Summary - still chasing to get more answers….and understand the best options for the village.
Lockerley 4 - Initial costings for Fibre to the cabinet received but waiting for these to be revised to include third cabinet. For the additional two cabinets, Tote Hill and Newtown Square quote of £35,000, @£500 per property.
Romsey - Cabinet on A27 outside Hampshire Collegiate School is now fibre enabled but this cabinet is too far from parish properties (Dunwood area) to make much/any difference to speeds.
West Wellow 3 - Limited FTTP quote for some properties but very expensive per property, £75,000 for 13 properties, @ £5,500 per property. Exploring other options. Contact me for details, if interested.
West Wellow 5 - I have now received the engineer’s costings to provide a better broadband Service to many properties on the West Wellow 5 exchange under the BT Community Fibre Partnership Scheme.
A fibre to the property (FTTP) solution has been suggested for a total cost to all the households of about £75,000. 47 properties are listed and this therefore works out at about £1,600 per property.
This offer is subject to further surveys and has a timescale of up to a year for installation.
BT community Partnership FTTP provides local distribution points to each house listed and then the householder may take a Broadband Service from any provider. FTTP provides the fastest possible broadband speeds available – ie limited only by the copper cabling from the distribution point outside your house into your house and your own internal connections and computer equipment. It is the best solution currently available and gives access to much faster speeds than Fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) which relies on existing overhead copper wires from the nearest fibre enabled cabinet to your home/business and currently has an effective limit of about 1 km from the cabinet. In our rural location it is unlikely to provide you with fastest (or perhaps even any kind of fast!) internet speed unless you live right next door to the cabinet.
In order for this project to go ahead then the cost of the installation must be raised in full. There are various suggested methods of doing this and I remain unclear at present as to whether any grants would be available to support this scheme.
Compared to other options and quotes that I have looked at this one does seem quite a good option. If you would like to get faster broadband in the shorter term. The £1,500 cost per property is likely to be offset by the saleability/value of your house.
If you are interested please contact me asap AND we would need a fund raising co-ordinator for YOUR West Wellow 5 exchange.
I am happy to discuss details and if I have enough interest I will hold a meeting at the village hall to present the plan and answer any questions. It would be hoped that our BT Community Fibre Partnership Programme manager would also be able to attend.
Whiteparish 1 – plans to place a fibre cabinet next to existing cabinet at northern end of village, but only to enable the fibre to a selection of Whiteparish exchange properties – ie those within about 1km of the new cabinet.