New Build Homes Site in Whitchurch Shuns Free FTTP Broadband UPDATE2

Alternative network ISP Ecom, which is deploying a new 1Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network in rural Buckinghamshire (England), has hit a snag after the developer of a new build homes site in Whitchurch appeared to shun their offer of a free “full fibre” build. Instead future owners may suffer slow ADSL.

The large village of Whitchurch is home to around 1,000 people and sits in the rural Aylesbury Vale district of Buckinghamshire. Until recently the best internet connectivity that you could get there was a slow copper line ADSL service via Openreach’s (BT) national network, although Gigaclear’s rival FTTP network can be found just a short way up the road in Oving.

More recently Ecom’s new full fibre network, which charges from £36 inc. VAT per month for an unlimited 300Mbps (50Mbps upload) service (installation is usually free via a gigabit voucher from the government), has made its way across the village (the build was completed last year).

Since then a property developer called Rectory Homes has begun work on a development of 10 new houses (3-5 bedrooms) in the village and they have also applied for a further 7 homes on the land next to that development. At this point you would think that they’d jump at the chance to get FTTP installed at virtually no cost to themselves, but it seems that sometimes you can’t even give it away.

Chris Wilkie, MD of Ecom, told ISPreview.co.uk:

“My offer is to provide the infrastructure for the development free of charge – i.e. we will run ducts to each plot during the groundworks phase, and return during first and second fix to do the internal wiring such that connecting to fibre would be a simple case of plugging a router in as/when the property becomes occupied.

The single proviso was that they would allow us in at the various stages i.e. groundworks, first fix, second fix, so that the task of getting this all in place is simple, as opposed to us having to come back once everything is complete.”

Ecom’s boss claims to have made “half a dozen” attempts to contact the management of Rectory Homes, both via phone and email, albeit without any luck. The closest he claims to have got is via a junior level contact, who merely confirmed that the company were aware of his attempts but couldn’t say why they had chosen not to respond.

Since last week ISPreview.co.uk has similarly tried a couple of times to reach the developer for comment, albeit so far without any success. Some of the new build homes are perhaps likely to fetch upwards of several hundred thousand pounds and would naturally benefit from having access to full fibre, as opposed to being left stuck on ADSL.

The lack of FTTP could also create confusion if property hunters see that the village can get a full fibre network and then make the wrongful assumption that the same would also be true for the Rectory Homes site. This is one of the reasons why we always recommend that those opting for a new build get a written commitment from the developer to confirm the broadband capability of a property BEFORE parting with any money.

The government and local authorities have long been encouraging new build developers to ensure that they provide support for at least “superfast broadband,” although their attempts to mandate such a requirement are still on-going (here and here). Doing this for smaller developments would however be much more challenging, albeit more so in areas with no alternative Gigabit broadband options nearby.

In the meantime it’s been noted in local media reports that Aylesbury Vale District Councillor, Janet Blake, also held a “small” investment in Rectory Homes (here). Blake is one of the councillors who took some of the heat over the troubled Aylesbury Vale Broadband project and, for a time, they were even in competition with Ecom.

UPDATE:

We should point out that fixed wireless ISP Rapid Rural, which offers superfast broadband speeds for £42 inc. VAT per month, does appear to cover the village. Sadly installation costs for this “start from” £318 – dependent on your requirements – and that’s a lot of money for a wireless solution.

UPDATE 8th Feb 2021

The Director of Rectory Homes, David Ullathorne, has informed us that Ecom did eventually reach an agreement with the property developer and FTTP has now been deployed on their completed plots. We are currently checking the details with Ecom.