Newsletter – February 2024

By cswstaff | Published: 16th February 2024

Over 78,000 properties able to connect to the fibre network

Topics in this edition:

CSW successfully completes Contract 3 build programme
Thousands of rural homes & businesses set to benefit from Project Gigabit announcement
Update on plans for the ‘Digital Switchover’ in CSW region
Take-up of cheaper social broadband tariffs rising but awareness of schemes still an issue
O2 UK trial 5G from drones with Warwickshire Search & Rescue
BT & EE in talks with Starlink to boost rural broadband coverage
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CSW successfully completes Contract 3 build programme

CSW can now confirm that we have successfully completed our Contract 3 deployment programme with the final 19 structures due to be built having now gone live. The communities benefiting from these most recent upgrades include parts of:

Blackdown, Bramcote, Dordon, Dunnington, Grendon, Harborough Magna, Hartshill, Ilmington, Kenilworth, Lapworth, Little Lawford, Napton on the Hill, Pailton, Ryton on Dunsmore, Welford on Avon & Wood Bevington.

The conclusion of Contract 3 also marks the completion of the ‘Superfast Broadband’ (30Mbps+) rollout programme across the Solihull and Warwickshire area, which we started back in 2013 in conjunction with Openreach, our build partners for this project.

Since then, we have successfully delivered superfast or ‘gigabit capable’ broadband connections to over 78,000 properties in areas across our region which were deemed to suffer from market failure (i.e. locations that either weren’t expected to be upgraded via commercial supplier’s own build plans or wouldn’t otherwise have got upgraded for many years).

While the project has been a success, we are, however, acutely aware that we were not able to upgrade all of the eligible households and businesses with the money that we had available during that time.

Some of these will benefit from the Project Gigabit work which we are about to undertake (see next article) and we will endeavour to find alternative solutions to bring improved connectivity to properties in our area that will not be upgraded through either Project Gigabit or commercial suppliers own deployment plans.

As always, it is worth remembering that if your property has been upgraded, you won’t get a better service automatically. You need to order the improved service with your chosen ISP to take advantage of the many benefits that faster broadband will bring to your household or business.

To check on your property’s broadband status, enter your landline number or address into the BT Broadband Availability Checker. Our How to use the BT Broadband Availability Checker webpage will help you make sense of the Broadband Checker results.

If you are thinking of ordering an improvedYou might like to use a broadband comparison site such as MoneySavingExpert.com, Broadband Choices, Compare the Market, BroadbandProviders or uSwitch to find a fibre broadband package to suit you and your family’s needs.

Thousands of rural homes & businesses set to benefit from Project Gigabit announcement

Lightning-fast, ultra-reliable broadband will be delivered to thousands of homes and businesses across Warwickshire and Leicestershire after a £71 million contract was signed under the government’s national Project Gigabit rollout programme.

The contract, which has recently been awarded to independent broadband provider CityFibre will deliver top-of-the-range full fibre connections to around 38,000 rural premises across the two counties and parts of Solihull.

The UK government has ambitious plans to provide world-class, ‘gigabit-capable’ connectivity with speeds of up to 1000Mbps to at least 85% of UK premises by December 2025, rising to at least 99% by 2030.

While much of this is expected to be achieved by commercial builds, government intervention through Project Gigabit is helping to ensure that properties not included in commercial plans do not miss out on the benefits of faster, more reliable broadband.

Cllr Martin Watson, Warwickshire County Council’s Portfolio Holder for Economy said:

“Improving the county’s digital infrastructure is one of our key priorities given the significant economic and social benefits it can provide for residents and businesses and so we are delighted with this Project Gigabit announcement.

This substantial level of investment will promote further digital inclusion ensuring that thousands more Warwickshire residents and businesses will have access to lightning fast, ultra-reliable internet connectivity for decades to come.”

