I've heard the same story in Gigaclear areas elsewhere . Too expensive.

The main complaint I've heard, and made myself, regarding Gigaclear areas (esp. Fastershire) is that once Gigaclear have been awarded a contract the BDUK body treats it as job done, while Gigaclear don't obviously do anything. I can't even get them to tell me which decade they may get to my village. None of the Fastershire Phase 2 areas even appear on the Gigaclear rollout schedule. By digging around in various Parish council meeting minutes I've discovered that the first 5 Gloucestershire areas are due to start the build March-May next year - that's well over a year after the contract was signed (and the bid was premises level so they must have had a rough plan in order to bid).
There are 53 areas in the Gloucestershire lots (and about the same in Herefordshire), so there is no way they can meet Fastershire's target of end of 2018, but Fastershire won't comment.
Price is an issue, particularly for businesses - I've had a leased line quote for only twice Gigaclear's monthly charge, and given the Gigaclear contention ratios and SLA the leased line is a better proposition. But until they actually get to an area price is moot.

Complaints about contract signing to start of delivery were rife during the 2011/2012/2013 era when BT often had a 6 to 12 month gap between signing and getting things changing and going live for people on the ground.

If looking at business Gigaclear pricing, the reality is that the better guarantee for the business service is pushing pricing closer to leased line. If you want free bandwidth then dark fibre from CityFibre is the way, as you can light it up at whatever you speed you want, but be prepared for the shock when you go searching for a breakout point to the wider internet rather than creating a building to building link.

What point of a contract signed to deliver X,000 premises where the money going in was fixed at contract sign date is so hard...i.e. unless that X,000 took a local authority to 100% then there is and was always going to be some missing out.

All BT can do in the contract terms for BDUK is deliver to contract, and then if spare money left (which often there has been) and gainshare returns they need to get direction from the local authority as to what to do next. If BT had won phase II then in CDS gainshare expansion might have been a bit simpler.

So question to ask elected officials is what is the county going to do with its gain share allocation?

NOTE: There is https://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/7847-mid-devon-o... which is talk of a council bit network with full fibre for some and fixed wireless for a wider area. It is to the area south of the effigy area I believe but there seemed to be some hope that wireless would reach a much wider area. Locals very much need to listen to that meeting and make their minds up as to whether they want that path, or another, e.g. Gigaclear expansion or pester Openreach via council

The rejection of BT for phase II I am willing to bet got peoples hopes up for a significant change in what happened in phase II and while the full fibre for the areas that will get Gigaclear is great, there are as highlighted still plenty of areas that are missing out.

Maybe one day someone will stand up and say 'look we cannot reach all of you with the service you would all like with the budgets we are able to spend, so there is going to be delays and some of you are going miss out'

Doing that at a public meeting is not going to make them popular, but its more correct than some of the rousing speeches we've seen.

BTW on Oakford, cabinet 1 makes sense but the area of cabinet 2 looks more like FTTP would have been a better bet, but question then is cost.

The council has signed phase 2 with Gigaclear and Airband is what I said.

What the council and their contractor has agreed is up to them.

Burning effigies of Openreach may well make everyone feel better and may well be that Openreach is the residents preferred supplier but the residents really need to put pressure on the council and their appointed supplier.

Clearly this place is not viable for commercial deployment in the short term. Long term it will become viable when it prevents closing the local copper main side network.

Your right about BT only delivering to contract, they are doing what is expected of them that's fair enough...

One of the main problems is the information coming form CDS and DCC does get peoples hopes and expectations up as in the news thats what people read about when theelected officials are blowing their trumpet about how amazing they are doing. When the reality a lot of the time missed deadlines, waffle and mis information.

The there are no gainshare plans at the moment probably due to the amount of time its taking CDS to work out phase 2 plans with Airband, but thats only a guess as there has been no information given out.

On the CDS website it state "We hope to have a much clearer picture by the autumn and we will keep you informed of developments"
Well its nearly winter now and no one is any clearer and no updates have been provided, even if they just were to say "its Autumn now and sorry but there is no news" would be something...

"So question to ask elected officials is what is the county going to do with its gain share allocation?"

The questions are being asked but this the bit where it gets harder as CDS and Devon Country Council now hold meetings behind closed doors with no minutes taken.....draw your own conclusions from that...

Yes I think it would be incredible useful if someone did stand up and say" look we cannot reach all of you with the service you would all like with the budgets we are able to spend, so there is going to be delays and some of you are going miss out" .. At least people would know where they stand.

As for the Oakford 1 and 2 cabs, of course cost is a factor but when other areas nearby that are seemingly even more rural get FTTP such as Anstey Mills exchange, its easy for people to think why them and not me? and for most people in these areas anything to do with broadband = BT

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Maybe one day someone will stand up and say 'look we cannot reach all of you with the service you would all like with the budgets we are able to spend, so there is going to be delays and some of you are going miss out'

Doing that at a public meeting is not going to make them popular, but its more correct than some of the rousing speeches we've seen.

Hear, hear.

Devon seems to be a hotbed of feeling regarding the BDUK rollout, but Devon doesn't come out of the process in any way deficient compared to other largely rural counties.

You have to wonder why Devon has such a large amount of anger - and all focussed on BT (or Openreach).

I've come to think that it is down to the way local elected officials have gone about things. Not just passing on blame to BT, but actively instigating it, instead of setting proper expectations.

CDS themselves could have informed the public better (taking a leaf out of CSW's book), which might have taken the wind out of the sails of the councillors/MPs. However, with such vitriol flying around, I'm not really surprised that they stayed out of that particular limelight.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

The rejection of BT for phase II I am willing to bet got peoples hopes up for a significant change in what happened in phase II and while the full fibre for the areas that will get Gigaclear is great, there are as highlighted still plenty of areas that are missing out.

People's hopes went up and up ... but still nothing attempting to set proper expectations.

The provisional Gigaclear maps (I think I linked to them on that news story) show that Mid Devon, and the area around Tiverton, is not getting much consideration.