Gigaclear Progress in Fastershire area?

[sheephouse]

The Gloucestershire county Council are due to reach a decision in the next week on changes to the Fastershire delivery - this follows a decision by Herefordshire council that has de-scoped a couple of thousand or so properties that Gigaclear are no longer going to cover - those properties will now be deferred to Project Gigabit. I suspect something similar will happen in Gloucestershire...

 

[sheephouse]

The planned electricity connection to the Stroat cabinet due today has been cancelled. I now don't expect it to be connected this year as there isn't time before Christmas to give notice to the affected properties.
As I work from home I had to rearrange work to allow for the power cut, but now I will have to do that all again - arrgh!

 

[sheephouse]

The electricity connection to the Stroat cabinet has now been completed by the power company. This has happened sooner than I expected, as they didn't give the usual advance notice of a power cut - which surprised a number of locals who found themselves without power for a couple of hours.
There is still no power to the equipment though, as there is some additional work to be done in power section of the cabinet...

 

[Pheasant]

The electricity connection to the Stroat cabinet has now been completed by the power company. This has happened sooner than I expected, as they didn't give the usual advance notice of a power cut - which surprised a number of locals who found themselves without power for a couple of hours.
There is still no power to the equipment though, as there is some additional work to be done in power section of the cabinet...

Grid connections are a nightmare at the best of times. The most recent one I did the DNO made us jump through so many hoops and on the day of connection I was shocked at how disjointed the whole process was with UKPN doing the basic cabling and installing the cable from the street up to ‘their’ side of the cutout, then their subby came to connect ‘our’ side of the tails to the cutout, then our electricity supplier needed to send their subby to install the meter - so yeah it was a bloody nightmare and if if I hadn’t rattled all their cages and effectively project managed the BS nightmare then we would have have no power…make comms look like a walk in the back garden

 

[sheephouse]

Grid connections are a nightmare at the best of times.

Yes, but this one has been very poor. They originally planned the cabinet in a location where no new connections were possible because the transformer is over-subscribed. (I did warn them). Then when they changed the location they seem to have forgotten to apply for wayleaves. Anyway, I have now been told that it is Gigaclear (or their contractor) that needs to do some work to get the power connected. They don't seem to actually plan anything in advance, and don't seem very good at project management, so I'm expecting more delays...

 

[sheephouse]

Well, the Stroat cabinet now has power and appears to have equipment installed, complete with flashing lights.

 

[jim1974]

Looking at TBB today, St.Briavels has now gone live and appears to have a few subscribers.
I have not seen any further updates anywhere on our Street area (although they appear to be re-digging up Aylburton or some reason).
They got about 300 metres down Keynsham lane back in November, but then stopped rather abruptly, and nothing appears to be happening now

St Briavels in Gloucester has Gigaclear FTTP available | thinkbroadband

While the big drives of the rise in the FTTP figures are the urban areas there are rural areas such as St Briavels getting to enjoy full fibre.

www.thinkbroadband.com

 

[sheephouse]

The Keynsham Lane and Park Hill Road build will apparently start in February - it has been moved to a new "part 2" phase.
The parts of the Stroat area that have been built can now place an order - I don't know how long it will take to be connected, but I'll find out next week...
Woodcroft, Stroat, and Netherend areas can all order, and some in Woodcroft and Netherend are actually connected - although those areas don't yet show on TBB.

 

[sheephouse]

Gloucestershire County Council have now approved the change to the Fastershire contract with Gigaclear - moving 1,187 premises from Lot 2/3c of Stage 3 of the Fastershire delivery programme (Gigaclear decided they couldn't afford to complete these even with the gap funding), to the newly created Stage 6 so they can be included for the future procurement process managed by BDUK.

 

[sheephouse]

Some progress - the Stroat cabinet is now live and taking orders. Better, I ordered last Friday for an install at the end of the month, but due to a last minute change they actually installed it on Tuesday!
I'm currently the only connection to the local drop box, which is a few yards from the cabinet.
I have the 500Mbps package, and initially was getting about half that. It has gradually increased (why? how?) and I am now getting 500Mbps up and down. Latency is ~6ms to London.

 

[Pheasant]

and initially was getting about half that. It has gradually increased (why? how?)

It’s possible they were traffic shaping the connection. Anyhow main thing is your getting the full whammy on both directions. Decent ping time too

 

[jim1974]

Gloucestershire County Council have now approved the change to the Fastershire contract with Gigaclear - moving 1,187 premises from Lot 2/3c of Stage 3 of the Fastershire delivery programme (Gigaclear decided they couldn't afford to complete these even with the gap funding), to the newly created Stage 6 so they can be included for the future procurement process managed by BDUK.

Ok, so will the high woolaston/park hill road install be going ahead still ?

There are only about 15 properties to finish this area, so will be gutted if we are have been shelved!!