Now that the contract has been signed, CityFibre will begin detailed surveying work with spades expected to enter the ground later this summer. We will be having detailed discussions with CityFibre over the coming months and will provide you with more detailed information regarding the build programme in our area via our newsletter and website once it has been finalised and is readily available.

Update on plans for the ‘Digital Switchover’ in CSW region

As you may already be aware, the UK’s telephone network is changing. By the end of 2025, most phone providers will have moved their customers from landlines served by the old analogue Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to new upgraded services which use digital technology. This is commonly referred to as the ‘Digital Switchover’.

Why is this happening?

The PSTN or ‘copper landline network’ is nearing the end of its life. It is becoming increasingly unreliable and more expensive to maintain. The new digital network will provide a more resilient, reliable, sustainable and energy-efficient phone service for decades to come.

It will also provide customers with other benefits including clearer calls and extra features that will include blocking most scam and nuisance calls, offering customers better protection against fraud.

When is this happening?

Around 90% of all Warwickshire residents and businesses currently receive their service from one of the ‘big four’ fixed landline providers: BT (BT Business & BT Consumer Group), VMO2, Sky and TalkTalk.

VMO2 have already completed the switchover for the vast majority of their Warwickshire customers, while those in the Atherstone area of North Warwickshire due to be migrated in August 2024.

The situation with Sky and Talk Talk is slightly different. As most of their customers do not receive their phone services via the PSTN network that Openreach is switching off, there isn’t the same requirement to switch their phone lines over.

As for BT Consumer Group – the largest provider of residential fixed line phone services in the UK, they will start the migration of customers to their Digital Voice network in the Solihull and Warwickshire areas in February 2024.

They have a number of drop-in sessions planned across the region in the coming weeks to address any issues or concerns that customers may have about the switchover process. More information on events in your area can be found by visiting: Digital Voice Events | Digital Home Phone | BT

Each of the phone service providers has extensive plans in place to notify affected customers well in advance of their switchover date. This includes providing them with easy to understand step-by-step instructions of what they will need to do on the day to ensure the transition is as smooth as possible.

Drawbacks and further advice:

One of the main drawbacks of the new digital network is that differences between the two technologies means that there is a risk that devices that currently rely on the old network – such as telecare devices – will not necessarily work when switched over to the digital one.

All telecoms providers have plans in place to provide extra support to their more vulnerable customers and all have now signed up to a charter agreeing that they will not migrate vulnerable customers over to the new digital network until they are sure that a compatible telecare solution is in place.

However, if you think that you or someone you know may be affected by this, we would advise that you to get in touch with the phone service provider to ensure they are aware of the situation.

Another drawback is that your new digital landline may not work if there is a power cut. Openreach are working with the government and the power networks to help make the digital phone network more resilient in the event of any power outages.

Those with access to a mobile phone are advised to ensure these are sufficiently charged so that in the event of a blackout, calls – including those to emergency services – can still be made.

Battery back-up solutions can also be purchased and OFCOM has stated that if an ‘at-risk’ customer does not have any other means available, their telecoms provider must offer a solution to allow calls to be made to the emergency services. Your phone service provider will be able to provide more information on this.

Finally, it is worth noting that BT Business are following a totally separate migration rollout plan for their customers compared to BT Consumer Group. If you are a BT Business customer, we suggest you contact them to discuss the migration of your phone services to the digital network.

Take-up of social broadband tariffs rising but awareness of schemes still an issue

Ofcom’s recently published ‘Pricing trends for communications services in the UK’ report has revealed that the take-up of cheaper social broadband and mobile tariffs for those on state benefits has increased to 380,000 households compared to 220,000 six months ago. However, that still represents less than 10% of households on Universal Credit.

While consumer broadband and mobile services are often considered to be quite reasonably priced in the UK, there are always those in the most disadvantaged groups who may struggle with paying their bills. This is made worse by the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, which has pushed more people into financial difficulty – with around 30% of UK consumers reporting difficulty affording their communications services (Oct 2023).

