Badminton urged to move into the ultrafast lane
Openreach is urging residents in Badminton to get behind a bid to bring ultrafast, ultra-reliable full fibre broadband to local homes and businesses.
The company is warning that the community risks missing out on a once-in-a-lifetime full fibre upgrade, if they don’t apply for free Government broadband vouchers, which can be used to secure faster speeds and greater reliability.
If enough people sign up, Badminton will join more than 20,000 homes and businesses across South Gloucestershire which already have access to Full Fibre broadband.
Funding through the Government’s Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme and the deployment of new broadband signal boosting technology* – which can extend the reach of the Full Fibre network, means thousands more remote rural communities like Badminton are now within reach of the ultrafast technology.
Openreach has identified Badminton as being within scope for Full Fibre and is urging local people to take the next step by applying for and pooling together free Government Gigabit Vouchers to help fund the build.[1]
Residents can check if they qualify and pledge their voucher on the Connect My Community website. Using the vouchers – which don’t cost residents anything - enables Openreach to collaborate with a local community to build a customised, co-funded network. The vouchers can be combined to extend the ultrafast, ultra-reliable network to premises in outlying rural areas that won’t be covered by private investment.
Martin Williams, Openreach’s partnership director for the West, said: “This is an exciting opportunity for the people of Badminton to bring all the benefits of ultrafast, ultra-reliable Full Fibre broadband to their community.
“Our Fibre Community Partnership programme has meant that we’ve been able to potentially bring hundreds more communities like Badminton across the UK, into our Full Fibre build plans. But building out the network to these harder-to-reach locations is still challenging – which is why it’s only possible with everyone working together – you, your neighbours and Openreach.
“Everyone who pledges a voucher will be doing their bit to help make Badminton one of the best-connected places in the UK.”
“We’re investing £15 billion to build Full Fibre broadband to 25 million homes – and more than six million of those will be in the toughest third of the UK – but we can’t upgrade the whole country alone. This latest support from government is a vital part of that process.”
Once the pledge target for the scheme is reached, residents need to ensure they then validate their vouchers with the Government so that Openreach can confirm that building work can get underway. As part of the funding conditions, residents are asked to commit to ordering a Full Fibre service from a provider of their choice for at least twelve months once the new network is available and confirm that they are connected.
Full Fibre technology provides more reliable, resilient, future-proof connectivity; meaning fewer faults, more predictable, consistent speeds and enough capacity to easily meet growing data demands. It's also future proof, which means it will serve generations to come and won’t need to be upgraded for decades.
Fibre optics - strands of glass around one-tenth the thickness of a human hair - transmit data using light signals. Fibre is smaller, lighter, and more durable than copper cabling and less vulnerable to damage. This short video explains what Full Fibre technology is and there’s more info here.
[1] the decision to build, the premises covered, and the timeline are subject to technical survey and the correct threshold of validated vouchers being reached
Notes to Editors
* Openreach is deploying ‘SHE’ (Subtended Headend) technology - where new, fibreoptic cables are built out from specially adapted existing green roadside cabinets. Ultrafast broadband optical signal boosting equipment, normally housed in a main exchange building, is installed at the cabinet.
The technology can also be installed the same way in small remote exchange buildings that are served by a main exchange – helping to extend the reach of Openreach’s Full Fibre network further still.
By ‘piggybacking’ on the existing VDSL copper-based cabinet network in this way – Openreach’s new Full Fibre cables can be extended to reach thousands more homes and businesses in harder to reach communities across the UK.