I saw a gigaclear van parked up at the grassed t junction with park hill/keynsham lane/st.briavels road (where the local distribution cabinet was pencilled to go) last week.

 

[sheephouse]

The last I was told was that the "part 2" of the Stroat build would start in Feb 2022. That would cover Keynsham Lane & Park Hill, as well as 8 Woolaston Grange properties (the latlter will presumably come from the drop box at Wyvern - that only has 4 connections at present, and mine is the only live one).
However, there are still no planned road closures showing on one.network, and they usually need 3 months notice - I can't image how they can build along Keynsham Lane or much of Park Hill without closing the road. To me that suggests there may be a further delay...
I suggest you pester both Gigaclear and Fastershire for a progress report

 

[sheephouse]

There are now works showing on one.network - Keynsham Lane from 20 Apr to 14 Jun, and Park Hill Road 14 Jun to 1 Oct.

 

[KitGBV]

Do any forum posters living in the Stroat build area, have any whispers of when Gigaclear plan to start blowing fibre down their ducts?

 

[Pheasant]

Keep an eye on bidb.uk for any relevant street works permits etc which may provide some indication of works.

 

[sheephouse]

Do any forum posters living in the Stroat build area, have any whispers of when Gigaclear plan to start blowing fibre down their ducts?

Which part of the Stroat area are you? The properties along the A48 went live Jan/Feb this year. As far as I'm aware all the drop cabinets installed so far have fibre connected - they blow the fibre from the drop cabinet to your property when it is ordered.
They are still building the network along Keynsham Lane and Park Hill Road, the bottom of Hanley Lane, and a couple other small areas. Anywhere else in the Stroat area I'd expect you to be able to order FTTP now.
Edit: It seems my expectations are too optimistic. The Boughspring area is still not live. I haven't checked everywhere else, so I may be the only one live!

 

[KitGBV]

Which part of the Stroat area are you? The properties along the A48 went live Jan/Feb this year. As far as I'm aware all the drop cabinets installed so far have fibre connected - they blow the fibre from the drop cabinet to your property when it is ordered.
They are still building the network along Keynsham Lane and Park Hill Road, the bottom of Hanley Lane, and a couple other small areas. Anywhere else in the Stroat area I'd expect you to be able to order FTTP now.
Edit: It seems my expectations are too optimistic. The Boughspring area is still not live. I haven't checked everywhere else, so I may be the only one live!

We are on Tidenham Chase, between Boughspring and Ms Grace's Lane. Ducting put in February, but hey - I hear planning for a 5G mast has been submitted (sited between us and you?). Do you know where this is exactly?

 

[sheephouse]

We are on Tidenham Chase, between Boughspring and Ms Grace's Lane. Ducting put in February, but hey - I hear planning for a 5G mast has been submitted (sited between us and you?). Do you know where this is exactly?

I can't see any signs of a planning application for a new mast - so its either a very recent application, or doesn't need one? Could it simply be a new antenna on the exsiting mast at the ReeceR site? I can't imagine 5G would benefit many people there though as there's only a handful of properties withing a mile.
As for Gigaclear, there is some PIA work planned for 10 Oct at the bottom of Hanley Lane "Works to enable customer service". I assumed that was simply to connect a property there, but maybe it is to fill in a missing or damaged section of ducting - did they run the ducts up Hanley Lane to Boughspring?
Have you spoken to Gigaclear recently? I notice that today their availability checker has changed - and addresses around Boughspring now don't mention that the network is on its way - it just asks you to register your interest. It may just be a change in wording, but it would worry me if I were still waiting for FTTP!

 

[KitGBV]

I can't see any signs of a planning application for a new mast - so its either a very recent application, or doesn't need one? Could it simply be a new antenna on the exsiting mast at the ReeceR site? I can't imagine 5G would benefit many people there though as there's only a handful of properties withing a mile.
As for Gigaclear, there is some PIA work planned for 10 Oct at the bottom of Hanley Lane "Works to enable customer service". I assumed that was simply to connect a property there, but maybe it is to fill in a missing or damaged section of ducting - did they run the ducts up Hanley Lane to Boughspring?
Have you spoken to Gigaclear recently? I notice that today their availability checker has changed - and addresses around Boughspring now don't mention that the network is on its way - it just asks you to register your interest. It may just be a change in wording, but it would worry me if I were still waiting for FTTP!

5G mast to be considered for Tidenham

PLANS have been submitted to upgrade a telecommunications mast to provide 5G in the Forest of Dean.

www.theforester.co.uk

I use 4G for Broadband so I will definitely move to 5G if its airs and so give up on FTTP. Will do some further digging on the other matters and report back, if only so other folk can see what is going on. I am probably on Gigaclear/Fastershire's 'ignore list' given the hassle I have given them.