Abberley Community Fibre Partnership.
Bringing Super-Fast (Gigabyte) broadband to Abberley Businesses and Residents
| Take Action | Get super-fast internet | Be Better Connected |
Is your broadband too slow?
Struggling to find a cost-effective provider who can deliver the internet you want?
Would you support the Abberley community to get super-fast broadband?
Can you help us as a community be ahead of the queue for rural super-fast access?
Worcestershire County Council Superfast Broadband Team with the support of the Parish Council, Central Government and BT Openreach, is offering funding to Abberley businesses and residents to get super-fast broadband.
The Council’s objective to is to get rural super-fast broadband to every home and business at no cost to the community.
Our current broadband is not keeping up with current demands of a growing rural community, such as online grocery shopping, Working From Home (WFH) and online learning and government rural online services etc. It can also be unreliable, does not offer all residents the same speed and service (the further you live from the exchange the poorer the service) and is getting slower and slower with more online usage.
Having access to reliable, super-fast broadband is even more important in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Being digitally connected is key to staying in touch with loved ones, working from home, and helping to support local businesses.
The local Council and Central Government are offering a top up grant scheme to all residents and local. The top up scheme is a great opportunity to get high-speed broadband to areas currently without adequate service.
Super-fast broadband via Fibre to the Premises (FTTP)
What’s on offer is a new fibre cable to the property, which replaces the old telephone cables (copper) we have now, which is the root cause of our current poor broadband speeds and unreliable connections, since although we have Fibre to the Exchange, we are still relying on old copper wires from the exchange to our homes and business.
The new fibre cables will take the village in to the 21st century and beyond and enable us all to benefit from super-fast broadband today and even faster speeds into the future.
As of September 12th, 2020, Worcestershire County Council is reinvesting up to £1m of funding to step up its drive to get high-speed broadband out to the most rural parts of the county. The funding will ‘top-up’ the Government’s existing Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme, to help people in hard-to-reach locations get a super-fast, reliable broadband service.
The funding is limited and on a first come first serve basis, so we need to act fast to be at the front of the queue. The Government’s vouchers in the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme with Worcestershire County Council’s Top Up will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis until the end of March 2021, when the scheme will close.
To qualify for the scheme, residents must live in a rural area, be unable to get fast broadband speeds, ie 100Mbps or more, not be in an existing government-funded plan for a broadband upgrade and apply as a group.
Our strongest case will be if we apply as a community with Worcestershire Council Support.
The Government’s £200m Gigabit Broadband Vouchers Scheme (GBVS) currently provides up to £3,500 funding for eligible businesses and up to £1,500 for eligible residential properties to install gigabit-capable connections. The extra £1m made available from Worcester Council will be used to match the level of funding available under the UK Government GBVS, so that eligible businesses can now apply for up to a maximum of £7,000 and eligible residential properties up to £3,000. Residents and businesses can visit the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme website at https://gigabitvoucher.culture.gov.uk/ to find a list of suppliers in their local area.
There are nearly 240/55 premises in the catchment area that can qualify for the funding, however, the closer we get to 100% sign-up the better the chance of being at the head of the queue and getting super-fast broadband across the area.
Benefits to YOU
The advantages of replacing the copper connection to your premises with a fibre one;
- Faster internet speeds and more reliable connections, especially for moderate to heavy users such as businesses or families and even more so if you are a long way from the local cabinet.
- Future proofing and when it comes to sell a fibre connection will for many be a real plus.
FAQ’s and answers
- I don’t need it? Quite a few of us live close to the cabinets so we tend to get good speeds etc, others are not so lucky and suffer low speeds. Some of us use the internet a lot, others less so, but all will benefit in different ways if we can go ahead.
- Will I have to change my supplier and or spend more money? – For most of us there will be no need to change suppliers and as this is a national scheme more suppliers are joining. There will be a small extra cost for 12 months (after that you are free to downgrade, though of course your fibre connection will remain). Typically, this can be between £5 – £10 a month
PLEASE HELP US TO ENSURE THAT AS COMMUNITY WE ARE ABLE TO TAKE THE SCHEME FORWARD SO THAT AS MANY OF US AS POSSIBLE CAN BENEFIT NOW AND IN THE FUTURE FROM THIS OPPORTUNITY.
For further information
If you live within the thick red area (by The Elms), please contact Ian Platt. 07887757234.
If you live within the thick blue area (Main Abberley village), please contact Jim Gibson , 07848 196848
Further information can be found below
https://gigabitvoucher.culture.gov.uk/
https://www.superfastworcestershire.com/#faqs
Participating ISP’s – https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband/fttp-providers , for those of you using SKY they are not listed but are already sell FTTP Packages
Terminology
ISP – Internet Service provider (who you get your broadband from)
FTTP – Fibre to the Premise (enables much faster speeds)