Community Fibre Partnership - 'Demand Led' basis

I expressed an interest with OR about forming a CFP. Now had a final offer based on around 60 properties and have been told by OR that given the quote and premises involved that they will treat it on a "Demand Led" basis with no need for a CIC and that vouchers will be pre-approved.

Any experience of this process ?

Send a pm to NuttyMucker, his area has just thru exactly the same thing

Hi

Contact Openreach again as they will pre approve the vouchers if your area is accepted and its just a case of ensuring you get the residents to follow up and return the pre approved vouchers!
It takes a bit of work chasing residents up as Openreach will supply a pie chart and once 100% they will build. Its as simple as that
We went from sub 16Mb download to gigabit within 8 months!

if it demand led you will need not to do anything -- this is new - this is not the same as recent delivered or currently being delivered CFP's

Hi

Openreach will also do a leaflet drop with a URL for residents to register their voucher (1 per household) and it will have access to a chart so everyone can see how many more vouchers are needed.
Openreach will also need someone to act as a lead for the residents to keep people updated. With me I had to chase residents to sign the voucher as it had either gone to a junk folder when emailed or simply a wrong email address. If this was the case I was able to send new details across to Openreach to have a new voucher issued to a correct email address.
Also I would suggest you set up a private group on social media or use Nextdoor then you can post updates to your neighbours.
If you want the network to be in place as quickly as possible it will take a bit of effort getting neighbours on board and following up if they haven't returned vouchers!

A link to our story if you haven't seen it

https://bit.ly/320l14Q

Edited by deleted (Sat 05-Sep-20 21:15:28)

Having done two mailshots and spoken to almost all properties, we are now 'stuck' at 68% of the target set by Openreach in Vouchers pledged. However the actual cost quoted by Openreach was only 75% of the target that they set (I quote "to allow for some people not eventually taking up their vouchers"). [Actual cost is £45,000 but Voucher 'target' is £60,000]

I am fairly certain that those who have signed up will follow through - what are the chances of OR moving forward on the basis that we are about 10% short of their actual cost (or indeed even if we did get to the 75% level would they still insist on a 'margin')

Any direct experience would be very welcome.

Despite the pessimism, we hit our target yesterday. OR said that it will be between 6 and 12 months from now until we will be able to place an order - is that about right ?

Nice work!

The timeline sounds about right to me, based on what I've seen of FTTPoD anyway. Even on the "happy path" there are a series of stages that need to go through, and different teams will all have to have their work scheduled. Problems with physical infrastructure, like repairing and unblocking ducts, can add substantial delays.

Hi NuttyMucker I’m in the middle of trying to promote a demand led fibre implementation in my village but not having much luck getting people to commit their vouchers. We need 75 of 120 not taking into account businesses and we’re less than halfway there.

How did you push through and promote engagement? I get the impression people think it’s a con or something.

I've put together this guide, and I hope it is useful. Also, in Spaldwick (Cambridgeshire) we are in the middle of a demand-led Openreach scheme, which I think is the first in Cambridgeshire.

Guide For Rural Communities: how to get FTTP now

Spaldwick broadband information (with links to additional information).

Mark

Mark

your article refers to the cost of it

Please note it not the cost - it is the gap between the Tocal cost of the Build and and commercial rate that openreach support - - the Community is funding the Gap has to find the Gap not the Total Cost of the build (the figure you mention is the Gap - everyones gap will be different)

I am a bit confused about what sort of CFP my community is involved in. When I asked about "demand led" I was told this wasn't appropriate and yet the "Final offer" quotation from Openreach is headed "Demand Led Community Fibre Partnerships – Pilot Project" This was dated 20/11/20.
We were given a list of properties to be included (which I had negotiated). 41 in total. The cost will easily be fully funded by a combination of the Gigabit voucher and the Scottish Government's Rural Voucher scheme. As I anticipated, I got 35 properties to pledge their vouchers to Openreach and we are now in the process of validating the vouchers that have been sent back to us from DCMS. We are not being asked to sign a contract with Openreach as such. Ours was a project terminated under the old DSSB scheme and we already have the fibre infrastructure including CBTs in the village. Hopefully as they only have to fill a gap in the fibre to the village we won't have to wait too long? I still don't quite understand what sort of CFP we are in but I don't mind as long as it works!

yours sounds very much like a demand led as there is not contract to sign -