• November 2003

  • OCC decide to back ORB, pilots to be set up in Uffington and the Wychwoods.

• 23 October 2003

  • Oxfordshire Rural Broadband attended the In Business exhibition at Eynsham Hall, the people that stopped to chat all wanted broadband and all expressed high levels of support.

  • Oxfordshire Rural Broadband - please see this page if you want to know more or help.

• 21 October 2003

  • Met with the Development officers of West Oxfordshire DC and Cherwell DC, they are a lot more supportive than OCC.

  • Put our case to the Leader and Deputy Leader of Oxfordshire District Council, they are still prepared to administer the SEEDA Broadband fund.

• 20 October 2003

  • At least someone reads my newsletters!  Guy Kewney's comments/report is here

• 16 October 2003

  • Newsletter here

• 15 October 2003

  • BT have finally announced the "unviable" list from their July review, Wroxton St Mary is on the list (see ADSL guide's analysis) along with several local exchanges. Oxfordshire Rural Broadband is here, www.oxonrb.net For those that still have faith in BT note that all exchanges are being reviewed for another announcement within two months!

  • Oxfordshire County Council officers have decided that they cannot release the SEEDA funds they have had access to since May/June as they do not have the resource to manage the pilots!

     

• 4 October 2003

  • Invisible Networks have ceased to trade.

• 18 September 2003

  • Oxfordshire Rural Broadband is coming, we will shortly be announcing our web site and taking orders from the Wychwoods,

  • We will have an outline plan for Cherwell shortly.

• 17 September 2003

  • No response from BT yet.

• 30 August 2003

  • Nearly at the level at which BT will review the exchange, I now need your feedback on whether you would be interested in wireless, I have put some information on the forum

  • Any Parish councillors or secretaries out there? Have you received a broadband grant?

  • Just found out that half way along Snuff lane in Shotteswell is the current distance limit for BT's ADSL technology, don't worry I have lots of ideas how you can get broadband if this is the case.

• 14 August 2003

  • Forum now open for business, either use the menu link opposite or click here. There is a registration process before you can view the content.

  • I am now becoming more involved with two like-minded groups (Chipping Norton and Vale of the White Horse) who are building towards a community wireless/broadband organisation, I will put more in the next newsletter due soon.

• 24 July 2003

  • I now have a Locustworld Meshbox and some aerials to test a wireless network around Hanwell, watch this space.

• 22 July 2003

  • Had two emails from BT Wholesale's deployment division, seems we missed out on being reviewed because we had less that 150 registrants. So cajole your friends we now need 150 and BT will review the exchange some time!

• 17 July 2003

  • Apologies if anyone has been trying to contact me, email to broadband4wroxton.org.uk was being bounced by the old isp, apparently the transfer didn't go as planned.

  • the hosting of the site has been transferred to Merula Limited to allow more use of asp, phpBB etc. Richard Palmer of Merula has kindly agreed to host the site for free.

• 10 July 2003

  • 08:15 BT Today announced their latest list of trigger levels, we didn't get one (for the press release and full list see here). The only local exchange to be given a trigger level is Bloxham this has been set the totally unreasonable figure of 500.   Alternatives such as wireless just hit the top of my agenda. more news to follow

• 9 July 2003

  • I attended the Rural and Regional Broadband Conference in London, here are my views.

• 7 July 2003

  • Found a copy of the Wired Up Villages handbook recently published by the ORCC as mentioned here. It is a very good resource for villages to use. One personal comment, where are the North Oxford villages within the document, whilst I haven't studied it all it seems that Buckinghamshire villages get more of a mention. Is nothing happening up here?

• 3 July 2003

  • Just received an email from BT Wholesale to say that the exchange has gone in for review and we will know in two weeks time if we have a trigger level and what it is!!!  PLEASE ENSURE YOUR NEIGHBOURS HAVE VOTED/REGISTERED, remind them that it is not a commitment.

• 2 July 2003

  • Adderbury exchange (also covers Kings Sutton and Charlton) has hit its BT trigger level, congratulations.

