BT Infinity (Fibre Optic Broadband)

BT Infinity (via fibre optic broadband) would now appear to be available to properties in Cromwell Lane (cabinet 37).

If you wish to upgrade to this service you need to visit BT.com, or the website of your own broadband service provider, where you can check the availability of the service to your property, and will be able to request an upgrade, if you want to. The upgrade will involve BT, or your service provider, sending you a new router through the post. An engineer visit is not required. The new service will be activated a few days after you have plugged in your new router, with only a minimal interruption on the switchover day.

Some residents in Cromwell Lane who have already upgraded are reporting download speeds of 50Mbps.

Superfast Broadband

Please note that the Coventry and Warwickshire Superfast Broadband Project website, which includes maps and full details of the project, is here: http://cswbroadband.org.uk/. The Broadband Champion for Burton Green is Dr Thornton.

The map shown at the right is part of the Warwickshire Network Coverage map, from the website above, showing the area around Burton Green. The key to the colours on the map are:

Amber areas (the built-up area of Burton Green): Currently under investigation. We aim to get fibre to 93% of our area, and 91% should achieve superfast speeds, which means a minimum of 24Mbps (although some areas may get much more). Once the initial investigative work is complete we will publish more detailed maps showing where superfast broadband will be deployed and will be announcing a 12-month rolling programme with quarterly updates.

White areas: We are awaiting funding to bring these up to superfast speeds. In the meantime these areas will receive the Universal Service Commitment of a minimum 2Mbps, up to 23Mbps (after which it becomes superfast). Speed achieved will depend on geography, topography and existing infrastructure. We are actively seeking additional funding to bring these areas up to at least superfast speeds.

Grey/black/hatched areas: Due for upgrade to superfast speeds by a commercial provider so outside the scope of this project.

 

Bringing faster broadband to our rural areas

Special Announcement February 2014

Please forward this email to your contacts –
we need to spread the word!

 

Sign up to receive this e-newsletter direct to your inbox: http://www. cswbroadband.org.uk/contact- us/subscribe-to-email- newsletter

Additional funding announced for CSW Broadband

The Government has announced that additional funding of £3.68m will be made available to take the coverage of superfast broadband to 95% of premises across Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire. The funding is conditional on being matched. The current £15.47m CSW Broadband contract with BT will achieve superfast coverage to 91% of premises and this funding will enable the project to procure a solution to achieve  a further 4% to coverage, which is 95% overall.

In the current economic climate it is not easy to see where the required match funding will come from, but the CSW Broadband team have made applications through the Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership for a total of £7.85m from the EU, and we are actively seeking other sources of funding for this important project. We have always said that the current project us just a stepping stone towards the EU target of 100% coverage at 30Mbps. This funding will help to take our superfast coverage even further.

An expression of Interest must be submitted to government by 20^th March and the formal request for funding must be submitted by 30^th June. This is a big ask given that we are currently working on the rollout of the BT contract. Work will now start on preparing for an Open Market Review and public consultation prior to commencing a procurement exercise to find a partner to extend the wholesale superfast network.

Questions and Answers

What will the additional money buy?

We will be procuring a partner to take the network to 95% superfast coverage.

Where will you go?

We are a long way from being able to answer that yet. As with the first contract we will have to go through a procurement exercise and the results of that, and the subsequent investigative works, will determine where we go.

What about the final 5%?

We are still actively investigating any and all sources of funding to reach the EU 2020 targets of 100% coverage at a minimum of 30Mbps – which is higher than the current superfast speed of 24Mbps!! The Government has already said that it will launch a £10m fund on 17^th March for pilot projects to test new ways of delivering high speed broadband. We will work with suitable local companies in developing applications to this fund and, if successful, in trialling the new technologies in our area.

To see the list of ISPs visit http://www.cswbroadband.org.uk/about-broadband/alternative-providers-and-isps .

For the BT broadband availability checker visit: http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/adsl/ADSLChecker.TelephoneNumberOutput

Frequently asked general broadband questions can be found on our website at:

http://www.cswbroadband.org.uk/the-project/frequently-asked-questions

Questions about the contract or rollout can be found at:

http://www.cswbroadband.org.uk/the-project/bduk-contract-qas

CSW Broadband now on social media – come and join the conversation

We are now on the major social media channels and are already creating a buzz. Join in for up-to-date information and an opportunity to influence how the project develops

Facebook Page -  https://www.facebook.com/ CSWSuperfastBroadband

Twitter - https://twitter.com#!/ cswbroadband

LinkedIn -  http://www.linkedin.com/ groups/CSW-Superfast- Broadband-4403473

Superfast Broadband Update

From Warwickshire County Council:

Since the announcement that the Government was to make £530m available for the provision of superfast broadband in the rural areas there have been a succession of follow-up announcements. We are seeking clarification on a number of issues, but this is the position as we currently understand it.

Funding

The Government is making £4.07m available for Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire. There is a requirement that this amount should be match-funded from Local Authority capital funds, which is challenging given the current economic climate, although the spend can be spread over a number of years.

Ambition

The Government ambition is to provide a minimum of 2Mbps broadband to all homes and superfast broadband to 90% of people by 2015. Superfast broadband has been clarified to mean at least 24Mbps. Coming behind this is an EU requirement that by 2020, fast broadband coverage at 30Mbps should be available to all EU citizens, with at least half European households subscribing to broadband access at 100Mbps. Clearly this is a significant uplift coming just a short time after the UK targets and this will have implications for the Local Broadband Plan.

Progress

We are still actively collecting data (see below) and hope to submit the Local Broadband Plan to Government in April next year. This document should show how we propose to improve broadband speeds across the whole of the sub-region, not just the rural areas, although it is only the rural areas that will receive Government funding.

What can you do to help?

How good is your broadband?

A key component of your Local Broadband Plan will be evidence of where specific problems exist across the sub-region. We therefore have to map this information and in order to do that we need your help.

If you have not already done so please complete the broadband survey that is located at www.warwickshire.gov.uk/superfastbroadband - there is one survey for domestic use and one for business use, so if you run a business or work from home please do both – and encourage your neighbours to do it as well because the more people that respond from a given area the higher priority it will be.

How close can fibre get to your property?

A (usually) simple way to improve broadband speeds is to put fibre to the BT cabinet. This is a green box by the side of the road which provides telecoms to a village or group of properties. We need to map the exact locations of these boxes so that we can establish what benefits might be gained from this type of upgrade.

Please register the location of your BT cabinet and any others you may come across. You can do this at http://4sfb.crowdmap.com/ and there is also an App for iPhone or Android so that you can do it whilst you are out and about!

Further updates will be issued monthly (or more regularly if necessary)

For more information about the project:
please visit www.warwickshire.gov.uk/superfastbroadband
or email mailto:econdev@warwickshire.gov.uk

The results of the previous survey, earlier this year, are here:
http://burtongreen.blogspot.com/2011/08/broadband-survey-results.html

Broadband Survey Results

The results of the recent Ofcom survey of internet users:

I am surprised that, apparently, 30% of internet users in Warwickshire are still using a dialup connection.