In response to this, Ofcom and the UK government have encouraged more providers to proactively introduce and promote low-cost Social Tariffs. While a number of broadband and mobile operators now offer such plans, awareness still remains a key issue with this latest report stating that 55% of eligible households are still unaware that such tariffs exist.

However, the level of awareness is set to increase this year as ISPs like Virgin Media (VMO2) proactively inform their customers about it.

Awareness is also being boosted by FasterBroadband – one of the few websites which actively promotes social tariffs. Their user-friendly comparison tool allows you to filter by broadband provider, different eligible benefits and by contract length, helping struggling households discover more affordable broadband options.

It is also worth noting that social broadband tariffs typically waive any early termination charges so if your circumstances change during your contract, you won’t be held accountable for the rest of your contract period.

Similarly, if you’re already in an existing contract and your current broadband provider offers a social tariff, you can switch to it without incurring any additional charges, provided you are eligible for it.

To download the full Ofcom report, visit: Pricing trends for communications services in the UK.

O2 UK trial 5G from drones with Warwickshire Search & Rescue

Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) is working with the Warwickshire Search and Rescue team on a pioneering project that is set to save hundreds of lives across the UK.

In rural areas, such as parts of Warwickshire, emergency services and rescue teams often struggle to establish reliable communication when working in the most remote areas not served by traditional mobile networks. This makes it extremely difficult for rescue teams and the police to stay connected on time-critical rescue missions.

Now, VMO2’s 5G Technical Trials team has developed a solution that provides reliable 5G mobile connectivity to rescue teams using a network of low earth orbit satellites, which is small enough to be flown on a drone.

The drone, which can be rapidly deployed in remote areas by the search and rescue team, acts as an airborne mobile phone mast, providing those on-the-ground with 5G mobile connectivity no matter where their mission takes them.

This allows the rescue team to access essential information, communicate with one another, assess situations at speed and easily locate and save those in danger. The Warwickshire Search and Rescue team, which is a 24/7 volunteer force set up to assist police searching for vulnerable missing people, has been called out around 130 times in the last two years.

Across the UK, someone is reported missing every 90 seconds and while many soon return home to family and friends, some do not – often because they suffer from a form of dementia or are at risk of harming themselves.

This solution has the potential to transform how search and rescue teams operate and will ultimately save many lives. It is further evidence of the positive impact improved connectivity can have upon our society.

BT & EE in talks with Starlink to boost rural broadband coverage

In January, a number of news sources reported that BT (EE) is in talks with Starlink to provide improved broadband and mobile coverage to the UK’s more remote and hard to reach areas.

The national telecoms giant has apparently already started testing the Starlink system of ultrafast low-latency broadband satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at its Adastral Park research and development centre in Ipswich.

Initially, the technology will be deployed for BT’s business customers, focusing on providing broadband coverage for mines and oil rigs to start with. However, eventually, it is expected to be rolled out to consumers to ‘plug the gaps’ in areas of the UK that traditional infrastructure deployment methods have been unable to reach.

Starlink’s network currently has just over 5,300 LEO satellites orbiting 350 miles above the Earth but it has approval to add around 7,500 more by the end of 2027. Its growing UK customer base has increased from 13,000 in 2022 to over 42,000 in 2023 – most of which are in rural areas.

No formal agreement has yet been made between BT and Starlink for the provision of services in the UK and BT may have to seek regulatory approval from Ofcom before it can proceed with any deal.

Starlink is also in the process of launching its new global Direct to Cell mobile roaming service for use with regular unmodified smartphones. Although this would require support from both a mobile network and Ofcom in order to launch in the UK, EE may well be a good fit for something like this, given the BT Group’s wider experience in the field.

Finally, it is worth mentioning that BT is also conducting various government-backed UK rural broadband and mobile trials with one of Starlink’s rivals, OneWeb in their joint quest to find connectivity solutions in some of the country’s more challenging areas.

