UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt Visits Broadband for Surrey Hills Project
The UK Government’s Chancellor of the Exchequer and local MP, Jeremy Hunt, has visited and praised the Broadband for Surrey Hills (B4SH) project for having worked with volunteers to help bring full fibre (FTTP) gigabit broadband to nearly 1,000 premises in a remote rural area of Surrey (England).
The project follows a similar mould to B4RN, which means it’s a not-for-profit Community Benefit Society (CBS) that is run by volunteers, who are helping to build the new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across some of the remotest corners of the Surrey Hills area. B4SH has so far connected 500 properties, including over 100 businesses, and has passed nearly 1,000 premises (via well over 100km of fibre duct).
The B4SH network is 100% underground and “does not use any unsightly and controversial poles“, unlike many other providers. The network is installed ’round the back’, going across fields and woodland and dropping into gardens from the rear, thus avoiding the costs and disruption of digging up roads and pavements.
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The ISP also provides free connections to community assets such as village halls, churches and small primary schools.
Jeremy Hunt said:
“This is fantastic news for those people and businesses in rural areas who have previously been suffering from slow or intermittent broadband speeds. The team behind B4SH are to be commended for their hard work in bring gigabit speeds to the Surrey Hills.”
Angus Denny, B4SH Director, said:
“It was a great pleasure to welcome Jeremy to B4SH and show him the success of the volunteer-led model in delivering world-class gigabit broadband to areas of the Surrey Hills ignored by commercial providers”.
The Chancellor’s visit took place last Friday (12th), when he learned about the unique nature of B4SH, saw the map of B4SH’s network in the area and saw first-hand the gigabit technology that powers their network. He was especially interested in B4SH’s funding model, particularly the impact of the withdrawal of Social Investment Tax Relief (SITR), and the importance of the gigabit voucher scheme administered by DCMS, which is currently suspended across large parts of the UK while the Project Gigabit procurements run their course.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Way out of most retirees price bracket for speed that for most people who live on their own is unnecessary.
I have a 68Mbps connection, with a BT Digital Voice connection at 38Mbps on a separate line as a backup (yes our house has two phonelines & numbers) and they’re both adequate for my needs
You’re right Warren G. If you ain’t no Geek off the Street, £45/month is a lot, even if you are handy with the steel.
Far higher than B4RN, but then Surrey ain’t exacly Kirkby.
REGULATORS!
LOL 😀
YOU ALL KNOW ME
Thank goodness the industry is regulated. They egulate any stealin’ of his property.
It was a good day. I didn’t have to use my 48.8k (US Robotics modem).
Lucky you. You’d have a different perspective if you had a 50GB Call of Duty update to contend with I’d imagine.
Or if you worked from home pushing and pulling large data sets.
Not everyone uses a connection as you do. 😉
That reminds me…I’ve not turned my PC on in a couple of weeks, so I’ve probably 200GB of updates to do on Steam.
I’ll be back in a jiffy.
Could of at least tidied the rack a bit
What a mess. Concrete foundations not level and shuttering not removed. Fibre patch cords messy and not labelled, non hardened UPS in an outdoor enclosure. They need to get someone experienced in to build their infrastructure….
Yep, although if you think about it that cabinet goes to show how broken the whole country is to put a spin on it. Unfortunately, though far often than not that’s what most cabinet jobs are like – I’ve seen quite a few around in my local area that has fttp already installed in blocks on the other side, but nothing this side yet.
Hmmm, couldn’t see me wanted to put that picture out.
Would of been a bit funny if Jeremy actually knew what they hell he was looking at and said something
Have you considered it’s volunteers building a community network and may not have time or skills to make it to your standards?
It probably provides reliable and faster internet than anyone else would provide and cost 20pence to install; fits their requirements. Move on to building to more neighbours or fiddle about making a cabinet look nice?
It doesn’t take skill to dress cables neatly, just normal diligence and care.
Neither does it cost more than a few seconds per install to dress them into a couple of velcro wraps or a plastic cable ring. Time that is paid back when there is a fault and the engineers can easily find the correct connection.
They should be ashamed of this birds mess even if no-one were to ever see it, but to show a chancellor that is beyond belief.
Sad state of affairs.
I wonder how Prince Philip would have described that messy rack.
Great project, but what happens if you don’t have a garden that backs on to an open field?