Mark8253
Regular Member
Our local BDUK authority (Cheshire) has admitted that it will run out of money this summer, so no new upgrades are planned after this date unless it can secure additional budget. I'm therefore exploring a community fibre partnership as an option to upgrade our sub 1 Mb/s broadband (extremely long lines), but I'm not clear exactly how it works in practice.
We are not a discrete village, more a collection of hamlets and individual farms/houses in open countryside, so it is not obvious where to draw the boundaries for our "community". If I follow our 5 km cable back to the cabinet, it passes about 24 premises that receive < 10 Mb/s. Adding in other legs and branches takes us to 62 premises and a total of 9.6 km, so on average less cabling per premises passed (I know that FTTP cabling doesn't go back to the cabinet, but I'm assuming the nearest fibre aggregation point is in the same general area).
It could be scoped for lowest total cost, or lowest cost per premises. Do BT advise the preferred option? Do other premises that already get decent speed from FTTC have access to "our" cable if it passes through their distribution pole on its way to us? What about residents who choose not to join the partnership? Can they get FTTP later anyway if it is available nearby, or are they excluded? If they are excluded, is this lifted if the house is sold, so the new owner gets unrestricted access to FTTP?
Given these relatively low number of potential subscribers and long lines (roughly 50:50 between overhead cabling and soft digging in grass verges) it may turn out to be uneconomic even with available grants. Local 3G/4G is reasonable, so the future USO probably won't help (and it might make people less inclined to support an expensive FTTP scheme).
I'd like to be able to answer these basic questions before canvassing the community about joining in, but it appears to be very difficult to find anything online to this level of detail. Has anybody got any relevant experience of similar situations, please?
We are not a discrete village, more a collection of hamlets and individual farms/houses in open countryside, so it is not obvious where to draw the boundaries for our "community". If I follow our 5 km cable back to the cabinet, it passes about 24 premises that receive < 10 Mb/s. Adding in other legs and branches takes us to 62 premises and a total of 9.6 km, so on average less cabling per premises passed (I know that FTTP cabling doesn't go back to the cabinet, but I'm assuming the nearest fibre aggregation point is in the same general area).
It could be scoped for lowest total cost, or lowest cost per premises. Do BT advise the preferred option? Do other premises that already get decent speed from FTTC have access to "our" cable if it passes through their distribution pole on its way to us? What about residents who choose not to join the partnership? Can they get FTTP later anyway if it is available nearby, or are they excluded? If they are excluded, is this lifted if the house is sold, so the new owner gets unrestricted access to FTTP?
Given these relatively low number of potential subscribers and long lines (roughly 50:50 between overhead cabling and soft digging in grass verges) it may turn out to be uneconomic even with available grants. Local 3G/4G is reasonable, so the future USO probably won't help (and it might make people less inclined to support an expensive FTTP scheme).
I'd like to be able to answer these basic questions before canvassing the community about joining in, but it appears to be very difficult to find anything online to this level of detail. Has anybody got any relevant experience of similar situations, please?