The Motivation for starting this Group

• The increasing exclusion of rural areas from full participation in the Super Fast Broadband Highway explosion

• The Broadband Suppliers’ enticing SPEED and PRICE adverts which DON’T apply to us

• Villagers may currently not be preoccupied by speed but this will rapidly change as more services switch to online provision

• Other villages have begun the implementation of their own SFB projects without ANY grant funding. Most noticeably the B4RN project – http://b4rn.org.uk 1Gbps FTTH but also Robin Hood’s Bay in Yorkshire which is rather more modest

• The Government committed £530 million in grants to equal or better fibre broadband services in the rest of Europe

• Devon, Somerset (incl. N Somerset and Bath) were awarded £31 million of this fund to ‘push’ SFB to ‘hard to reach’ areas of the two counties. A rough gestimate to provide FTTH to the entire country would be in the region of £3-5 Billion

• Thanks to the Norton Parish Council for getting behind this Survey

• A huge Thank You to all of the volunteer distributors of the

Norton Village newsletter who distributed 340 Questionnaire and Survey forms

• Also thanks to Mike Orchard for supplying the collection facility in the

shop • Finally thanks go to Mike Atkinson of the Connecting Somerset group

and not least to Mr David Laws M.P. who has always found time to progress queries and whose support is much appreciated

Village Survey Acknowledgements

Village Survey Results

• We had 41 questionnaires returned from the 340 distributed (11%).

• 39 in favour; 1 against; and 1 don’t know.

• All results have been anonymised

• What Follows is the list of ‘Yes’ replies in ascending ‘speed’ order. Where the respondent did not provide a speed and/or cost the field(s) is zero. No-one actually reported a speed of zero.

All 39 ‘Yes’ responses in ascending ‘speed’ order

What villagers are paying where the respondents supplied the cost

The number of respondents who offered their expertise is

5

The number of respondents who require help using computers and / or the Internet is

7

The number of respondents who are running a business is 9

Finally the number of respondents who want to HELP get Norton Super Fast Broadband whether they have expertise or not is

33

DEFRA / BDUK – Rural Community Broadband Fund

The Project: • Set up to fund superfast broadband projects in the most “hard to reach”

areas in England

• Jointly funded by DEFRA and BDUK (Broadband Delivery UK) to the tune of £20 million

• This is quite separate from the £31 million grant which BDUK made available to Devon and Somerset LBP (Local Broadband Plan) which is addressed later….

• Applicants to the RCBF must be in the 10% hard to reach areas identified in the LBP

• The 10% hard to reach areas won’t be known until Autumn/Winter 2012 !!

DEFRA / BDUK – Rural Community Broadband Fund (cont..)

• Phase 1 application date is end of May

• Phase 2 opened 10th May 2012 and expressions of interest to be submitted by 6th July 2012

• Terminology has changed the expression “10% hard to reach areas” is now called “The Final 10%”

• Previously the definition of superfast broadband was “24 Megabits per second (Mbps) and above” this has been changed to “30 Mbps or more”

• Any bid for funding MUST demonstrate substantial community support

• The only grant currently on offer is from the Rural Community Broadband Fund (RCBF) which started with £20m. It is expected that this fund will be topped up at some point depending on success. This fund is aimed only at “The Final 10%”

• So far 39 community plans have been tendered in phase 1 each averaging a total cost of £200-250k none yet allocated funds as far as we know

• The RCBF grant rules are:-

Plan must be fully inclusive (no outlying areas uncovered) and the coverage will be defined by the Lower Layer Super Output Area . Our LSOA is E01029191 That’s approx. 530 households and 1230 population

Grant will be 50% of the total infrastructure setup cost up to £300 max per premises

Grant only covers setup thereafter service and maintenance costs have to be fully funded by the community

Grant only paid when project is completed !

DEFRA / BDUK – Rural Community Broadband Fund (cont..)

Frequently Asked Questions on RCBF can be found at:- http://rdpenetwork.defra.gov.uk/assets/files/New%20Offer/FAQ%20REV%2010%20May.pdf

ONS - Fibre Roll-Out Forecast

This was OpenReach Fibre Roll-Out Plan in Early March 2012

‘NC’ means not currently in Roll-Out Plans

This was OpenReach Fibre Roll-Out Plan on May 15th 2012

OpenReach Fibre Roll-Out Plans at 15th May 2012

Connecting Devon and Somerset Local Broadband Plan

• Devon and Somerset County Councils have a Local Broadband Plan - DSLBP (now includes Bath and North Somerset)

• DSLBP received a BDUK Gov. grant of £31m

• Each of Devon and Somerset added £10m-> £20m Total £51m

Connecting Devon and Somerset Local Broadband Plan (cont.)

Connecting Devon and Somerset Local Broadband Plan (cont.)

Connecting Devon and Somerset Local Broadband Plan (cont.)

Connecting Devon and Somerset Local Broadband Plan (cont.)

Connecting Devon and Somerset Local Broadband Plan (cont.)

Steps • Negotiations to develop a national approved suppliers list has been completed

• D&S will now negotiate with those approved suppliers’ – the plan is to get them

to go 50/50 with the councils so the supplier puts in £50m. Total £101m

Connecting Devon and Somerset Local Broadband Plan (cont.)

Final outcome after all approvals etc. approx. Oct/Nov 2012 Only then will we know how far we have to go to get to fibre – • It could be Chiselborough exchange

• It could be FTTC (e.g. Fibre To The Cabinet in New Road and others? Where are the others???)

• If Chiselborough exchange, the “Community Hub” project would mean laying fibre from there to Norton cabinets (however we will probably not get a DEFRA grant)

• If FTTC, no project, no expense as 20mbps+ should be achievable to most parts of the village over the existing copper wires.

Fibre? Connecting Devon and Somerset Local Broadband Plan (cont.)

Connecting Devon and Somerset Local Broadband Plan (cont.)

But wait…………..

>>We already have fibre in the village<<

Here!

• One alternative which doesn’t rely on fibre is ADSL2+ this technology provides approx. twice the current speed (16Mbps) over the existing copper from Chiselborough. It would involve upgrading the DSLAMs (Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer) in the exchange and the cabinet(s) Whilst this isn’t Super-Fast Broadband, it would entice other suppliers such as O2, TalkTalk and Demon (for example) to compete for the business. This will entail substantial cost and isn’t in the 30Mbps + region that the DSLBP would be providing

• Another is Wireless. Persuade a Wireless provider to bring fibre to the village and transmit a 300 Mbps signal around the village. This will entail substantial cost and isn’t in the 30Mbps + region that the DSLBP would be providing as there is a lot more ‘control’ data embedded in wireless transmissions and there could be low-spots

• Satellite is both costly to install and operate and is inferior in terms of speed and value for money.

Alternatives to Fibre

The Future

• Is the DEFRA grant viable for Norton? Are enough villagers interested? Do we have the Technical; Project Management; Marketing and Fund

Raising skills plus the time and commitment??

• If the answer to all of the above is a confident ‘YES’ then we had better get started immediately to make the 6th July deadline for expression of interest.

• If the answer to all of the above is a definite ‘No’ then we will be waiting until this Autumn / Winter to see where the planned rollout will stop and take things from there.

OR • IF we can mobilise enough villagers to lobby/petition Somerset CC we can

force them to A) reconsider/renegotiate the SouthWestOne / Openreach Fibre contracts B) Upgrade the school fibre making a completely separate network for village use.

Ideas

&

Discussion

Getting Involved

Forming a Group

Keeping in Touch

Spreading the Word

http://www.jayteepics.com/nsfb.pdf