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£2.25M! 3 years! I am struggling to see how “50 or so” masts could come to this cost. That’s £45k a mast. I can only think they’ve gone completely custom, gett

£2.25M! 3 years! I am struggling to see how “50 or so” masts could come to this cost. That’s £45k a mast. I can only think they’ve gone completely custom, getting boards and possibly chips fabbed. I can’t see where the cost comes from otherwise, as this gear is cheap as chips. For what it’s worth, I’ve put up two cell masts on our property, as we live in a deep river valley with no signal, so I’m relaying UMTS on one and rebroadcasting my own cell on the one nearest to us, along with a directional 802.11n antenna to provide WiFi off the same mast. I planned it out over the course of a few days, ordered everything, set it all up and tested it out before moving here, and banged both of them up the day after we arrived. Hell, the hardest bit was climbing a cliff with a 15ft mast and a sledgehammer on my back. It’s all solar powered, and the total cost for all of the gear was under £1k. This stuff is not complicated or expensive.

avianlyric 6y ago
You're setting up a simple relay, piggy backing off existing telecom infrastructure to provide for one home. Reading the article I would guess that this project is bringing mobile broadband to the area > The experimental Ch4lke Mobile, which runs over just five masts, can connect homes to a network capable of delivering broadband-like speeds, in an area that had been left behind by the digital revolution. I imagine the vast majority of that cost went to digging and laying fiber for tower backhaul, something you don't need to worry about if you're just connecting one home to an existing mast with fiber backhaul.
- madaxe_again 6y ago
  From what I understand, they are piggy-backing too - and we have broadband speeds here, not broadband-like. “The service will be provided by delivering high speed broadband to a small cell within the community which then delivers both fixed wireless broadband and 4G mobile services to users via a low power high speed radio link.” Given that there’s already BT fibre in the area, I’d imagine that’s what they’re using for their backhaul. And as to fibre backhaul - I’ve just run 300m of trenched fibre down from the mast to a really awkward spot, and including media adaptors, SWA 4x fibre, and all the rest, it came to less than £1.5k.
  - otoburb 6y ago
    >>And as to fibre backhaul - I’ve just run 300m of trenched fibre down from the mast to a really awkward spot, and including media adaptors, SWA 4x fibre, and all the rest, it came to less than £1.5k. I know it's not your fiefdom, but if the numbers are so far off it might be worth reaching out to Ch4lke Mobile (i.e. the Wiltshire Chalk Valley parish council members) or the local MP John Glen to figure out where they could cut down on superfluous costs. If they're going to roll out this type of model to other rural not-spots any cost savings that could be pragmatically realized would be fewer quid from taxpayer pockets.
  - razakel 6y ago
    >From what I understand, they are piggy-backing too - and we have broadband speeds here, not broadband-like. They're operating as a full mobile network that will also allow users of other operators to roam onto them - it's a lot more than just running a repeater. This is the kit they're using as cells: http://www.accelleran.com/products/e101/ http://www.accelleran.com/products/e101/ >£2.25M! 3 years! >I am struggling to see how “50 or so” masts could come to this cost. That’s £45k a mast. That funding is not just for this project - the funding has gone to a consortium it's part of: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-65-million-package-for-5g-trials https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-65-million-package-fo...
    - madaxe_again 6y ago
      Gotcha - that now makes much more sense, and I’ll admit I skimmed for a number. Thanks for that link - since I did what I’ve done here, I’ve had more than a few people express their gratitude and astonishment that they now have WiFi and signal when they go fishing (as the only other people we ever see here are fishermen), and the local mayor asked about a week ago if I would be able to do the same for a village nearby which has no cell reception... I’m going up there this week to take a look at the lay of the land. I’d been considering a series of relay towers, but it may not be the best option depending on a bunch of factors. I dare say if I do go down the route of setting up an actual cell provider then I’ll have a damn sight more appreciation for the complexities these guys faced.
graton 6y ago
> £2.25M! 3 years! That is not what the article said. They have already created the network out of their own money. What the article said was, "The fledgling network has just secured part of a £2.25m government grant". So they just got "part" of £2.25m. What part? I don't know. This grant money maybe spread across multiple organizations. The article doesn't specify.
pjc50 6y ago
> Hell, the hardest bit was climbing a cliff with a 15ft mast and a sledgehammer on my back. How much did you charge for that? DIY is a lot cheaper if you can do lots of professional specialised jobs to a lower safety and quality standard without any money changing hands..
- redis_mlc 6y ago
  Well, that's what helicopters are for. Although if the mast doesn't fit inside the cabin, you'll need pilot with a longlining expertise, which is more expensive and less available.