Copy for your own website or newsletter

As always, we have a range of short articles of around 300 words that can be downloaded for use in your own newsletters / websites should you wish to use them.

Help us to spread the word!

We need to reach as many people as we possibly can. You can help us by emailing this to all your local contacts and encouraging them to email it to all their contacts.

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Newsletter – October 2023

By cswstaff | Published: 13th October 2023

Nearly 78,000 properties able to connect to the fibre network

Topics in this edition:

CSW Project updates – Contract 3
Thousands still to order a better broadband service after CSW Project upgrades
Which? launches campaign to ban mid-contract broadband price hikes
Leamington Spa set for £8 million fibre broadband boost
Openreach Fibre Community Partnership schemes – update
Case studies needed – Tell us your story!
Copy for your own website or newsletter
Your questions answered

CSW Project updates – Contract 3

Another 10 Contract 3 structures have now gone live since our last newsletter was published in July. The communities benefiting from these most recent upgrades include parts of the following areas:

Abbots Salford, Atherstone on Stour, Baginton, Blackdown, Bramcote, Harborough Magna, Lapworth, Lowsonford, Nuneaton and Whatcote.

Nearly 78,000 properties across the region are now able to connect to the fibre network thanks to the work that has now been completed by the CSW Broadband Project.

The pace of deployment is now starting to slow down somewhat as we deliver some of the more complex builds towards the end of Contract 3, which is due to be completed in December 2023.

As always, once we have received confirmation that a particular upgrade has been completed in the current build phase, we will try and inform as many of the affected residents as possible.

Remember, once your property has been upgraded, you won’t get a faster service automatically. You need to order the improved service with your chosen ISP in order to benefit from that upgrade.

You might like to use a broadband comparison site such as MoneySavingExpert.com, Broadband Choices, Compare the Market, BroadbandProviders or uSwitch to find a fibre broadband package to suit you and your family’s needs.

Thousands still to order a better broadband service after CSW Project upgrades

Thousands of households and businesses across the CSW region may be missing out on the better broadband connectivity we have provided because they haven’t yet ordered an improved service.

Fast and reliable digital connectivity is no longer seen as a luxury but a necessity given its increasing importance to nearly everything we do in modern day life. For example, with a better broadband connection, you can:

Browse the web faster and carry out online tasks such as shopping and internet banking more easily
Stream HD films, TV and video services without delay
Chat face-to-face with friends and family – wherever they are in the world
Run multiple devices at the same time without your connection slowing down
Work and study from home more easily
Engage with services that are increasingly moving online
Compete more effectively with other businesses in an increasingly competitive global market place.

We realise that some of you who want to order an improved service can’t at this moment in time because your connection hasn’t yet been upgraded.

However, the more households and businesses who have been upgraded that we can get to order an improved service, the more money that comes back into the project, meaning that we can then look into providing solutions for those still waiting for better connectivity.

To find out if you can order an improved service, enter your landline number or address into the BT Broadband Availability Checker. Our How to use the BT Broadband Availability Checker webpage will help you make sense of the Broadband Checker results.

Broadband comparison sites such as MoneySavingExpert.com, Broadband Choices, Compare the Market, BroadbandProviders or uSwitch can help you find a broadband package to suit your needs.

Which? launches campaign to ban mid-contract broadband price hikes

Consumer magazine Which? has launched the “Right to Connect” campaign, which accuses UK mobile and broadband providers of “duping consumers with their sneaky mid-contract price hikes” and is instead calling on the regulator, Ofcom, to “ban this practice” and deliver generally “clearer and fairer pricing”.

Ideally, consumers who take out a new broadband or mobile contract would enjoy a fixed monthly price for the entire length of their term. But many providers – particularly the largest players – have recently become notorious for adopting inflation linked price hikes and then making it harder to exit your contract penalty free if you don’t agree.

This approach has seen providers increasing their prices each year by up to nearly 4% plus the rate of annual inflation as set on a particular month. This resulted in many consumers being hit by average hikes of around 14% and in some cases far more, earlier this year.

