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Co-Funding for FTTP BT Community Fibre our only option?

Hi there,

I live on an Estate called Bridgewater Village in Eccles Manchester. Its a new build Development with 164 Houses on the Estate now been in up for 2 Years. Its recently been finished with the last house being developed but all have no Fibre to the cabinet services to any of the houses as we are so far away from our exchange.

There are no government plans to bring better broadband services to our area when I checked with BT Openreach and Wrote to my local MP who is checking with the CEO of Salford Council and has written to the Houses of Commons Library to seek any advice on what can be done however not heard a response from their letter for over a month now.

BT Openreach Quoted us £22,401 to part fund so that all 164 Houses could get FTTP by building a new cabinet. I set up a crowdfunding page to raise funds but there hasn't been that much uptake so far.

Only over £2000 raised with less than 30 days to go to raise the funds however may see it rise to around £8000 once we do a leaflet drop on the estate soon but still feel we will be short.

Most People on the estate receive intermittent services with different ISP's on the estate ranging from 2.8mb up to 5mb however unreliable or non existent at peak times.

I'm looking for help/advice really.Does anyone know of any grant we can apply for.

I'm acting on behalf of the residents in our estate and it seems as I'm not a company the grants available are very limited. We created a Facebook group page for everyone on the estate to collaborate together on this and other issues which has generated interest in getting something in place.

One person recommended we look down the Fixed Wireless route by a company called 6G Internet that can send fibre by an antenna, only question is this reliable or intermittent.

Any help/advice would be so welcome!!!
 
Firstly, what kind of broadband speed do locals get on the old ADSL lines? If it's less than 2Mbps then there may be some additional subsidy schemes that could be used to bring the cost down.

Secondly, did you get the quote from Openreach by going via BT's Community Fibre Partnership? This could be helpful if there's a local school on the development as you may benefit from another reduction in the cost.

https://communityfibre.bt.com/

Thirdly, I'm assuming the property developer never promised a fibre service but if they did then you should be able to pressure them into helping to cover part of the cost.

Fourthly, have you also got a quote for FTTC? Granted FTTP would be brilliant and £22k is a pretty good price for "full fibre" but if you can't get enough money for that then maybe FTTC would be cheaper? This does depend on the area though.

Personally I'd forget about 6G Internet (we have very little info. about them) and maybe ask an operator like Gigaclear if they might be able to prove another quote for a similar FTTP deployment. Hyperoptic might also be worth asking, although usually prefer bigger buildings.
 
"Most People on the estate receive intermittent services with different ISP's on the estate ranging from 2.8mb up to 5mb however unreliable or non existent at peak times. "
DSL services (broadband down the phone line) should not suffer from peak time problems unless the provider you are with is utterly awful (old Freeserve, Orange and EE service a few years ago) or you are on an exchange with 20CN only (20CN is BTs old network).
The exchange your area appears to be connected to isn't this kind of exchange. BT, Plusnet, TalkTalk etc.. should not suffer any difference depending on the time of day.

Can you private message me a postcode and, even better, a phone number in the estate so I can check what BTs database days for the services in the area and potential FTTC upgrades.

Ref: Wireless internet - depends on the technology they use. I've got a family member on WiMax in the USA and it is very, very reliable. I think this technology is quite old now so a newer technology may behave differently but a reliable wireless based broadband service is achievable.
 
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Firstly, what kind of broadband speed do locals get on the old ADSL lines? If it's less than 2Mbps then there may be some additional subsidy schemes that could be used to bring the cost down.

Secondly, did you get the quote from Openreach by going via BT's Community Fibre Partnership? This could be helpful if there's a local school on the development as you may benefit from another reduction in the cost.

https://communityfibre.bt.com/

Thirdly, I'm assuming the property developer never promised a fibre service but if they did then you should be able to pressure them into helping to cover part of the cost.

Fourthly, have you also got a quote for FTTC? Granted FTTP would be brilliant and £22k is a pretty good price for "full fibre" but if you can't get enough money for that then maybe FTTC would be cheaper? This does depend on the area though.

