Hi Aptman
Prior to this the speeds in the village varied I was fortunate to have 16/1 where others struggled to get 5 down! There is a lot of aluminum in the area which did not help and the FTTC cab is approx 1.3 miles away.
The scheme started in December 2019 when I was approached by Openreach ( I had been in contact many times complaining about the broadband issues so I think they were glad to shut me up in a nice way)
The vouchers were already applied so all I had to do along with Openreach was go round the doors encouraging people to agree to sign a pre applied voucher (everyone who agreed received a voucher by email which they signed and returned)
There was a bit of work involved chasing people who agreed to this but had not returned the email for one reason or another (junk mail, moved house and changed their mind) We had to reach 100% return and openreach provided a chart so everyone could see how close we were.
In all it took approx 8 months from the start until going live which was a great timescale from reading some folks horror stories of waiting years!
As we had the vouchers (£1500 per household) this covered our costs to have installed. Half of the village is served by pole (older houses) and the other by underground.
Some folk who were not interested at the time may find that if they want a FTTP service may have additional costs depending on what work is required to done to complete an installation.
The only stipulation with the voucher is you must sign up to a package using the new network within 3 months of it going live. If not I suppose DCMS will not pay Openreach and someone potentially is liable for £1500.
In the village we use a social platform NextDoor which was used to keep everyone up to date.
I hope this helps but any questions feel free
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