Excellent news! some of you have already been connected to the new ultrafast service. A happy Bury resident kindly sent me a screenshot of his new download speed at 300+ mbps, which is great news.
As mentioned previously, the build for the broadband upgrade has been divided into 5 Passive Optical Networks (PON’s), which means not all of our connections will be delivered at the same time. Here is a high level summary of progress reported by Openreach as of Friday 28th July:
Total premises in the scheme – 348, of which 141 have been completed and can place an FTTP Full Fibre order with their chosen Internet Service Provider (ISP). A further 31 are expected to be completed in the next 2/3 weeks.
The community (including those who are not voucher holders) can check to see if the network has been built to them and so ready to place an order via this link – Our broadband network | Openreach . It is important to note, there is sometimes a delay of around a week or two between connection by Openreach and the service being available to order via your ISP.
All voucher holders will receive an email from Openreach advising when their property is ready to place an order.
When placing an order
Please tell your Internet Service Provider if you have any special requirements or equipment, such as – personal pendant alarm, house alarm, you are considered as vulnerable, or you receive government benefits.
If you receive government benefits, you could qualify for one of these discounted price plans.
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/costs-and-billing/social-tariffs
Issues with inaccurate communication to voucher holders from Openreach have now mostly been resolved.
Following recent meetings I attended with several representatives from Openreach, including Engineers from the local build team and the Regional Manager at Rural Engagement for the South East, I received an in-depth briefing on progress and the issues that the teams are working hard to resolve. In a rural parish, such as ours, there are often significant technical and practical issues to overcome. I am satisfied that the teams on the ground are doing their best to connect all of those premises in the project as soon as possible. It is important to remember that because of our community engagement in the Government Rural Gigabit Voucher Scheme, virtually all of us in the parish will be able to connect to Full Fibre Broadband, with the infrastructure fully funded by the Government.
Retiring the Copper Network for Landline telephones
Since the community embarked on the campaign to upgrade its broadband to Ultrafast Full Fibre in September 2020, a lot has changed. In 2021 the Internet service Providers (ISP’s) did not commonly market digital voice products and so at that time, it was possible to retain a copper landline for new FTTP Full Fibre Broadband connections. The position nationally has now changed, please see the following explanation:
The link to the Openreach website which has details on retiring the cooper network and what it means for you – Retiring the copper network | Openreach
As stated on the website: ‘once we’ve rolled out Full Fibre into an area, it doesn’t make sense for us to keep lots of different old technologies running – it’ll be very expensive, replacement parts are no longer being made, and it won’t allow us to push forward with our plans to give the UK world class connectivity as quickly as we’d like. So, we’ve laid out a plan on how and when we’re going to be switching off our old copper-based network and what this means for you.
If you have a good reason not to make the move to FTTP – there may be special exceptions such as if you’re a vulnerable customer or have critical equipment that might not work. If you think this applies to you, you should check with your (Internet) Service Provider to check what’s the best option for you.’
You can also find out more on the UK move to IP from copper Broadband on this Openreach link: The All IP Programme (openreach.co.uk)
Future updates
Over the next few months I will send regular updates when I have more news on the rollout.
My thanks to all those who are working hard to complete our project at Openreach, including those in our community who are supporting their work. My thanks also to our MP Andrew Griffith and his team for their ongoing assistance.
If you have any questions please email:
richard.champness@buryparishcouncil.org.uk
clerk@buryparishcouncil.org.uk
