The Aylesbury Vale Broadband project in rural Buckinghamshire (England) has confirmed that their 300Mbps capable Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) network has now completed its extension via private land from North Marston and managed to reach the village of Swanbourne.
The village itself is home to nearly 500 people and took roughly two months to reach over a distance of around 6km, although it’s expected to take approximately two more months to roll-out the new ultrafast fibre optic broadband cable to local premises. Initially rain did slow the effort, although the recent sunny weather has been a big help.
Customers of the new network can expect to pay from £30 per month for an unlimited 30Mbps (symmetrical) service, which rises to £38 if you want 100Mbps or £135 for the top 300Mbps. The one-off connection fee is £150, although this only works if you’re happy to “self-install” the cable to your property and it will cost a little more if you wish to hire a professional.
As of today the network is now live in three villages (Granborough, North Marston and Swanbourne) and the next on their list to be reached is Oving, which is home to a similar population size.
AVB Status Update
At long last and after considerable effort by some amazing people (Swanbourne Estate workers, Tom Finchett and Matt Little) we are very pleased to announce that Aylesbury Vale Broadband’s fibre network has now reached Swanbourne.
The public works to lay the ducting for our fibre is scheduled to start Tuesday the 16th August (pending final approval by Buckinghamshire County Council) and we expect it to take approximately two months – but once our civils team has finished their work on your street then we will be able to connect you a week or two later.
The publicly funded effort, which was initially supported by £200k from the local Aylesbury Vale District Council (AVDC) and has recently been given another boost of £500k to help the network expand, hopes to have its FTTH service live in 10 local villages by the end of 2016.
The company itself has been structured on the basis that AVDC is the majority shareholder (95%) and consultancy “Ironic Thought“, who had been the lead in managing the project, takes the remaining 5%. Overall there are four directors – three from AVDC and one from “Ironic Thought” – and AVDC has recently agreed to appoint a permanent Managing Director on a salary of £60k to help oversee its expanded roll-out (i.e. the consultancy arrangement is to be turned into a paid employment role).
A fully revised business plan and set of accounts are due to be reported to AVDC’s Cabinet in September 2016 and then to the Finance and Services Scrutiny Committee in October 2016. However some local fixed wireless ISPs (Village Networks and Rapid Rural) remain unhappy at the use of public money, which has enabled AVB to roll-out into some of the same areas as their own networks.
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