Wednesday 15 March 2017

Latest on broadband provision in Hesleden and Castle Eden

For some time we have been lobbying BT to upgrade broadband provision in our villages, particularly in Hesleden, High Hesleden, Castle Eden and parts of Blackhall Colliery (please see post dated Monday 13 February 2017 for our most recent update).


Unfortunately, despite our frequent requests, BT has refused to use its Openreach programme to upgrade Cabinet 9 at Wellfield which acts as the hub for broadband provision in our patch. 

As this is a commercial scheme we have no control over when and where BT chooses to upgrade its service so we have asked for advice from the Digital Durham team at county hall on an alternative method of broadband access for our area until BT get around to upgrading Cabinet 9.

We have reproduced Digital Durham's response to our query in full below (part of which has been published previously on this site):

We’re currently looking at a potential phase three for Digital Durham to address the remaining properties that are eligible to be subsidised under the programme. We’d anticipate for information to be available towards the end of 2017. Outside of this, and BT’s commercial roll-out, there are two schemes currently available – detailed below. We would appreciate it if you can push out this information to residents and businesses through any local channels you have at your disposal to increase awareness of these potential options.

Better Broadband Subsidy Scheme

Following the Government’s committment to provide access to a minimum of 2 megabits per second (Mbps) download speeds, a broadband subsidy scheme has been launched to help eligible residents.
The scheme allows residents to apply for up to £350 towards the hardware and installation costs to get connected to broadband using wireless technologies including satellite, 4G or Mastband. Eligible residents will still be required to pay any additional costs such as the monthly service charge which starts from £10 for a basic broadband service. The costs increase with the more data required.

The vouchers can also be clubbed together to offset the costs for BT’s Community Fibre Partnership programme (detailed below).  

The guides are attached. Further information and the application form is available at: http://www.digitaldurham.org/better-broadband/

BT Community Fibre Partnerships (CFP)

Residents could considering a self-funded fibre broadband installation through BT’s Community Fibre Partnership (CFP). BT subsidise 60% of the costs. BT recommend the community to raise the remainder through crowdfunding. The Better Broadband Subsidy Scheme vouchers can also be used to offset the costs. The most significant benefit to CFP is that it can expedite a solution.

Further information is available at: www.communityfibre.bt.com/