According to Which?, this means broadband customers could be charged £150 more than they expected over the course of their contract, due to 2 years of eye-watering hikes.

With the rate of inflation now starting to fall, future hikes shouldn’t be as bad as last year. However, forecasts suggest it will still take until early 2025 before inflation settles back down to something close to the current 2% target. But whether Ofcom will go as far as to ban the practice remains to be seen.

So far, the UK Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP and BCAP) – sister bodies to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) – have separately set out new guidance for how broadband ISPs and mobile operators should communicate mid-contract prices hikes to consumers, which will make such policies clearer and more transparent.

Meanwhile, Ofcom is still in the process of reviewing whether inflation-linked mid-contract hikes give customers “sufficient certainty and clarity about what they can expect to pay” with a verdict expected before the end of this year.

However, it’s important to point out that not all ISPs play this game, with Sky Broadband typically introducing less aggressive broadband rises (this year it was below the level of inflation) and many smaller providers being much more gradual in their increases, if they increase them at all.

On top of that, many modern full fibre (FTTP) networks have managed to buck this trend, often reducing prices rather than increasing them – due in no small part to the aggressively competitive market.

Please note that this is an abridged version of an article that appeared on the ISPreview website.

Leamington Spa set for £8 million fibre broadband boost

In September, Openreach announced that Royal Leamington Spa is one of the 19 new locations spread across the UK that is set to benefit from the ongoing roll-out of their gigabit-capable, Full Fibre broadband network.

Around 27,000 residential and businesses properties in the town are expected to benefit from this £8 million investment in the fibre network which will provide future-proof connectivity for decades to come.

Full Fibre broadband provides local households and businesses with more reliable and resilient connectivity with fewer faults as well as faster, more consistent speeds and enough capacity to easily meet growing data demands.

Openreach recently passed more than 11.5 million premises in the UK and ultimately has plans to build their Full Fibre network to 25 million homes and businesses nationwide by December 2026.

For a more personalised view of an individual home or business, Openreach recommends using its online postcode checker where people can find out the specific broadband connectivity available at their address.

Openreach Fibre Community Partnership schemes – update

In June, we reported that thousands of residents and business owners were set to benefit from an Openreach proposal to upgrade whole exchange areas to full fibre through their Fibre Community Partnership (FCP) scheme.

Schemes in the Alderminster, Furnace End, Great Alne, Haseley Knob, Ilmington and Tanworth-in-Arden exchange areas had been approved by Building Digital UK (BDUK), with the network build being funded through the government’s Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme.

Under the terms of the scheme, eligible households and businesses can show their support by pledging the value of a gigabit voucher – worth up to £4,500. The value of these vouchers is then aggregated to offset the total cost of the build, so the network build won’t cost them a penny.

At the time of writing we are pleased to announce that the Alderminster, Haseley Knob and Ilmington schemes have reached their pledge targets. The Alderminster build has already started, the build in Ilmington will start in the new year, while surveying for the Haseley Knob build will start in January.

The Great Alne scheme is currently at 81% of the pledge target, while the Tanworth-in-Arden scheme is at 73%. However, the response from households and businesses served by the Furnace End exchange has been particularly sluggish with only 40% of the pledge target being reached.

This really is a golden opportunity to bring all properties in these communities up to gigabit-capable speeds so that they can take advantage of all the many benefits that will bring for decades to come.

Failure to secure enough voucher pledges will mean that the specific in that exchange area will not be able to go ahead, so your support could be invaluable.

To pledge your support for better connectivity in your community, simply go to Openreach’s Connect My Community website, enter your postcode, click ‘Search’ then add your support by clicking on the green ‘Pledge’ button and completing the simple online application form.

Local champions are proving to be incredibly effective in helping communities to achieve their pledge targets. If you live in the Furnace End, Great Alne or Tanworth exchange areas and would like to get involved, please email broadband@cswbroadband.org.uk and we will pass your details on to colleagues at Openreach.

