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SUPER FAST BROADBAND FOR MOST RESIDENTS BY END OF 2018

The company behind plans to improve the quality of broadband to almost every home in the county (Fastershire) has unveiled details of its latest £12.8m programme of works. This should, in theory, result in most homes in Huccelecote receiving broadband speeds of 30Mbps or more by the end of 2018.

At a presentation to parish councils on Monday evening Fastershire explained that a contract had been awarded to Gigaclear (the company that has recently provided high speed fibre connections to 6,500 homes in the Cotswolds), and this contract should see a further 33,000 homes linked up to the optical fibre network. This would take coverage to 97 per cent of all homes in the county. The Gigaclear system seems to have been hugely successful in its earlier phases and it routinely delivers fantastic speeds of 1,000 Mbps.

The Gigaclear contract should be good news for most Hucclecote residents who currently get a poor broadband connection. However, there will still be some areas that won’t (at present) get a fibre connection (for example the rural properties in Stump Lane). And those residents who live in areas of Coopers Edge that currently get a poor service will need to get organised to ensure their homes are included in the work.

This is what everyone who currently gets a slow speed (below 30MBps) needs to do :-

• Go to the Fastershire website (www.fastershire.com) and on the landing page click on ‘Home’ if you are a resident, or ‘Business’ if you are from a local company. Then key in your postcode.
• If Fastershire is planning to provide fibre to your front door the website should tell you; if your property isn’t included in the current programme you will probably get a message that says something like “we will explore a number of solutions in order to provide you with access to faster broadband. This may take the form of a contract extension with an existing supplier or a bespoke grant and we hope to have more information available later in the summer”.
• If this is the case it is VITAL that you then fill in the Contact form – you can find it here – http://www.fastershire.com/contact-us
• In the box labelled ‘Enquiry’ make it clear that you don’t currently get a good connection (remember anything below 30 MBps is eligible). You might stress how vital a good connection is to you – for example if you work from home, or to enable you to keep in contact with or monitor a vulnerable relative. The stronger you make the case, the better the chances of getting Fastershire to include your home in the roll out programme later this year or early in 2018.

For those remote properties that fall into the ‘three per cent’ that don’t fit in the planned programme there is some hope too. For example, if a residential property can ‘team up’ with a nearby business they may be able to piggy back on a new connection to the business (businesses will generally be prioritised).


7 thoughts on “SUPER FAST BROADBAND FOR MOST RESIDENTS BY END OF 2018

  1. Hello, I live in Robinswood Close (GL3 4GS) within Coopers Edge and I followed the advice on the post and checked my address as I’ve done before in the past. The message I get is that “It looks like you are in a superfast enabled area” and I should be able to order fibre. But I know that this is not true and the entirety of Robinswood Close which share the post cose (16 houses) do not have fibre broadband available. The neighbors and I have contacted Fastershire and they’ve confirmed that we can’t get fibre and are not on any roll out plans. What should be done in this case ?

    1. I’m in a similar situation in Coppers edge living in Roselle drive. Says I can upgrade when in fact I can not. I also spoke with the MP and his assistant asked fastershire for a response. In which they said they would be able to confirm by May which properties are covered in the roll out. However, when trying to use there site. My address isn’t even on there and when I use the plot number instead it says I can upgrade (which is incorrect). I’d like some clarification on what to do next as I fear we will simply be over looked in this next phase otherwise.

    2. Same here for martlet way. Search comes up saying were in a superfast enabled area but twice ive placed an order with BT only to be told a week later they can’t supply anything over 1.5mb in my area. smells like somebody massaging the truth for government statistics and kick backs?

  2. It states on the fastershire website that the contract for Gloucester and Cheltenham has yet to be awarded. So this news isn’t actually relevant?

  3. I live in Robinswood Close and have emailed you as your website says we are in a super fast area, but that isn’t true. So how are we supposed to register interest if it’s showing as we already have access?

  4. Hi,

    I’ve been in contact with fastershire and they’ve said my property in Arlington road, is not in their roll out list even though several addresses in our road is including my adjacent neighbours! The excuse is our property wasn’t on the ordance survey map??? And it’s up to the developer to contact the broadband provider.
    Quote ”
    In order to obtain a list of premises within both counties,
    Fastershire used address based reference data issued by the Ordinance Survey. At the point we defined our address list your property was not recognised by their data.

    However, as a new build development it is the responsibility of the site developer to arrange the installation to fibre broadband with the commercial providers. We would suggest contacting your developer to see what they have arranged to be installed.”
    Unquote

    So Ive replied completely aghast that our property is over 12 months and the contact according to the parish council was awarded in June so how it could be left off the ordance survey is questionable!

  5. I just moved to Coopers Edge, live right near the school.
    I’m guessing absolutely nothing at all has happened since this news was published?
    Every ISP is offering me 1-4MBs – it’s a joke, I work in Gloucester Business Park where I get 80MBs down, 70MBs up.

    Does the school only have 1-4MBs? That’s incredibly poor if so, I don’t know how they’d operate on that in this day and age..

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