Does anyone know how much it costs to upgrade a telephone exchange?

KG

OK - strange question I know.

My situation is that I live on a small island which is home to around 200 people (maybe 70 permanent households?). We have 512kbps broadband available to a limited number of houses which lie within range of exchange (many houses are too remote). We have our own exchange on the island but are currently limited to what internet suppliers we can access via the exchange since it was BT who paid to upgrade it.

Because there are so few of us we're not exactly a high business priority in terms of upgrading the exchange. What I would dearly love to know is how much it would cost to upgrade the exchange to see if there is any way we can, as a community, buy ourselves out of the effective monopoly BT has and gain faster broadband access.

I know there are other options out there and am investigating them too, but am drawing a blank with figuring out this one.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

KG

PaulK_3

The upgrade cost is one thing, you may need a new fibre run to the island to enable better capacity to the exchange too. Not worth it to be honest.

KG

I think we have the fibre already. The neighbouring island has their exchange routed through ours (the cable comes under the sea, overland her, back under the sea and then onto them) and (because they are much larger) they already have faster broadband.

Does that make a difference?

PaulK_3

You are looking at tens of thousands I would guess and then you would also be looking at a maintenance contract on top of that.

KG

Still - our other option (satellite broadband) is costing us £2k each in set up costs so if 20 households went into it or if we could secure private funding it might be viable.

DatabaseError

can you look into wireless repeaters...maybe powered by wind...?
might be a really stupid suggestion..?!

macman

What speed can you get on mobile broadband? Is there any 3G?
I can't help thinking that you can buy an awful lot of mobile bandwidth for £2K plus the ongoing charges (and if I am correct, satellite is only a downlink, you still need a landline service to upload as well).
Mobile BB speeds have come on a lot in the last year and this is likely to continue apace (however I appreciate this may not apply in your location).

KG

Thanks all but we don't have 3G. We barely have good mobile coverage...

Gonna google wireless repeaters.

The £2k option does include uploads via satellite, albeit at a slower speed than downloads (thoguh still faster than current BT option).

KG