Personally I'd forget about 6G Internet (we have very little info. about them) and maybe ask an operator like Gigaclear if they might be able to prove another quote for a similar FTTP deployment. Hyperoptic might also be worth asking, although usually prefer bigger buildings.

The Internet poeple are getting varies between 2mb and 5mb but sometimes it drops with some people barely getting 2mb Broadband; closer to the end of the estate they get up to 5.8mb broadband.

The Quote I mentioned for £22,000 is from BT Community Fibre Broadband.There is a Local School called Saint Patricks Primary School but it already has some super-fast broadband services supplied to the school so not sure how this would work. We were told that the quote we were given was for only our estate of 164 Houses.


I have been in touch with the developer and they said at the time of the build their was no fibre available so didn't install anything else but the copper wire. this was back around 4 years ago at the first phase of the build.The chances of me getting help from Bellway Homes the Developers is probably non existent.

BT Community Fibre and Openreach say that we are too far away from the cabinet to even consider FTTC hence why they suggested FTTP.

Ill see if Gigaclear can look into our area in Eccles. Im not a fan of Hyperoptic, I had that in an apartment a long time ago and was horrible.


Drsox Ive Private Messaged you my Postcode.Thanks for your help so far guys!
 
Thank you for the private message..

It does appear that your cabinet is a long way away!
dpEstimate: 3604 (I presume this is close to or is the FTTC enabled cabinet?)
circuitEstimate: 4651
circuitCalculated: 5080
dbLoss: 48.1

Supposedly this is Cabinet 24
https://goo.gl/maps/wDDmSWydiwo

Which doesn't seem like it should be more than about 1600 meters from your estate.. so maybe BT have some totally crazy cable routing or have wrong data recorded for the area.

Have you checked "get-digital" manchester.. the name of the "Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK)" project in Manchester.
http://www.get-digital-faster.info/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Deployment-Coverage.jpg

Seems that their project is running until March 2018 but most of their websites appear to be abandoned or broken.. not sure how you would find the best people to contact about potential inclusion in their project.
 
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Thank you for the private message..

It does appear that your cabinet is a long way away!
dpEstimate: 3604 (I presume this is close to or is the FTTC enabled cabinet?)
circuitEstimate: 4651
circuitCalculated: 5080
dbLoss: 48.1

Supposedly this is Cabinet 24
https://goo.gl/maps/wDDmSWydiwo

Which doesn't seem like it should be more than about 1600 meters from your estate.. so maybe BT have some totally crazy cable routing or have wrong data recorded for the area.

Have you checked "get-digital" manchester.. the name of the "Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK)" project in Manchester.
http://www.get-digital-faster.info/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Deployment-Coverage.jpg

Seems that their project is running until March 2018 but most of their websites appear to be abandoned or broken.. not sure how you would find the best people to contact about potential inclusion in their project.

Tom - www.mouselike.org


Hmm i didn't think it was 1600 meters away and didnt think it was that close?

https://availability.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/MRECC

This link shows it much further away across the M602 on the other side of the Motorway from our development.

Ill check get digital and see if i can make any headway with it.
 
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The Samknows map is for the main exchange.. my Google Maps link was for the P24 cabinet (the distribution point that BT report your line is connected to).. connections "congregate" here and then go in a larger bundle back to the main exchange.
 
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The only way to check if that is cabinet 24 is to go and look all cabinets are numbered.
 
I used to live in a new build development in Acton who had the same problem. The residents got together and approached Hyperoptic who installed fibre quite quickly compared to the long wait for BT. I moved before the installation was complete but have friends still there and they are happy with the service. I believe there was some sort of agreement in place meaning if you wanted fibre you had to sign up through Hyperoptic though. Not sure for how long that would be in place. Hope this helps.
 
Hi,

Have a look at http://www.vispa.net & register your interest at http://www.vispa.net/register

If you would like to pm me your details, we can have chat. We're able to rollout 60Mbps wireless broadand with as little as 25 registrations.

