BT is to provide super-fast broadband to up to 90% of homes in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, in the biggest rural fibre optic roll-out in the UK to date.The project, due for completion in 2014, could provide a blueprint for future rural broadband projects.
The £132m funding pot is being shared between BT and the European Union.The government said it was "a big step" towards its goal of having the best broadband network in Europe by 2015.BT has been under pressure to help reach the 30% of homes which, under current plans, will not benefit from next-generation broadband services. The telecoms giant will provide £78m worth of funding, with the European Regional Development Fund contributing around £53m - the largest investment of its kind made by the EU.
The roll-out will begin immediately and run until 2014 with the first customers being connected early next year. BT will work closely with Cornwall Development Company, the council’s economic development company, to plan deployments and will also engage with planning and highways departments. The project will be supported by a major marketing programme, skills programmes and support to ensure businesses make the most of the new technology.
The areas to benefit will be announced on a rolling basis and will be agreed by the project partners in consultation with other broadband service providers. The new network will be available on an open, wholesale basis to all communications providers ensuring local businesses and homes benefit from a competitive market. Cornwall has a strong reputation for pioneering initiatives, such as the actnow broadband project which was recognised by the EU as an exemplar project for e-business. Since 2002 actnow has helped more than 10,000 Cornish businesses make the most of broadband through marketing, grants, advice and technical support.
For local businesses, the super-fast network will underpin the introduction of many new services and applications. Users will be able to run multiple bandwidth-hungry applications at the same time and send and receive large amounts of data much more quickly and efficiently. Computer processing and storage of files will also become more sophisticated and secure using ‘cloud computing’ technology. There will be faster back-up of computer systems and wider use of high quality videoconferencing within firms and between them and their customers.
With a connection speed approaching 100Mb (10-30 times faster than most people's current connection speeds) for 'Through the Gaps' viewers this will mean HD video articles in the future - stay tuned!
Friday 1 October 2010
'O' is for October and that means Oysters!
In two weeks time, Valentine Warner, food writer and star of BBC Two’s ‘What To Eat Now’ series will lead the Opening Ceremony of Falmouth Oyster Festival on Thursday 14th October, with a demonstration of his culinary expertise and passion for cooking with local, wild ingredients, showcasing the diversity and quality of Cornish seafood and produce. That and a whole host of tother events both at sea and ashore herlad the start of the annual oyster fishing season - and in Falmouth's case, it remains exclusively one of the world's few remaining sail powered fisheries and that is as green as it gets.
30 days from today - Pete Goss goes solo again!
GOSS AND SPONSORS DMS ANNOUNCE TIME TO ‘PACK IT IN!’
Legendary British sailor Pete Goss MBE has joined forces with title sponsor DMS to tell the world it is time to PACK IT IN! But Pete is not retiring from sailing; far from it, he is launching his latest solo campaign with a serious environmental message. Using boat graphics the like of which have never been seen before in ocean racing, Pete and DMS have pledged to the world of plastic packaging that it is time to PACK IT IN!
On his first solo ocean race since his heroic completion of the 1996 Vendee Globe, when he rescued fellow competitor Raphael Dinelli in the Southern Ocean, Pete Goss enters the gruelling 3500-mile Route du Rhum race in the Class 40 category. He is confident in his abilities to get a good result while inspiring race fans about the possibilities of changing business and consumer habits via the boats jaw-dropping graphics.
Partnering with Team Concise, winners of last year’s Class 40 World Championship, Pete and DMS enter a brand new boat into the Route du Rhum race, which commences from St Malo (France) on Sunday 31st October 2010. The boat (named DMS) showcases specially commissioned artwork from one of the UK’s leading street art duos and captures DMS’s experiences of reducing plastic packaging throughout their business of Creative Packaging Solutions and supplying CD, DVD and Vinyl Records to the music and creative industries.
Legendary British sailor Pete Goss MBE has joined forces with title sponsor DMS to tell the world it is time to PACK IT IN! But Pete is not retiring from sailing; far from it, he is launching his latest solo campaign with a serious environmental message. Using boat graphics the like of which have never been seen before in ocean racing, Pete and DMS have pledged to the world of plastic packaging that it is time to PACK IT IN!
