Month: October 2016

Green Light!

Published on by connectingollerton7 Comments

I’ve been in conversations with BT and we have found a way to submit all the remaining funding requests. I now have assurance from BT that the scheme will be fully funded by the voucher scheme.

As a result I have now signed the contract with BT and the project is now officially up and running.

We have a target date of November 2017 to bring the service live. I’ll provide updates throughout the year as we progress throughout the project.

After 11 months of getting this scheme off the ground, we’re finally looking like this is going to happen…

Thanks all for your ongoing support.

Dave

Apply for Government Funding!

Published on by connectingollerton7 Comments

***Update – if you have already applied for funding, then there is nothing for you to do***

You may remember the satellite voucher scheme that was reported in the press earlier in the year.  Every household receiving under 2mbps is eligible for £350 towards the cost of a satellite installation cost. At the time we discounted this as a solution –  Satellite is a sub-standard connection and the monthly costs (on top of the existing line rental) were about £30 per month and capped at a fairly stingy 10 gbit. Not a viable solution.

I  have been in regular dialog with BDUK and Connecting Cheshire to persuade them to make our community scheme eligible for this funding. In parallel I negotiated a discount on our scheme from £35,000 to around £20,000. BT also put pressure on BDUK to allow community self-funded schemes to be eligible for this funding.

 

We are one of (if not the) first community fibre scheme in the country to be eligible for the voucher scheme money. It means we can run our own project as planned. Also the number of eligible households (around 70)  covers the total cost of the works.

 

I have incorporated a Community Interest Company “Connecting Ollerton”  that will contract with BT to get the works done once we secure the funding.

 

This is where you come in. To fund it, we need every household to register for the voucher scheme as soon as possible. You can do it  HERE  just click the link, fill out the form and your £350 voucher will go towards the scheme. When inputting the email address, please enter my email address david@malkinson.co.uk so I can collect all the codes, and send them off to BDUK and keep track of who has and hasn’t completed it.

 

Instructions for filling in the form:

 

 – On the first page, please make sure you fill in your full name, and enter my email address (david@malkinson.co.uk) Don’t worry if you put in your email address, it will still go through OK.
– Answer No to the question  “Do you already have a Satellite broadband product at this address?”
– Answer No to the question  “Is Superfast Broadband available from any other supplier at this address? “
– Answer No to the question  “Does BT already provide an Internet service >2Mbps to this address? “
– Answer Yes to the question  “I understand the limitations of basic broadband, and I am happy to proceed with the application”