BT Launch Race to Infinity - yes, Rural Fibre has really become a lottery.

Now for anyone who hasn't yet got a decent ADSL Broadband connection, you be glad to know (or maybe not) that if you exchange has more than a 1000 residents, you can now register your interest for converting your town from ADSL to FTTP/FTTC (Fibre to the premises/Fibre to the cab) To register your interest goto the BT Website: http://www.racetoinfinity.bt.com/

In a similar scheme to the original ADSL 'vote to register interest' in Fibre, you can now register with BT, and once three quarters of residents have declared an interest, BT will have active dialogue on their enablement. Only 5 of the 5000 BT Exchanges will actually 'win' the lottery though and actually be enabled.

You need a minimum of 1000 Votes/Residents to register their interest to be eligble.

In reply: Its all very good of BT hyping broadband availability in mostly Central London boroughs and a few major cities. 12 Millions homes enabled with FTTP* or FTTC* doesn't really help if it is nowhere near where you live.

..and 5 exchanges out of 5000, feels like a BT ploy to suppress communities from following their own 'real' fibre solution, by giving them hope by attempting to win what is effect a lottery.

Unlike their product names - BT seem to have no 'inclusive' Vision for the UK. The insult being that the so called 50p Broadband tax has been added by BT anyway without any obligated commitment to universal broadband availability.

BT should never receive subsidies for anything which uses a part copper wire solution for Broadband.

Subsidies for Fibre to Premises maybe (but its uptake is pretty much guaranteed, so its hardly taking a gamble, in gambling terms) - even then I'd rather see subsidies to communities enabling their own solutions, at least they'd own their network- and then aren't paying twice in terms of excessive future rental charges, for something BT didn't pay fully to install.

For past mistakes in terms of freebies to BT, see the subsidies paid to BT in Northern Ireland for ADSL.

FTTC* is still a half way house, line quality will effect the upto 40Mbps and upload speeds will be much lower too - it would be better if we all rally together and do it without BT - and that means fibre to the premises and utilising existing ducts, sewers, poles to keep costs down. Open access to all data on the final loop kept by BT Openreach - existing ducts, sewer routes is essential for this to happen. We need an ebay infrastructure model, where open data enables cables to be laid, cabinets to be installed and fibre to be connected end to end, as cheaply as possible, whether by communities themselves, or commercial - and not all owned and controlled by one company, trying to get the last ounce out of outdated copper delivery methods.

Anything that is part copper in its solutions will have a variable speed based on distance from the cabinet or exchange, its out of date. It could even allow BT to get subsidies for installing second hand technology/equipment rurally they are ripping out else where 'as outdated'.

One of BT proposals is BET - 'Broadband enabling Technology' (and part of the proposal for Cornwall) is based on copper solutions - old technology being given a fresh coat of paint). Its about time copper was given the elbow. BET removes the phone line element from the cable and BT only use it for a broadband signal - its hardly revolutionary - it allows a longer transmission distance over copper, not faster broadband.

It would be criminal if BT were being subsidised by the EU to install Technology in Cornwall they have ripped out of exchanges from Central London.

As a minimum: We really need 'strategic towns' within a set distance of 100% of the population, that allow Fibre to the Premises Broadband availability (which is constantly upgraded) having with the best London has to offer, so the whole of the UK Busiiness sector is on par in terms of technology and cost. Allowing people access Fibre in or near areas they already live. This is key.

Its not perfect, but this could act as a catalyst for neighbouring towns, branching off the fibre, e.g towns along the A38 such as Buckfastleigh, could tap into the fibre route which is heading for Cornwall.

The best approach would be switch all TV broadcasts to BBC iPlayer technology and give a basic broadband service which allowed bandwidth for the transmission of two channels of TV simultaneously to everyone as part of the license fee, with basic broadband included - the freed airwaves could be sold/used for mobile data, allowing pretty much 100% enforcement of the license fee.

*FTTP - Fibre to the premises - 100Mbps or greater. *FTTC - Fibre to the cabinet + copper to premises (upto 40Mbps - variable because of copper line quality for the final leg- 'upto' as usual, and depending on copper line quality could actually turn out to be not much better than your current ADSL.