Just posted this to MJ Ray's blog post about British Broadband DSL:
I've done a bunch of research on rural broadband access here in the States and have found that there are some very cool new options evolving through wireless. Here's a couple of examples of ones I've found: * http://www.communitywisp.com/coverage.html - this isn't too rural of an area, so its more of a backup / redundancy * http://www.webjogger.net/services/highspeed/availability.htm - this area is very rural and the fact that this service is available there is very appealing to me I don't use either of these providers though - I use mobile internet, fiber, and cable to access the net. As far as reliability goes, my experience with DSL has been so poor that I will honestly move somewhere else instead of use it. What are the laws in the UK like for municipal networks? In many areas where I live in the northeast, many electricity providers are owned and operated by small local municipalities. They started laying fiber to better read meters, then realized they could use them for networking too. Some got setup before the lobbyists successfully outlawed it in many areas - Grrrr! The Taunton Municipal Lighting Plant is a great example: http://www.tmlp.com/fiber_access.html
