You may have noticed last year contractors installing new cables on telephone poles around the village. They were installing “overhead” fibre to bring high speed broadband to Mill Green and Nosterfield End under a Government-sponsored intervention scheme through the County Council for areas with broadband speeds below 30 Mbps. Mill Green and Nosterfield End were too far from the cabinet (in Carsey Hill) to be able to offer the higher speeds. Shudy Camps itself was ineligible since OpenReach were already offering higher speeds to the village (though many of us don’t seem to get them!).
The Government also has a Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme which offers grants to groups of customers who pledge to take a high speed fibre service if available. Again this is administered through the County Council. This makes it possible for villages to get service – see for example Spaldwick.
Eventually everyone will be connected by fibre, giving a much faster and more reliable connection. OpenReach, and others, want to replace the old copper cables with fibre because they are cheaper to install and run, and more reliable. But their priority is urban areas, and small villages are well down the list except through subsidised schemes like this.
The first step is to find out how many people might take the service. If you are interested in participating in a scheme, please indicate by emailing me at john.haine@shudycamps.org.uk, giving your name, fixed phone number and address, and if if you know say who your existing broadband supplier is. We need to move quite quickly as the scheme end next April.
Please note that if you live in Mill Green or Nosterfield End you should already be able to upgrade to fibre – go to https://www.bt.com/broadband/deals/ to enter your postcode and check availability – even if you actually pay some other provider they use BT’s cables.