on Wednesday 19th May when Community Broadband consultant Joel Smith from Dales IT will discuss the technical and economic aspects of community broadband.
Group co-ordinator Cliff Southcombe has more information for anyone interested. Everyone is welcome to attend the meetings.
From Bayfair 284 June 2004
Two meetings last month of local broadband enthusiasts have shown the way forward for Fylingdales to obtain this superfast Internet connection, and all the benefits that can go with it, such as CCTV-type monitoring of vulnerable areas, radio round the world (even Radio 4!), Wi-Fi points, and free phone calls. All it needs is a minimum of 10 to 12 people willing to start the system off, and we could be up and running in as little as three to four weeks!
Joel Smith, of Dales IT, brought sample equipment to the Victoria Hotel last month, and showed just how easy it could be to introduce a “Wireless Mesh” or network of users connected to each other and to a satellite dish by radio links which operate on line of sight. The links between points on the mesh can be up to 2-3 km apart and thus Raw and Ravenscar could be part of the network as well as Bay (Upper and Lower) and Thorpe.
If and when BT Broadband comes over the hill, then the Mesh system could use that to access the World Wide Web, as an alternative (or in addition to) the satellite link. BT is due to announce the target dates for ADSL-enabling at a number of local exchanges, including R H Bay but not Ravenscar, at the end of this month.
What will it cost?
The cost to each home user would be in the region of £25 per month, with an installation fee of around £50. Some additional aerial equipment would probably be required, depending on signal strength. Businesses going over to Broadband can currently obtain grants from Yorkshire Forward to offset 50% of their costs.
B.B.C.C.?
The first step is to set up a Community Co-operative to operate the system. Could it be called the Bay Broadband Community Co-Op, perhaps? Cliff Southcombe has experience of such co-operatives and has offered to act as co-ordinator. To get things moving, anyone wishing to be part of this Broadband Co-Operative is asked to contact .
Given enough support the benefits of Broadband could be seen in Fylingdales as early as this summer and members will be able to access the internet up to 40 times faster than the standard dial-up access!!!. The service should also be far faster than BT ADSL access and cheaper to run!
From Bayfair 285 July 2004:
Following a well-attended meeting on 17th June the Bay Broadband Co-operative Ltd is being formed to bring wireless mesh broadband network to members in the Fylingdales area. More info from Cliff.
And from Parish Council news:
Councillors agreed to a grant of £250 to the BBC to help establish the necessary infrastructure for the planned wireless mesh network.
Several business models were considered. It was agreed to use a co-operative model whereby its members could pay a monthly fee that should cover the costs of running the service. Bay Broadband Co-operative was registered as a Company Limited by Guarantee on 11 August 2004 using articles supplied by Cliff Southcombe. This was a one person/one vote model where each member guarantees £1. The not-for-profit status also allowed the co-operative to apply for grants which would help in establishing the system.
The co-operative was initially governed by a self-selected board recruited from those who attended that first meeting. The board was elected by the members at the first AGM.
From Bayfair September 2004:
The Bay Broadband Co-operative Ltd. has now been established as a not-for profit-company, and has 21 paid-up members. A grant of £1,000 has been provided by the North Yorkshire County Council Northern Area Committee. This will enable the Co-op to purchase the equipment needed to start test transmissions for the proposed wireless mesh network within the next few weeks.
Internet Connection
Co-op members are still evaluating the various options of linking up to the world wide web. Satellite is available and can be connected within weeks. An Internet feed should be available from the BT exchange when it is upgraded (scheduled for April 2005). However, a better long-term option is a connection to the North Yorkshire County Council’s own broadband network. This is operated by MLL Telecom on behalf of the County Council, but information and access are proving more difficult to obtain than they should.
From Bayfair 290 January 2005:
Bay Broadband Co-operative’s high-speed Internet service has finally arrived. The satellite dish was (re-)installed on Mt. Pleasant South on 17th December, and since then three repeater stations have been set up, (on Victoria Terrace, Fylingthorpe and Demesne Farm) and a number of lucky people are already online. Initial feedback from users of the system is very positive, with super-fast downloads, email, access to streamed radio, video news clips, and website uploads all functioning well. Switching to the Aramiska satellite-based system has caused no problems and is a big improvement on dial-up. And of course it frees up the telephone!
Roll-Out
Members of the Co-operative are currently working to extend the system, still at its Beta trial stage, down Bay and to other founder members. After that it is planned to roll it out to new members who want to be part of this innovative wireless mesh service.