On his first solo ocean race since his heroic completion of the 1996 Vendee Globe, when he rescued fellow competitor Raphael Dinelli in the Southern Ocean, Pete Goss enters the gruelling 3500-mile Route du Rhum race in the Class 40 category. He is confident in his abilities to get a good result while inspiring race fans about the possibilities of changing business and consumer habits via the boats jaw-dropping graphics.
Partnering with Team Concise, winners of last year’s Class 40 World Championship, Pete and DMS enter a brand new boat into the Route du Rhum race, which commences from St Malo (France) on Sunday 31st October 2010. The boat (named DMS) showcases specially commissioned artwork from one of the UK’s leading street art duos and captures DMS’s experiences of reducing plastic packaging throughout their business of Creative Packaging Solutions and supplying CD, DVD and Vinyl Records to the music and creative industries.
First day on the megs.
Thursday 30 September 2010
Trawler Wars with a difference - 'All at Sea' - the dirty side of the fishing industry from EJF.
ALL AT SEA-The Abuse of Human Rights on Illegal Fishing Vessels from Environmental Justice Foundation on Vimeo.
Life as a crew member aboard any fishing vessel is a difficult and often hazardous occupation, and widely considered to be one of the most dangerous occupations in the world. However, in addition to the hazards associated with weather and the catch itself, the fishing industry is home to some of the worst examples of abuse in the workplace. Pirate fishing operations in particular are often characterised by the lowest standards of working conditions and extensive reports of abuse. EJF’s investigations have documented crews on illegal fishing boats working under slave like-conditions, and facing daily exploitation and abuse.
In a new report ‘All at Sea – the abuse of Human Rights aboard illegal fishing vessels’ EJF exposes these human rights abuses, and documents how the lack of international regulation, including the exploitation of Flags of Convenience, allows pirate fishing operators to perpetuate these abuses with virtual impunity.
Wednesday 29 September 2010
SEA Communications' Discovery Day in Newlyn
Along with migrating birds, recent visitors to Newlyn included a team from SEA Communications - not a sales team giving it the hard sell for the latest in digital cell phones, DSC kit or VMS - but a Service Design Agency based at Jubilee Wharf, Penryn whose mission is to 'solve problems creatively'.
Meeting up with a few of the locals, the SEA Comms people (not to be confused with SeaCom as was, also from Penryn) spent the day taking a close look at the current state of the local fishing industry for their aptly named, Discovery Day. A tour round the harbour and its facilities was followed by a heads down in SeaFood Cornwall's office where tuna man Quentin Knights seems to have been subjected to a seabird identification Discovery Day of his own - [well that's what it looks like in the photos] - bit tough on a fisherman for whom the exact species of seabirds are of little significance other than the fact that they always appear from nowhere at hauling time, shit on you from a great height on deck and, in fine weather, constantly make a mess all over the boat - still, he's shown the picture again but somehow the right answer seems to have eluded him and then, in the final shot, it looks like the point where Quentin gives in and says, "you got me beat!" - meanwhile, Nathan looks on, relieved he isn't the one being given the bird degree.
A trip at sea might have proved enlightening for the SEA Comms team where they could have observed at first hand how skippers and crews are constantly driven to 'solve problems creatively' in order to keep their boats at sea, beat the weather and make their gear catch as much fish as possible.
Meeting up with a few of the locals, the SEA Comms people (not to be confused with SeaCom as was, also from Penryn) spent the day taking a close look at the current state of the local fishing industry for their aptly named, Discovery Day. A tour round the harbour and its facilities was followed by a heads down in SeaFood Cornwall's office where tuna man Quentin Knights seems to have been subjected to a seabird identification Discovery Day of his own - [well that's what it looks like in the photos] - bit tough on a fisherman for whom the exact species of seabirds are of little significance other than the fact that they always appear from nowhere at hauling time, shit on you from a great height on deck and, in fine weather, constantly make a mess all over the boat - still, he's shown the picture again but somehow the right answer seems to have eluded him and then, in the final shot, it looks like the point where Quentin gives in and says, "you got me beat!" - meanwhile, Nathan looks on, relieved he isn't the one being given the bird degree.
A trip at sea might have proved enlightening for the SEA Comms team where they could have observed at first hand how skippers and crews are constantly driven to 'solve problems creatively' in order to keep their boats at sea, beat the weather and make their gear catch as much fish as possible.
Never mind the weather, as long as we're together....
Early morning diver action in Penzance.....
or Mr Curtis Jnr on the Elisabeth Veronique.
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