We're based a few miles down the road so it should be fairly simple for us to rollout.

We are also working with Salford & Manchester City Council so we have their full support.
 
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Only Problem with this is most properties are getting just over the 2mbps so therefore we cannot apply for the voucher. Also from my meeting last night with Mark Chamberlain from BT the vouchers run out and expire end of December so BT Community Fibre will not accept these vouchers after this time as it will be about 12 months from when we raise the funds.
 
Thank you for the private message..

It does appear that your cabinet is a long way away!
dpEstimate: 3604 (I presume this is close to or is the FTTC enabled cabinet?)
circuitEstimate: 4651
circuitCalculated: 5080
dbLoss: 48.1

Supposedly this is Cabinet 24
https://goo.gl/maps/wDDmSWydiwo

Which doesn't seem like it should be more than about 1600 meters from your estate.. so maybe BT have some totally crazy cable routing or have wrong data recorded for the area.

Have you checked "get-digital" manchester.. the name of the "Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK)" project in Manchester.
http://www.get-digital-faster.info/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Deployment-Coverage.jpg

Seems that their project is running until March 2018 but most of their websites appear to be abandoned or broken.. not sure how you would find the best people to contact about potential inclusion in their project.

Tom - www.mouselike.org

Hi Tom,

We had a meeting last night and most people do want FTTP however not enough funds will be raised this time around to raise the £21,409 that was required to get FTTP into our estate.

The cabinet 24 you picture is right. That is definatley cabinet 24. They say it will cost more money to try and run FTTC so best to stick with the quote we got for FTTP. There is currnelty no more room on cabinet 24 and will probabaly install a new cabinet at the end of our road if we were to go ahead with it.

I tried Get digital manchester but cannot find numbers to call them. Our concil and our MP keep pushing us down the Better Broadband Scheme but we are just not applicable for the subsidies which is a shame.

It seems the only solution is to work with 6G Internet on bringing a wireless scheme into the development which we are currently testing. There are some black dead spots due to some trees causing issues but if we get 50 subscribers on board they will fund another antenna to bounce the signal into the area.
 
Only Problem with this is most properties are getting just over the 2mbps so therefore we cannot apply for the voucher. Also from my meeting last night with Mark Chamberlain from BT the vouchers run out and expire end of December so BT Community Fibre will not accept these vouchers after this time as it will be about 12 months from when we raise the funds.

Still worth a chat as we may not require the BDUK vouchers to enable the area.

Happy to come across for a chat.
 
Thought I would re-enable this post as have been with 6G Air fibre for some time. Speeds are better than standard broadband and conversations fell at the wayside on community fibre part funded program as we did not raise enough funds to make it happen.

However we have been told that from Openreach that Eccles has been planned to receive fibre to the premises (FTTP) broadband, which is part of the Fibre Cities rollout which is supposedly ongoing for the next couple of years.

Openreach said that they have spoken to the local fibre project managers in our area and have confirmed that FTTP is being built to us in February time and should be ready for ordering in end February or Early March. But only to even number houses on the first street of our estate??


Is there anything we can look at to see if this will be the case and not just lip service by Openreach?
 
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Hello Fabrix2005,

About 2 weeks ago I saw engineers measuring up on chesterfield close. But so far you cannot place an order. I am on Chesterfield close and struggling with poor internet speeds myself.
 
Hi @Fabrix2005

Has there been any new updates from BT Openreach regarding the Bridgewater Village estate? I’m currently on Chelmer Way and the speeds are also terrible.
I tried to sign up with 6G but I’m unable to receive a signal from their antennas 😞
 
You may have covered this but has any of your neighbours been successful with 4G Mobile Broadband?. M30 8EN appears to have Outdoor 4G coverage.

If you are not receiving 10Mbps then you will qualify for the proposed USO (register in 2020) which hopefully will spur Openreach into action at some stage if nothing occurs before. Until then as the speeds are so low a modest investment in a 4G solution may be of use.
 
M30 8EN according to samknows has


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