Agenda item

The Board will receive an update, including details on the roll out of superfast broadband in our community area so far, and a schedule for the remaining villages.

Officers: Sarah Cosentino, WC Business Analyst & a representative from BT.

The Board received an update on the roll out of superfast broadband in the community area so far, and the schedule for the remaining work.

Councillor John Thomson, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Communities, Campuses, Area Boards and Broadband and Ian Baker, Head of the Programme Office were accompanied by Paul Coles – SW Regional Partnership Director and Matt Lloyd, NGA Programme Manager from BT for this item.

There were 9,000 homes within the Southern Wiltshire community area, which would receive access to superfast broadband (SFBB) once works were complete. So far provision to 6,000 of those home had been carried out.

There had been a number of challenges to overcome along the way, to enable BT to get fibre optic out to houses in some areas, but in other areas there had been significant success.

Four new structures would be going live in Alderbury which would see 1,000 houses provided with SFBB.

Further information was available on the website, including a postcode checker and by April 2015, the facility to enter your email address to receive updates would be available.

Questions and comments included:

·       You have made a lot of excuses, surely these issues were considered when entering in to a contract with Wiltshire Council? Answer: The engineering challenges were all genuine.

·       You say that 90% of premises would have coverage by 2016, and 95% by 2017, which area would be covered the phase 2 ? Answer: We are in the process of gong through phase 2 coverage for 2017 at present.

·       The postcode checker service was a waste of time, it says postcode not in area, we may get to you in time.

·       We believe that there was never any intention to install a cabinet at East Grimstead, all that is needed is one cabinet in the centre of the village to serve everyone. Answer: Works at the Farley exchange had been completed with the funding available, and a significant number of homes would benefit, however the level of coverage would depend on the distance you are from your server.

·       Several small businesses located between East and West Grimstead were misled, as we were given the impression by BT that we would achieve 20mbs, so did not sign up to the offer made by Gigaclear; a competitor. Then our date for connection disappeared from the schedule completely. There was no mention at the time that people further away from Farley would not be able to receive the faster connection speed. Why was nothing said at the time? Answer: In phase 1 of the roll out, only a certain amount of coverage would be achieved with the funding available. When further funding available we hoped to achieve more. We were clear all along that we would not be able to provide 100% coverage. We did hold back on our project for 6 months to allow Gigaclear time to gain customers, they asked us to hold back for a further 6 months, which we could not do. They pulled out as a result of not having enough signatures.

·       In some areas which you said would receive 1.5gb they are now only receiving 1gb, this project was not being managed very well. Answer: The budget was not overspent, but was in fact very much on target. Any under spent funds could be put back into extending services. If speeds were not achieved, then BT did not get paid. The Government was beginning to realise that this had been a klunky process, and had started to bring in other funding for further phases.

·       Other technology was available which may be an alternative option in some areas not yet receiving the connections they desired. We are able to put people in touch with manufactures for a trial. Information could be supplied to the CAM for those interested in looking in to that further.

·       The residents at Laverstock and Ford were served by Salisbury, so provision was ok there, however, only two thirds of the new homes at Old Sarum were connected, the other third on the estate had been completely missed off the plans. We had found it impossible to get BT to get the other third of homes added to the plan. Answer: We will take that issue away, and ask that the details of this are forwarded to us.

Action: CAM/Cllr McLennan to forward details of the Old Sarum estate to BT.

The Chairman suggested that the way forward was to arrange a meeting with residents to discuss solutions. Cllr Thomson added that he would be happy to attend a meeting with residents and BT to discuss the way forward.