You might have seen from a recent flyer through your door from County Broadband, plans are in motion to bring much faster more reliable broadband to the village, and this post gives all the initial details.
The bottom line is that if the village project is to go ahead, they need 25% of households to preorder, which involves no money or bank details, it is just sending an email with your name address and email address.
It’s well worth a proper read, as there are some benefits to pre-ordering (which is just a simple email, it does not involve any payment or card details). In my opinion a key point to note is that if you’re in a contract (as most of us probably are), as long as you preorder, you can see out your contract while you’re on the new fibre connection, and then start paying for the new system straight after. So in other words you won’t pay for 2 contracts at any point, it’s one then the other.
This project is supported by the Parish Council, who have been involved from the start.
The details below are from County Broadband themselves:
Introduction
Dear Village Residents
You may be currently aware that we are looking to upgrade your current network to help bring hyperfast full Fibre to the property broadband (FTTP) to Alpington & Yelverton.
My name is Daniel and I am the project lead for your village. Therefore, if you have any questions moving forward after reading the information below, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Our major shareholders are Aviva, last year we had a our second phase investment , totalling £100m, with recognition from the Government on this historic milestone as we roll out our full Fibre network. Here is the link where you can see the details:
Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS) – (free installation)
We can offer you an entirely free installation of the brand-new network. The Government pledged that by 2030 they want every UK business and residential property to be able to access gigabit capable broadband. Its apart of a scheme called the gigabit voucher scheme meaning they cover the cost of the installation so it’s free for the rural villages who unfortunately get left out of larger ISP upgrades. Here is the link to the official Government website.
https://www.gov.uk/business-finance-support/gigabit-broadband-voucher-scheme-gbvs-uk
If you are unsure of the difference between copper and Full Fibre to the Property, please see the details below.
What is the villages’ current infrastructure?
From our research, the current provision is very poor and there are no plans from other providers to rectify this with a full fibre connection.
Your current provision in the area is called an FTTC connection (fibre to the cabinet). This means that there is a fibre cable from the exchange building into the green cabinet in your area, but to your home, zigzagging under the road or on poles overhead is a copper cable that currently delivers your broadband and landline service. Copper is causing a lot of problems currently such as:
· Unreliable – at certain times speeds are very low or signal is dropping out since the majority of the village is all sharing the same network.
· Copper is degrading – it was built 50+ years ago to carry phone signals not broadband.
· Working at its maximum capacity – currently the best speed anyone in the area can get is only 80mbps along a copper connection but that is a very small minority and usually directly next to the green cabinet.
· No choice of going faster – whichever provider you go with such as BT, EE, TalkTalk etc will all use the same copper cable as no one else is building a full fibre network.
· Distance – from the green cabinet hugely affects speed. The further the data signal has to face, the higher the resistance of the degrading copper.
What are County Broadband building and why is it better?
We are building a brand-new infrastructure with new fibre cables delivering a full fibre network, with no copper in whatsoever. The benefits of having a full fibre connection rather than copper are:
- Over 10x faster speeds.
- Much more reliable as not so much of a ‘fight’ for the network.
- Fibre is designed to carry broadband and cannot degrade as it is a laser passing through a glass tube, so distance is irrelevant from the green cabinet too.
- Choose how fast you want to go (slower speed is cheaper than faster speed)
- Future proof your home – Once it is installed, you have the potential to go as fast as you would like to.
- Add value to your home – broadband is now of vital importance when purchasing a house since the global pandemic (people working from home etc).
- Technology within our homes is getting more advanced and faster, thus requiring faster speeds from our broadband.
- Save money – our basic package could be cheaper than your current package for a faster, more reliable, and future proof solution.
About Our ‘Pre-order’
This is completely free to place, we do not take bank details or do any credit checks, only details needed is simply the address of the property, name, and email address to place a ‘Pre Order’.
Why Pre-Order the service instead of waiting until the network has been built?
- Free standard installation (Those who join after the network has been built have to pay install costs which start at £225+)
- Free high spec router (worth £150)
- 24 months completely free on our service whilst you see out your existing contract
- Ensure your property is secured within our build
How to Pre-order
To preorder, please send an email to daniel.watson@countybroadband.co.uk, saying ‘I would like to preorder fibre broadband for the rollout in the Alpington area’. And include the following details:
- Desired fibre speed package, e.g. “fibre 600” (check the website, there’s a useful tool on there to work out which speed you might want)
- Name
- Address with postcode
- Email address
Our Fibre Plans
Full Fibre – 100mbps – £34.99 per month for 24 months or £39.99 for 12 months
Full Fibre – 200mbps – £36.99 per month for 24 months or £40.99 for 12 months
Full Fibre – 300mbps – £38.99 per month for 24 months or £42.99 for 12 months – (Most desirable package)
Full Fibre – 600mbps – £44.99 per month for 24 months or £59.99 for 12 months
Full Fibre – 900mbps – £49.99 per month for 24 months or £74.99 for 12 months
Phone Plans
Everyone who pre-orders a full fibre plan will receive a free VOIP phone line with unlimited inbound calls and outbound calls at 10p per minute. For those customers who are still actively using their landlines and feel they will need a call plan to keep costs fixed can choose from the following;
Phone basic – unlimited landline calls for £6 per month
Phone standard – unlimited landline and mobile calls for £13 per month
Phone international – unlimited landline, mobile and international calls for £17 per month
*Please note all these prices listed above are time limited and are at a fixed price throughout the entirety of the contract*
Here is the link to our website: https://countybroadband.co.uk
Further Information and Contact Details
If you would like to contact me further regarding any questions concerns or queries, please get in touch as I’m here to help.
Please contact me on either of the following
Email: Daniel.watson@countybroadband.co.uk
Phone: 07538 399903
Alpington and Yelverton 