{"id":16401,"date":"2018-06-25T17:44:06","date_gmt":"2018-06-25T16:44:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/?p=16401"},"modified":"2018-06-25T17:44:58","modified_gmt":"2018-06-25T16:44:58","slug":"community-in-wales-builds-own-fttp-ultrafast-broadband-network","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2018\/06\/community-in-wales-builds-own-fttp-ultrafast-broadband-network.html","title":{"rendered":"Community in Wales Builds Own FTTP Ultrafast Broadband Network"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Welsh Government<\/a> has today celebrated the success of a community project, which with a little help from public subsidy (vouchers) and local volunteers has managed to build their own 1Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP<\/a>) based broadband ISP network to homes in the rural village Michaelston y Fedw.<\/p>\n

Apparently residents of Michaelston y Fedw<\/strong> have long been suffering from average broadband download speeds of around 4Mbps and they’d had enough of it, but instead of waiting for something better to come along they decided to establish their own Community Interest Company called Michaelston-y-Fedw Internet CIC<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The plan was to raise enough local funding in order to build a Gigabit capable FTTP<\/a> “full fibre<\/em>” broadband network, with contractors being employed for some of the hardest work and the rest being shared by a team of dedicated local volunteers (e.g. digging chambers, laying out of ducting, fitting out The Hub, fusion and splicing of fibres, router installations etc.).<\/p>\n

After that the project looked to harness the Welsh Government<\/a>’s voucher schemes to cover the final installation costs. At present Wales is home to two voucher schemes – Access Broadband Cymru<\/strong><\/a> (ABC) and Ultrafast Connectivity Vouchers<\/strong><\/a> (UCV). The ABC scheme offers vouchers to homes in areas that aren\u2019t currently planned to benefit from the Superfast Cymru<\/a> project with BT<\/a> and which don\u2019t have access to a “superfast connection<\/em>” speed of 30Mbps+<\/strong> (e.g. \u00a3400 for 10Mbps+ or \u00a3800 for 30Mbps+).<\/p>\n

Meanwhile UCV provides assistance (worth up to \u00a310,000) toward the capital costs of helping businesses in Wales to install an “ultrafast<\/em>” service offering speeds of 100Mbps+<\/strong> (30Mbps upload), which requires that related firms exist in an area where speeds of 100Mbps+ cannot currently be achieved via an existing network. Both vouchers schemes are being put into use for this deployment.<\/p>\n

We’ve already seen similar schemes in the rest of the UK (e.g. B4RN<\/a> in England was an inspiration here), although this is one of the first such deployments of that approach in Wales. On top of that Landowners and Farmers throughout the area have also generously given wayleaves across their land for the trenching and laying of ducting for the fibre (commercial operators often have to pay pricey rents for this).<\/p>\n