avianlyric 6y ago

You're setting up a simple relay, piggy backing off existing telecom infrastructure to provide for one home. Reading the article I would guess that this project is bringing mobile broadband to the area > The experimental Ch4lke Mobile, which runs over just five masts, can connect homes to a network capable of delivering broadband-like speeds, in an area that had been left behind by the digital revolution. I imagine the vast majority of that cost went to digging and laying fiber for tower backhaul, something you don't need to worry about if you're just connecting one home to an existing mast with fiber backhaul.

madaxe_again 6y ago
From what I understand, they are piggy-backing too - and we have broadband speeds here, not broadband-like. “The service will be provided by delivering high speed broadband to a small cell within the community which then delivers both fixed wireless broadband and 4G mobile services to users via a low power high speed radio link.” Given that there’s already BT fibre in the area, I’d imagine that’s what they’re using for their backhaul. And as to fibre backhaul - I’ve just run 300m of trenched fibre down from the mast to a really awkward spot, and including media adaptors, SWA 4x fibre, and all the rest, it came to less than £1.5k.
- otoburb 6y ago
  >>And as to fibre backhaul - I’ve just run 300m of trenched fibre down from the mast to a really awkward spot, and including media adaptors, SWA 4x fibre, and all the rest, it came to less than £1.5k. I know it's not your fiefdom, but if the numbers are so far off it might be worth reaching out to Ch4lke Mobile (i.e. the Wiltshire Chalk Valley parish council members) or the local MP John Glen to figure out where they could cut down on superfluous costs. If they're going to roll out this type of model to other rural not-spots any cost savings that could be pragmatically realized would be fewer quid from taxpayer pockets.
- razakel 6y ago
  >From what I understand, they are piggy-backing too - and we have broadband speeds here, not broadband-like. They're operating as a full mobile network that will also allow users of other operators to roam onto them - it's a lot more than just running a repeater. This is the kit they're using as cells: http://www.accelleran.com/products/e101/ http://www.accelleran.com/products/e101/ >£2.25M! 3 years! >I am struggling to see how “50 or so” masts could come to this cost. That’s £45k a mast. That funding is not just for this project - the funding has gone to a consortium it's part of: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-65-million-package-for-5g-trials https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-65-million-package-fo...
  - madaxe_again 6y ago
    Gotcha - that now makes much more sense, and I’ll admit I skimmed for a number. Thanks for that link - since I did what I’ve done here, I’ve had more than a few people express their gratitude and astonishment that they now have WiFi and signal when they go fishing (as the only other people we ever see here are fishermen), and the local mayor asked about a week ago if I would be able to do the same for a village nearby which has no cell reception... I’m going up there this week to take a look at the lay of the land. I’d been considering a series of relay towers, but it may not be the best option depending on a bunch of factors. I dare say if I do go down the route of setting up an actual cell provider then I’ll have a damn sight more appreciation for the complexities these guys faced.

graton 6y ago

> £2.25M! 3 years! That is not what the article said. They have already created the network out of their own money. What the article said was, "The fledgling network has just secured part of a £2.25m government grant". So they just got "part" of £2.25m. What part? I don't know. This grant money maybe spread across multiple organizations. The article doesn't specify.

pjc50 6y ago

> Hell, the hardest bit was climbing a cliff with a 15ft mast and a sledgehammer on my back. How much did you charge for that? DIY is a lot cheaper if you can do lots of professional specialised jobs to a lower safety and quality standard without any money changing hands..

redis_mlc 6y ago
Well, that's what helicopters are for. Although if the mast doesn't fit inside the cabin, you'll need pilot with a longlining expertise, which is more expensive and less available.