Broadband Update - September 2019

Very slowly the connectivity of the village is increasing but, like most of our internet, rather at a snail’s pace and sometimes it’s all rather frustrating….

There is some good news and hope for those of you still struggling on single figures (or less!). A few months ago the ‘Rural Gigabit Voucher Scheme’ was announced which awards larger grants for FTTP (fibre to the premise) infrastructure in rural areas such as ours. For a group of two or more properties the government may pay up to £1500 per residence or£3,500 per business (any kind of business so small sole trader counts, but not working at home for another employer unless you are self-employed). At about the same time upper Doctor’s Hill was given a quote from Openreach of around £1,200 per property for a FTTP solution (the best!). Suddenly the increased vouchers and the lower per property cost meant that a community partnership became achievable as only 50% of the properties needed to sign up and complete paperwork for the vouchers in order for the whole scheme to go ahead for the 22 properties on the list. I am delighted to report that contracts have now been signed with Openreach and that this scheme should be delivered within in the next 12-18months. You will have already been notified by myself if your property lies within this scheme.

We are really hoping the Upper Doctor’s Hill project will be the start of the rest of us achieving a reliable and speedy broadband connection and will provide the blueprint for others to easily follow in their footsteps.

There seems to be particular advantage in looking at larger schemes and therefore my current advice would be to gather a small set of your neighbours together, for example between 2 and 10, and register yourself for a FTTP community partnership. When/if you get a quote then do contact me and I’ll guide you through the next stage of the process.

Exchange Summary

Whiteparish exchange– FTTC available to some– contact your supplier to upgrade to a fibre service if you are within about 1.2 km of this cabinet. Salisbury end of village.

Wellow 15 (5) – FTTC – some residents at end of Mill Lane and along A27 who were on Wellow 5 are now connected to the new FTTC Wellow 15 cabinet - contact your supplier to upgrade to a fibre service if you are within about 1.2 km of this cabinet

Wellow 5 – Mill Lane – ‘behind’ Wellow 15 at Hatchett corner – I suggest you talk to your neighbours and look at using the rural Gigabit voucher scheme and request an FTTP scheme quote. Previously we have had reasonable quotes for your area so now vouchers are higher – try again.

West Wellow 3 - pockets around the village - I suggest you talk to your neighbours and look at using the rural Gigabit voucher scheme and request an FTTP scheme quote. Previously we have had reasonable quotes for your area so now vouchers are higher – try again.

Lockerley 4 – currently quotes obtained for lower Doctor’s Hill and Gambledown area but too expensive, ongoing negotiations with Openreach. Newtown road residents may like to group together and look at rural Gigabit voucher scheme.

Romsey exchange – as above – talk to your neighbours! Group together in smallish clusters and look at rural Gigabit voucher scheme

Check your cabinet connection and available options using http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/adsl/adslchecker.welcome

Register your interest in a community fibre partnership on Openreach website https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband/community-fibre-partnerships/

So….as usual none of it makes much sense other than as a way for the government to state that communities are enabled to get better broadband but strictly ration its availability to the most determined only…and in the process add layers of administration and therefore unnecessary costs. Technology is changing everyday and better connectivity at a lower cost is coming to our rural areas, but slowly. The only upside is that many of us may now get FTTP and then suddenly we will have some of the best services in the country and be in the top 10% rather than the bottom 10%  In the meantime I am hoping that the sun stays out long enough to allow me to submit this report as when its damp connection speeds plummet.

Ursula

broadband@sherfieldenglish.org.uk

Broadband Update February 2019

West Wellow 3 (WW3)

Last autumn, Mark was offered a FTTP (fibre to the property – best possible solution) Community Fibre Partnership package by Openreach for his local West Wellow 3 area. This included about 50 properties – A27 from Mill Lane towards Romsey, Pound/Church Lane & The Frenches (plus the odd anomalous property….). The cost of this was estimated by Openreach to be about £88,000 BUT it was made more attractive by some new government grants avaible to businesses and nearby residential properties. In my view (if you accept the premise that we might have to pay for faster broadband to arrive in the foreseeable future…) it was a good offer, but only achievable with a really good uptake from the included properties.

Mark and I spent a couple of months last year contacting and getting the views of all those properties included in the offer, many of which receive the worst broadband speeds in our village area. Emails, individual letters and much door knocking, resulted in about 20 residential properties and 10 businesses showing an initial interest. However this is not enough to make the project financially viable given the strict terms of the voucher scheme and the on-going complications of trying to work with Openreach and their shifting goalposts. We did not choose the properties on this quote, but were ‘given’ them by Openreach and a little googling and research indicates to me that very few, if any, projects of this size have actually been completed….. The Openreach algorithms that calculate these costings do not seem to understand rural areas and despite our attempts to liaise with Openreach it has not been possible to work out how we can tweak the scheme to make it more affordable for the majority of properties.

Lockerley 4

Excited by the seemingly ‘good’ value of the WW3 project I tried again to ask for a FTTP for a section of the Lockerley 4 area (Doctors’ Hill/Newtown road) that had a relatively high density of housing and low broadband speed. However results were very disappointing and I got sent back at quote for £400,000 which was completely unviable, and failed to make use our local knowledge and the detailed information I had sent to them.

