GOOD NEWS!!

 24th December 2020

We have been selected as a pilot area for the new upgrade scheme.  As such we will need to chose between 3 providers by the 10th January 2021. We have emailed the 3 propective providers and will be updating once they’ve got back to us.

Many thanks for the support to date

Email from Openreach: October 05 2020

Hi Mark,

Thank you for providing the list of addresses you wish to be included in the Community Fibre Project. We have now done an initial investigation and gathered the info we need in order to send this over to our planning team to provide an initial cost (ball park figure). The Initial cost is a rough idea of what the cost will be to bring fibre to your area.  Please note, the letters you will receive will show a Gap cost. A Gap cost is what is left to pay by the community after Openreach’s contribution has been taken off.

Once the community is happy with this Initial cost (Ball park figure), please let us know and we can then send this for final pricing. This is a necessary step where our planners look deeper into the area and the infrastructure needed, or already in place. The planners will then produce the final costs. This can change from the initial costs as we are looking in depth at the area and potential network we could use to bring fibre to your area.

Once the final costs have been agreed, we can move on to the next stage. Some areas may be eligible for vouchers to part fund a project. Please note, this is not something Openreach have any power over and it is down to the Department of Digital, Media, Culture and Sport (DCMS). The vouchers are based on area and eligibility.

https://gigabitvoucher.culture.gov.uk/for-residents/

Once the final offer has been agreed, and the vouchers have been applied for where eligible, we can move to the contracting stage. 

When we move to a contract, we require a legal entity to be registered in order to sign the contract. This is so a contract is not solely down to an individual. Please find the link below.

This is something that will need to be set up as soon as possible as it can cause severe delays to contracting. 

https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband/community-fibre-partnerships/how-to-apply-for-a-cfp

Once a contract is signed, we aim to complete the project within 12 months of signing.

Please note

Once a contract is signed, the initial six months are used by our planners and engineers to plan the work, apply for any road closures or permissions we may need and therefore will not include updates from ourselves to the community. After the initial six months, that is when the team will update you at key points of the build and be able to provide updates and progression information.

We will provide the infrastructure to the distribution point and once this is complete the customers can then place their order through their chosen service provider.

We will keep you informed throughout the process and let you know of any further information we need as we progress

I have attached a few links below that may be of some use.

We can apply for vouchers for the community where eligible via DCMS. This can reduce the amount payable by the community but we will discuss that a little further down the line. We can’t apply yet but here is the link if you would like to have a look.  https://gigabitvoucher.culture.gov.uk/for-residents/

 If you have any queries, please feel free to respond to this email and we will happily help.

Thank you

Denise Cooper

Community Fibre Team/ Infrastructure solutions customer service

Openreach

Web: openreach.co.uk

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