hello

That is an interesting observation! The Eden declaration is a good place to start. Unfortunately since then the process has become rather stagnated in the bureaucracy of procurement - some of this is a necessary evil. This is however a race - not to infinity - but to get the first real super fast networks installed (to solve not just Broadband but also TV and Mobile). The areas with the most active and organised champions will get there first. There is both public and private funds available to help and no reason for an area to delay, Its all about getting a sufficient number of people to sign up to the process. An overall plan for Cumbria is certainly needed and I have offered to assist in doing this provided that the aim is the highest possible future proof network and not the lowest possible denominator. To do this we first need to show what IS possible so that people can be convinced to sign up in their masses.

A big problem faced by mobile operators is that they need at least twice the bandwidth - one lot for the subscriber link and one lot for the back haul. If the back haul issue could be solved by getting fibre closer to the village pump for instance then yes you can build a lot of masts and illuminate the valleys very well. So Fibre to the mast is a very good solution for the short term while people figure out how to get fibre everywhere else. But if we have fibre in the village why stop there? Its a question of how much money is available and which order to do things. Absolutely we are trying to solve connectivity for mobile, television, business and domestic. we are however trying to get something that will look forward 10, 15 even 25 years into the future not just to solve the immediate problems. In Patterdale we have had problems just getting back haul to an existing mast at Hartsop. This is just for voice calls let alone anything more fancy. We eventually got Ofcom to designate this as a not spot. Getting fibre to this mast is a priority for us but this may still be precluded by the new Ofcom rules for access to ducts and pole! Of course once the masts have fibre we also need the bandwidth to be much cheaper and without the rather low usage limits imposed by mobile operators. The capital cost of building and running masts is not low. Once fibre is in the ground its low cost all the way. Cost is also a reason for the low take up - broadband only took off when it became as cheap as dial up had been. Another is the lack of services needing bandwidth. No one really had fibre to the home on their radar until iPlayer etc. came along. You will have to read some of my other posts to get a flavour of what is coming.
FttMast yes please but not at the expense of getting on with FttH/P.

Good comments but needs a response.

There is no doubt that fixed and mobile wireless devices will continue to dominate in our lives. However we are also seeing tremendous growth of the use of wireless spectrum in our homes as well. The data rates for mobile devices in our homes now vastly exceed the current typical wired connections to our homes. Wireless devices have been under continuous development with incredible advances in modulation and coding. However wireless spectrum that is useful for mobile communications and in home use is limited to the bands that are also used for other services such as UHF TV - this is why e.g. the digital switchover is important to maximise the use for this valuable resource. The other problem is that we have rapidly hit the Shannon limit - modern communications have reached within a very small margin of this fundamental limit of how much information can be carried by a given bandwidth (ask me if you need a fuller explanation of this!). This means that there is a finite amount of data that can be transferred. Already the use of smart phones is stretching the networks to the limit. Early adopters think - hey this is great we can watch TV on our mobile phone - when everyone tries it some will be disappointed. The same problem has seen before with the introduction of new networks - but very soon fair usage policies are needed to set limits.
So is wireless important YES does it replace the need for FTTH networks within a few years NO we need both. At the Rhged conference this was underlined very clearly by the speaker from Blackberry - who obviously cannot be accused of bias. Wireless is brilliant but it has its limits.