The operational need
Our client operates the cafes on multiple Forestry England sites – and had an overall requirement for stable broadband with reasonable speeds to not only provide Voice Over IP, but card payments and public WiFi too.
Our approach was not and has never been “one size fits all”. Rural Broadband is a tricky area in the United Kingdom – sometimes it can be a breeze [such as a right on top of a FTTP cabinet], other times the difficulties come from distance to the nearest roadside cabinet, poor quality of cabling and lack of phone signal. Each site had its own unique challenges, and two of the sites had additional catering kiosks located some distance away from the main café, that also needed connectivity.
We then connected each site to a centralised VPN solution, so the customers’ centralised EPOS system could work and provide up-to-minute management information to the customers’ Head Office.
Designing & Implementing a Solution
We visited and surveyed each site in turn and looked at the infrastructure availability on each site. Without large budgets and with timeframes incredibly tight, we designed a solution for each site
Site A – Goudhurst, Kent
This site was within a reasonable distance of the nearest BT Exchange, but Fibre to the Cabinet was not available. Download speeds on this site were circa 10Mbps, nearly meeting the requirement but not enough. We did consider Mobile Broadband, but the physical layout of the building in a ‘valley’ between two hills meant finding signal to make a call was difficult; let alone provide data.
We also considered satellite broadband, such as Tooway, but the latency would not allow Voice Over IP calls. To overcome this, we implemented Sharedband across 2 * ADSL lines – a service under which multiple connections can be bonded together to provide an overall higher speed.
This site also had an additional kiosk, and this was located at the top of one of the hills. Compared to the café building itself, no Public WiFi was required and the loading much less, i.e.: one till and card payment machine as opposed to 3 or 4. As such, Mobile Broadband was the ideal solution for this kiosk.
Site B – Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire
On this site, miles from the nearest town or village the best available ADSL speeds were 0.5Mbps, and non-existent phone signal from any network. Even with a Sharedband type solution, speeds were not going to be anywhere near enough to support the business, let alone additional requirements like Public WiFi.
We did obtain quotes for providing a Leased Line into this building, but Excess Construction Charges (ECCs) were more than £100,000. This was not affordable, nor were the timeframes (at least 12 weeks) viable for the client. We designed a solution based on Tooway to provide the main bulk of Internet Connectivity, with a single ADSL line to provide services where latency was a significant issue – Voice Over IP and Payment Cards being the main ones.
This site also had an additional kiosk, located very close to the main building and with line of sight. For this, we used a Point-to-Point WiFi Bridge to provide the necessary connectivity.
Site C – Farnham, Hampshire
This site was the least complicated of the lot! The existing phones lines into the building were able to provide Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) connectivity and we provided this in line with our standard Business Broadband pricing. We did fit a switching and Ubiquiti UniFi WiFi solution on top of the existing cabling, but a very simple outcome here.
Site D – Tring, Hertfordshire
This site was the most complicated. Located approx. 1km from the public road down a private track and even further from the nearest FTTC/FTTP cabinet, the challenge here again was to deliver the high-speed access required. Whilst mobile broadband seemed to present a viable option, the landlord’s experience was that when the site was densely occupied, the mobile signal depleted to unusable levels. This site is in a clearing amongst 40+ foot trees, and this meant
We sought the co-operation of the landlord and surveyed the site and looked for alternative buildings and points of presence we could use. The landlord had an existing building located at the start of the track, which was able to gain FTTC speeds, being fed from a different roadside cabinet from the café itself. In working with the landlord, we discovered that existing private ducting ran from here to the landlord’s own building located approx. 50m from our client’s café building. Through this, working with the landlord, single mode fibre was run between the two buildings. From the client’s own building we were able to utilise Point to Point VDSL Modems over existing telephone cabling to achieve a 100Mbps connection between the two buildings. This allowed onward connection to the singlemode fibre, and to pick up the FTTC connection at the end of the track. We also provided an additional pair of FTTC connections using Sharedband to provide the bandwidth that the landlord required, that mobile broadband had not been able to deliver.
Conclusion
In the end we provided a solution quickly and cost effectively that met the customers’ business needs and implemented the solutions in just over 3 weeks. This met everybody’s needs, and got the job done.
2024 Update – in the intervening period, the customer’s landlord has invested significantly in the sites and have worked with Openreach to provide direct FTTP connectivity. We’ve then been able, whilst keeping the kiosk solutions in place, to provide a Direct Business Broadband solution to each site.
