Fillingham Broadband - Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Fillingham Broadband Upgrade?
The UK government is operating a national broadband upgrade scheme for rural villages, such as Fillingham. This scheme is designed to increase the internet speeds available for residents and business owners which in turn; provides wide range benefits such as:
> Faster broadband speeds in your home (Up to 24x faster, 1 GBp/s)
> Potential for increased house prices
> Potential for increased rental returns
> Stream 4k content in seconds
> Reduced latency for online-multiplayer games
For more details, see the Government website:
https://gigabitvoucher.culture.gov.uk/
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What would the actual upgrade be?
Most of Fillingham residents are currently setup with Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC). This FTTC means that high-speed internet is connected from the grid to the local junction box however, it is then heavily limited by the remaining copper cable from the box to your house.
The upgrade would be a Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) installation. This means that the old, copper cable which runs from the cabinet to your house will be replaced with a fibre cable. Most of the time, this doesn’t require any digging and the new cables can be pulled through ducts or installed by making use of existing overhead poles.
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Why are we doing it now?
The government grant is ending soon, and the next available scheme hasn’t been announced yet. So, we are progressing as fast-as-possible to secure the funds which will hopefully pay for the broadband upgrade costs.
A volunteer broadband team has been assembled from across the village to support the project through to completion. You can read who these people are further down.
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What’s the motive behind the upgrade?
Most Fillingham residents potentially receive average speeds of up to 46mb p/s which is OK for the vast majority of families however, as technology grows year-on-year, the demand for faster internet is also growing:
> More people are now working from home (live video calls etc.)
> Residents are watching highest quality 4k films/tv
> Multiple smart devices connected
> Greater amount of gamers
> 78% of potential house buyers say slow internet would put them off
As there are grants available to upgrade our internet speeds, we must take full advantage of benefits it offers!
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Why do we need a project team?
There are two main parties involved in upgrading the broadband:
1. The government - They have the big pot of money put to one-side for broadband upgrades of local communities
2. Openreach - Owners / facilitators of upgrading broadband
Unfortunately, the government and Openreach do not discuss directly and automatically upgrade everyone’s broadband. It is up to the local community, to prepare an application and pursue it hence, the Fillingham broadband group.
This is made up of the following people:
1. Peter O Grady
2. Glenn Cargill
3. Alan Baldwin
4. Alfred Rose
5. Ray Greetham
6. Martin Holland
7. Jan van der Lubbe
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What do you need from me?
It is the your interest in faster broadband which allows us to secure government funding. We receive £1.5k/3.5k per household/business that registers their interest in upgrading the broadband.
As we progress through the project, we will need your help to solidify the commitment which will ultimately release the funds available to us. We will let you know what to do, and what steps to take at each stage.
Other than that, please support us as much as possible!
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What if I’m no longer interested in being part of the Broadband upgrade?
That’s OK! We will remove your details from the register and all communications. Just call Glenn on 07970275103.
Please note that it is not known when the next scheme for broadband upgrade will be, but funding to meet the 2025 and 2030 targets for rural fibre roll-out have been cut recently, and if you may find yourself struggling with internet speed in the next few years, you may have to wait until there is more funding or make your own arrangements.
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How will the group communicate to residents?
We are planning on providing as many communications as possible, via email and our very own parish website.
As a minimum, we will provide an update via email which will contain the latest progress at each significant step of the project. You will also find comprehensive details on our website.
We will utilise the following email subject scheme:
FYI - For your Information email
ACTION - We need an action from yourself to support the project
REMINDER - A polite reminder about an upcoming event or activity
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Will this broadband upgrade increase my bills?
To release the grant funding, you will need to switch to an FTTP Ultrafast broadband supply within 2 weeks of the installation. This is critical and will likely happen around Q4 of 2021 or Q1 2022 (if the project goes ahead).
Once you have the FTTP connected you can choose any provider who supplies Ultrafast broadband. You need to make sure you are either with a provider who will allow you to upgrade, or free to move to another provider by the end of 2021.
FYI: The current cheapest FTTP broadband contract is £25 per month, 80Mb from Vodafone for 18 months. It should not cost you anything beyond this, you can choose whatever tariff and speed you want up to a Gigabyte!
If you want to check out the prices of different types of broadband – including full fibre / ultrafast, check out the following link: https://www.ispreview.co.uk/
We will grow this FAQ as we get more questions!