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"I'm just a farmer's wife," says Christine Conder, modestly. But for 2,300 members of the rural communities of Lancashire she is also a revolutionary internet pioneer.
Her DIY solution to a neighbour's internet connectivity problems in 2009 has evolved into B4RN, an internet service provider offering fast one gigabit per second broadband speeds to the parishes which nestle in the picturesque Lune Valley.
.... "It wasn't rocket science. It was three days of hard work." Her motto, which she repeats often in conversation, is JFDI. Three of those letters stand for Just Do It. The fourth you can work out for yourself.
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The Farmer Who Built Her Own Broadband
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Insanity is considered a ground for divorce, though by the very same
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-- Wilson Mizner
(Score: 4, Informative) by Nuke on Friday December 30 2016, @04:36PM
"We dug [the cable trench] ourselves and we lit [the cable] ourselves and we proved that ordinary people could do it," she says.
Yes, because we all have a terrabit radio mast in range, don't we?
"I'm just a farmer's wife," says Christine Conder.... there are now 15 paid staff also on board.
Er .... no. That makes her "just" a ISP company director.
The bulk of the work is done by volunteers
Lucky her.
With farmers having to register online with [Defra] within five days of every calf being born ... All the farmers who haven't got broadband have to rely on land agents or auction marts or public wi-fi spaces which we haven't got round here either, or paying somebody to do it," says Chris.
Bollocks. You can register by phone or even by post [www.gov.uk]. It would not make sense to demand that rural farmers can only register on-line, on fast broadband at that. Failing that, she seems to have forgotten that virtually every public library in the UK now has connected PC's that you can use. I actually live in a remote part of Wales next to a cattle farm and the two nearest market towns (both about 10 miles away) have such libraries. I don't decry this woman's initiative, I just bridle at bull shit. In fact I welcome anything that sticks a knife in BT.