Conclusion

Some of the village now has superfast broadband (Whiteparish cabinet) and some will hopefully get a fast FTTC solution (West Wellow 5/Mill Lane properties, new FTTC cabinet outside The Hatchett) in the near future.

In theory, FTTP schemes should not be limited by the current telephone exchange of a property and we should be able to use our local knowledge to choose compact geographical areas that would have a good uptake and lower installation costs to tempt Openreach…..but the changing staff, shifting goalposts and computer algorithms are set to thwart us and I am afraid even my optimism/determination to challenge is increasingly tinged with the realisation that most of the offers are just a publicity exercise. However, I am now told that we can include properties across exchanges for FTTP and so I plan to submit a Lockerley 4 (small area of Doctor’s Hill/ Newtown Road) request for a quote for a much smaller number of properties that I know will have good uptake and are relatively densely packed, just to see if this approach might be slightly more achievable than village-wide projects.

We have looked at using radio transmitters with Gigabeam, who were lovely and innovative but our gently rolling landscape with lots of trees is not ideal. I understand from another technically minded local resident that smaller local 5G networks might give us a solution into the future and of course there are those ‘fibre enabled’ telegraph poles and planning notices that keep appearing round the area…..

Do keep nagging our local representatives in local and national government and get in touch if you have any questions or are inspired with an idea to move us forwards.

Better Village Broadband Update February 2018

Last summer, 2017, Openreach offered to look at a community, village wide solution for better broadband. This has not materialised and we are back to dealing with the individual exchanges within the village, although FTTP solutions may be extended across exchange boundaries, unlike FTTC solutions.

Further to meeting with Openreach and Hampshire Broadband last month, 24/01/18 :

Whiteparish 1 - new fibre cabinet (joint Wiltshire/Hampshire project) – may now be operational ….? - Openreach were having difficulties bringing power to the cabinet. Once it is live then local residents on this exchange (you can check on Openreach website, https://www.homeandbusiness.openreach.co.uk/fibre-broadband/when-can-i-get-fibre) will be able to ask their internet service provider for the faster fibre service. This will involve an extra monthly cost. Most properties on this exchange, I have been told, should be able to get superfast (>24Mbps) and many much faster service. I do have list of distribution points that are connected to the new cabinet – to find your distribution point then go outside and follow your cabling back to a telegraph pole with small white circular discs on – your distribution point number/pole.

Lockerley 4 – no plans for the area at all despite many properties getting very poor broadband at lower than 2Mbps. We have asked again for a FTTP (fibre to the property solution) for the Doctor’s Hill, Newtown Road, Carters Clay circuit with costings for additional spurs to outlying houses. I will be chasing this early March as we were given a 6 week time indication. Openreach and Hampshire Broadband were given an updated list of all those in the Lockerley locality regardless of current exchange connection who have registered with us, 103, as interested in faster broadband over the past year. They were also sent a list of about 200 properties in Lockerley 4 area which have been identified within and around the parish boundaries along with notated maps of the area in order to help them understand our locality with reference to broadband requirements.

West Wellow 5 – this area (Mill Lane) was offered a FTTP solution but it was put on hold whilst Openreach looked at a more community based solution. We asked that the quote be looked at again and updated. There are some FTTC solutions in draft form and some works have been carried out, although I have been told plans are still draft, eg still looking at where fibre cabinets could be sited, so lead in time to see installations completed is many months.

West Wellow 3 – need to check again but not sure any works proposed even though these probably receive the poorest broadband BUT are geographically dispersed around the village so most uneconomic.

Romsey – (Dunwood end of parish boundaries) – no plans for any broadband upgrades.

There are significant grants available from Hampshire Broadband and Openreach community packages to support Community initiated schemes. We are looking at costs to a household of between £500 and £1500 per property for FTTP solutions for more densely built areas of the village. Outlying properties are likely to have to pay more than this. We had hoped that the new government announcement of a minimum service of 10 Mbps might avoid local community projects being needed, however, it would seem that if householders want a good broadband service in the nearer future then we need to again consider community projects, which would still take 12-18 months to install. It should be noted that if a FTTP infrastructure is installed there are limited companies providing a FTTP service and the monthly costs are higher. Into the longer term I would presume costs will come down as more companies are able to provide services. Presently I am told there are only 7 including BT, Z-internet, Spectrum, Anderson & Arnold – I haven’t checked these out myself yet.

Other services – Hampshire Broadband were keen to say that they knew several properties who were successfully using alternative technologies in the shorter term and that there are some grants avaible to support installation costs if you currently get less than 2Mbps. There is a list on their website of companies providing 4G aerials, for example, ruralbroadband.co.uk. I am told the cost for this service is about £40 per month for 100GB and that the installation costs are more or less covered by the less than 2Mbps grant @£200ish – again do check these facts.

Village Public meeting – this is postponed until workable solutions for the village are put forward.

Conclusion – we understand the problems & solutions a bit more, but progress is still slow.