The Bottom Line
The price to users is expected to be £20 per month or less, less, with a £50 installation charge and necessary aerial(s) etc. supplied at cost.
Anyone interested in joining the Co-operative should apply through the Website, which has all the latest information, a troubleshooting and FAQ guide, and can be reached at www.rhbmesh.net.
By March 2005 17 members were connected and were generally getting speeds over 500 kbps and regularly over 1 Mbps.
In 2006 an email from Aramiska, sent out at around 10:00(GMT), stated: “We regret to inform you that Aramiska and its services are shutting down and the company will be unable to provide you with Internet access after today, 27 January, 2006.”
The Mesh Years
The original satellite-based solution proved incredibly expensive and soon BBC progressed to using various ADSL input points around the area; this gave us our name and so RHBMESH was born.
The system’s popularity grew rapidly, as there was no fast broadband supplier in Robin Hood’s Bay at the time. As more and more members connected to the network, it became clear that increased capacity was needed. We shared a dedicated 200 Mb/sec NYNET fibre connection to the Scarborough Council offices in Whitby, but we needed to have a midway point which could pick up the wireless signal from Whitby and could retransmit it to Robin Hood’s Bay. The owner of a farm at High Normanby had a redundant mobile phone mast on his land and kindly offered it to Bay Broadband free of charge and also provided the power to run it. From there, the signal was relayed over to our Smay Lane distribution point, covering the whole of Robin Hood’s Bay, the Flask and Ravenscar.
In December 2014 NYNET agreed to provide 80Mbps for the same price (c £930/month) as the current 50Mbps.
In November 2014, Bay Broadband was contacted by Rural Action Yorkshire:
With the BT cabinet live in Robin Hoods Bay I am getting a little pressure from our own demand stimulation team to okay them going in to do some activity to look to increase connections to the cabinet. This is mostly because the current take-up is low for a cabinet with over 500 connections and over 300 of them able to access superfast speeds.
Obviously, a key reason for this is your presence – which is positive in one respect, but less so in terms of take-up of superfast broadband.
What are your thoughts on doing some joint promotional work which raises the profile, not just of the Openreach opportunity, but also the on-going opportunity of Bay Broadband.
Expansion
The original slower system costing just £5 a month was phased out, in favour of the updated superfast connection costing members a mere £10 per month. Keeping pace with high connection speeds and TV streaming had been a massive undertaking and the dedicated team of volunteers was continually making improvements, seamlessly in the background. This culminated in a system controlled by a fairly sophisticated computer, running PF Sense software, which acted as a dedicated firewall, to protect the members from external attack and to control the speed everyone received, based on demand. Although this system served us extremely well for a number of years, its complexity was only understood by a few of the more technically minded members.
Transition to Wavenet
By 2020, Bay Broadband Co-operative had become a ‘victim’ of its own success. The system had grown and grown. Members’ use of the Internet was becoming more sophisticated and greater capacity and reliability was in demand. By now, we had a speed of 500 Mb/sec, which was considered very fast. However, we were soon using all of this bandwidth. The committee took the view that outsourcing the day-to-day maintenance and operation of the ever-expanding network could be the only way forward. After a prolonged and detailed deliberation, it was decided to ask Wavenet to provide and operate our network. We decided to have our own 1000 Mb/sec dedicated fibre connection provided by Wavenet and installed at the Methodist Church in Robin Hood’s Bay. We have now upgraded to 10 Gb/sec bandwidth; a 10x multiple of the previous speed.
This has required a substantial investment of over £20,000 in the latest technology using Watchguard equipment. This gave groups of 10 members a fixed IP address, a constantly updated firewall and split the whole system into 10 different areas. It has worked extremely well and is managed remotely by Wavenet. This has left the volunteers with more time to concentrate on building the network and making sure that the business of the Co operative is run efficiently.
Expanding the team — Join us!
We remain a team of volunteers, and there is plenty to do, notwithstanding the outsourcing of the day-to-day operation of the system. If you or any member of your family would like to become involved there are lots of different opportunities to learn computer networking skills and microwave radio transmission, even administration, requiring no technical skill. It’s also a great way to get to know locals and the area from as far as Whitby to Ravenscar and beyond. Get in touch at admin@baybroadband.co.uk.
This is a work in progress. If you have any more information, photos or anecdotes concerning the history of Bay Broadband Co-operative, I would be delighted to hear from you at: gerald@dennett.me
Thanks to Cliff Southcombe for information on the early years and Jim Foster for the extracts from Bayfair.