I am pleased to be able to advise that Openreach have confirmed to the Basingstoke Broadband Campaign that 20 more FTTC cabs are to be deployed in Basingstoke this summer as part of an infill programme.
Press Release (which we have worked with BT Openreach on) is below. We are told that the new rollout will include all remaining cabinets in Hatch Warren (except Beggarwood) and most of the remaining cabinets in Chineham.
We will keep this forum posted on progress!
With Best Regards
Tim Robinson
Basingstoke Broadband Campaign
Basingstoke Broadband Campaign
PRESS RELEASE
Basingstoke, 22nd February 2011
BT confirms details of additional super-fast
broadband deployment for Basingstoke
Background
For many years, Basingstoke has been in something of a broadband slow lane. Many of the
residential areas in the outskirts of Basingstoke have suffered from very slow and in some
cases non-existent broadband service, as a result of long telephone lines from the town
centre telephone exchange.
In the spring of 2010, BT’s Openreach division deployed super-fast fibre optic broadband to a
proportion of Basingstoke residents and businesses. The initial deployment targeted specific
areas of the town which analysis showed to be commercially viable. However, this
deployment still left considerable parts of the town with internet access well below the
government's target of 2 Mbit per second.
Since the initial deployment last year, The Basingstoke Broadband Campaign, along with
Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, Hampshire County Council and Maria Miller MP,
has done a lot of work to identify parts of the town which would benefit from further
deployment of super-fast broadband.
Details
Openreach has today confirmed the details of the infill programme that they announced late
last year, which will see additional cabinets added to the rollout across the country. Within this
programme, a further 20 cabinets will be upgraded in Basingstoke to support super-fast
broadband by late Summer 2011. These additional cabinets will provide more than 7,000
extra Basingstoke Homes and Businesses with the opportunity to benefit from high-speed
Internet from a variety of communications providers.
Kevin McNulty, General Manager - NGA Customer Engagement at Openreach told the
Basingstoke Broadband Campaign, "Basingstoke was amongst some of the first areas in the
country to receive super-fast broadband. Now that we've got some experience of early
deployment in Basingstoke, we feel confident enough with the technology to roll it out in areas
that didn't meet our initial planning criteria. As the deployment takes place, the line checker
communications providers use to check service availability will be updated to reflect the
additional service areas.”
Jaffa Brown, of the Basingstoke Broadband Campaign, said:
“We are absolutely delighted that Openreach has engaged with us so constructively. The
result is that many more residents will soon be able to benefit from super-fast broadband
service.
Whilst this represents a significant increase in availability of super-fast broadband, we do
understand that there will inevitably be gaps in coverage for reasons of network topology and
cost of deployment. The Basingstoke Broadband Campaign is actively working to find
solutions to overcome these relatively small pockets where Openreach cannot deploy superfast
broadband in a way that fits their commercial model.”
Best Regards
Tim Robinson
TxRx Communications Ltd
Fast wireless broadband for Basingstoke www.hiwifi.co.uk
Tim Robinson
TxRx Communications Ltd
Fast wireless broadband for Basingstoke www.hiwifi.co.uk