• 7 May 2003

  • The Countryside Agency have released a report, see here, "The state of the countryside 2003"  highlighting the "Digital Divide", more publicity for our campaigns  This has resulted in BBC South Today doing a follow-up interview highlighting the options, including the "Oxford Community Network" which I wrote about on my Wired Village page.. The piece is to air at 6:30p.m. tonight on South Today, will be interesting to hear the County's views.

• 21 April 2003

  • The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has issued a consultation document regarding increasing the number of satellite dishes and other Antennas without needing additional planning consents, to aid the rollout of alternatives to ADSL in rural areas, see here

  • Live pictures are being beamed to the internet by a wireless mesh network from the front seat of  a classic bus in Kirby Stephen at the Classic Commercial Vehicle Rally, see here

• 15 April 2003

  • BT announce a further 200 Trigger levels, this includes Adderbury, Steeple Aston and Woodstock with trigger levels of 300/350/350. Some of the triggers are set at 450. See here for a local version of the announcement, the trigger levels are in a pdf file accessible from the bottom of the page. This means it will be the summer before we know if BT will set a trigger level.

• 9 April 2003

  • Attended a very interesting seminar run by Oxfordshire Rural Community Council on "Wired Up Villages" will put my thoughts together and report here.

  • BT Broadband marketing launch a new website, at www.bt.com/broadband to give help and advice to people interested in campaigning for broadband in their area. more on the news pages here

• 4 April 2003

  • BT Launch the Exchange Activate product. Pricing has changed from the previous announcement. "With Exchange Activate, the sponsor will be able to order ADSL service on a nominated exchange in blocks of 30 connections; the first block will cost £45,000 and subsequent blocks on the same exchange £30,000. The fee covers installation and rental charges for a three year period, at the end of which normal rental charges will take over."
    This together with the plan to have 90% coverage rather than the existing 67% should be good news for those within 6km of the exchange. see here

  • BT's approach rebuffed by Stephen Timms "BT broadband advances rebuffed by government Don't expect any favouritism, DTI tells telco" says Silicon article. Again the consumer loses in the name of competition.

• 3 April 2003

  • Well Shotteswell a definitely have a leaflet now, unless they had big dogs or no letter box, either my yellow one that actually mentions Shotteswell or another BT green one. I apologise if you are in the half of the village that NewsQuest delivered to but I had it on good authority that no-one in Shotteswell had seen it. If you register direct with BT could you give me a quick email as my database is slightly out of kilter with the BT Wholesale one, I have 94 registrants I think BT have 103, you could miss my irregular newsletters.

• 2 April 2003

  • Hanwell page includes Spring/Summer diary.

  • Updates Other Exchanges pages to include barometers from Vote4broadband

  • BT broadband got cheaper.... Another 200 exchanges to have trigger levels set shortly helping to take coverage from 66% to 90%  see here

• 30 March 2003

  • Last weekend I decided to take the bull by the horns and wrote to the CEO of BT to ascertain when Wroxton st Mary's exchange would be reviewed, the final answer was not good. BT Have no plans to review the exchange until we reach 200 registrants! the gist of the correspondence is here

• 25 Match 2003

  • On the 31 March BT will announce a further tranche of trigger points for 102 exchanges, sadly our is not included, and only 3 are in Oxfordshire! See here for the full wording,  other BT products are announced. This includes a trigger level for Middleton Cheney, congratulations

  • Following the trials in Scotland and Wales last year BT is to launch a "Exchange Activate" this is a service where they for £55,000 they will enable an exchange for 30 subscribers for three years. I first came across this on Sir George Young's website and will provide more information here...

  • There was also a good debate in Westminster Hall, led by Sir George Young, see here

• 23 March 2003

  • We have hit three figures 100 and counting

• 20 March 2003

  • Attended seminar in Harlow Carr Gardens - "Hardcore Wireless Networking Seminar" see here for a brief report

• 15 March 2003

  • BT leaflets should have been distributed in Hanwella, Horley, Shotteswell and Wroxtona.

• 14 March 2003

  • First application from Shotteswell, thanks.

• 6 March 2003

  • BBC Radio Oxford and BBC South run articles on Broadband4Wroxton, they saw the Banbury Guardian article.

• 28 February 2003

  • Banbury Guardian runs a follow up article, kick starting the campaign

• 27 January 2003

  • BT are to distribute a new set of leaflets, let me know if you see them.

• 1 January 2003

  • Happy New Year

• 14 November 2002

  • Wrexham North subscriber(s) threaten to spoil it for everyone, someone has been trying to cheat the system by submitting multiple consecutive numbers see here

• 13 November 2002

  • Todmorden have Broadband, first customer given it for free! see here for full story

• 11 November 2002

  • Knaresborough fall foul of the second stage in the registration scheme, they reached there 400 target but only 99 turned into advance order with the ISP's see here for full story

• 8 November 2002

  • Netleaf of Horsefair have agreed to print and distribute leaflets in Balscote, Drayton and Shotteswell, thank you.
  • Tjobbe Andrews has agreed to distribute leaflets in North Newington, thank you

• 7 November 2002

  • Carol Bailey has agreed to distribute leaflets in Wroxton, Volunteers needed for distributing leaflets in other villages
  • Response has been quite good so far with 7 leaflets returned and 17 web submissions, as at the time of writing the BT registration database is showing 46 registrations.
  • Oxford Times/Mail telephone interview plus photograph in my office, this article will be a special on Broadband at a time to be announced.
  • Alison Jarvis Wroxton's village correspondent for the Banbury Guardian included a piece in the Guardian Country page, see here.
  • Banbury Guardian phoned and took photographs outside the Exchange, article included in the Guardian 7 November, see here for copy.
  • Press releases have been sent to the Banbury Guardian, Oxford Times/Mail (NQO group), local Business Link and the two Regional Development Agencies. download here
  • Village notice boards should have an A5 leaflet, let me know if I've missed yours.

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• 24 October 2002

  • 18:07 Mr. N & Mrs. C McCarthy filled in the registration page, first proper submission, thanks.
  • 17:25 Leaflets distributed around Hanwell Village, apologies if I missed you, Castle to do tomorrow, it was a bit dark!  If you want a copy of the leaflet it is here in Acrobat format.

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• 22 October 2002

  • Launch of Wroxton St Mary Website www.broadband4wroxton.org.uk to publicise the campaign.

  • Poster installed in the Moon & Sixpence Hanwell, thank you Paul & Sandy.

  • BT praises campaign groups as broadband demand takes off, Todmorden exchange being updated for Broadband, seems the system works. Full BT Press Release 22 October  2002

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• 27 September 2002 Another 58 exchanges are set trigger levels.

  • BT Wholesale today increased to 653 the number of exchanges where demand levels for broadband upgrade have been set with the announcement of trigger levels for a further 58 exchanges.

  • Full BT Press Release 27 September 2002

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• 10 September 2002 Todmorden are first to hit the trigger levels

  • BT today announced demand for ADSL had hit the target leading to upgrading the first exchange under its broadband registration scheme.

  • Full BT Press Release 10 September 2002

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• 21 August 2002 Another 169 exchanges are set trigger levels.

  • Full BT Press Release 21 August 2002

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• 13 August 2002 BT Announce trials of new Community Broadband concept.

  • BT is to run trials to test a new approach that could bring broadband ADSL technology to small exchanges where previously it was not commercially viable.  It will be innovative both in terms of the business model employed and the technology used.

  • Full BT Press Release 13 August 2002

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• 6 August 2002 Another 88 exchanges are set trigger levels.

  • BT announces broadband registration trigger levels for 88 more exchanges

  • Full BT Press Release 6 August 2002

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• 1 July 2002 BT Announce launch of registration scheme

  • BT Broadband registration scheme goes live today with the publication of individual demand levels ranging from 200 to 500 user registrations at which 338 exchanges would be enabled for ADSL broadband service.

  • Full BT Press Release 1 July 2002

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• 18 June 2002 BT Announce the local registration scheme:

  • BT gives customers powerful influence over wider broadband rollout

  • Full BT Press Release 18 June 2002

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