Case studies needed – Tell us your story!

If having faster broadband has made a real difference to your life or business, why not tell us about it by submitting a case study.

We regularly appeal for case studies but sadly very few people respond. All we need are a few lines telling us of the difficulties you experienced before you had faster broadband and how life has improved since your property was upgraded.

We would also like to hear from you if your property hasn’t yet been upgraded. Again, all we need are a few lines telling us of the difficulties you are experiencing and how this is impacting on your household.

Submitting a case study, whether relaying a positive or negative experience, can be really useful in supporting our applications for additional funding, to help us take the fibre network to those in areas that are still waiting to experience the benefits of a faster broadband connection.

Copy for your own website or newsletter

As always, we have a range of short articles of around 300 words that can be downloaded for use in your own newsletters / websites should you wish to use them.

Your questions answered

Here are some of the Questions and Answers (Q&A’s) that residents have raised recently. Our website has a full set of Frequently Asked Questions, which are regularly updated.

What is Fibre on Demand?

We have received a number of enquiries from residents recently where the BT Broadband Availability Checker suggests that a product called FTTP on Demand is available at their property, offering speeds of up to 1000Mbps.

This is NOT the same as the Fibre to the Premise (FTTP) product that CSW has been installing, though it is easy to get the two products confused because they essentially function in identical ways. However, their cost, contract length and deployment methods have tended to be significantly different.

With the FTTP solution that CSW is installing (listed as ‘WBC FTTP’ under Featured Products on the BT Broadband Availability Checker), the fibre optic cable will have been installed outside your property (e.g. down your street), which makes it fairly quick and inexpensive to get connected.

By comparison, FTTP on Demand is designed to be requested (‘on demand‘) in Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) capable areas where the fibre optic cables have yet to reach specific properties. In some cases, this will attract significant distance-based construction charges (civil works) costing thousands of pounds.

Because of the high costs involved (and often the requirement for a much longer than standard contract), very few providers actually offer FTTP on Demand. Some providers that we are aware of include Cerberus Networks and FluidOne, though there may well be others.

FTTP on Demand is therefore likely to remain a niche product for those who are prepared to pay the often very expensive additional installation charges and a higher ongoing monthly cost.

For more information on making sense of the BT Broadband Availability Checker results, visit our How to use the BT Broadband Availability Checker webpage.

Can CSW influence how much ISPs charge for their services?

Unfortunately, we have no influence over the prices charged by commercial providers for internet services. Our role is to extend the wholesale fibre network as far as possible, and we are doing this through the contracts that we hold with Openreach.

As access to the network is available to all suppliers on an equal basis it is a purely commercial decision on the part of an ISP as to which packages they offer and at which price range.

The best thing is to shop around for a deal that is right for you. Please remember that some price comparison sites work by receiving a commission from the ISPs and may not list all of the available options. Therefore, you may want to try several such sites before making a decision.

A number of websites, including MoneySavingExpert.com, Usave and Which? provide useful advice on how to haggle for the best broadband deals which will hopefully help you to save money.

If you are currently struggling to pay your broadband bill, MoneySavingExpert.com’s Broadband for low income families webpage provides regularly updated information on the social tariffs that are currently available and information to help you find out if you qualify for these.

You can find more frequently asked broadband questions on our website.

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Newsletter – July 2023

By cswstaff | Published: 25th July 2023

Over 77500 properties now able to connect to the fibre network

Topics in this edition:

CSW Project updates – Contract 3
Thousands of Warwickshire residents could benefit from Openreach’s proposed FCP plans
CityFibre making excellent progress with FTTP roll-out in Rugby
Alternative solutions will support our quest for gigabit-capable connectivity
Case studies needed – Tell us your story!
Copy for your own website or newsletter
Your questions answered

CSW Project updates – Contract 3

Another 12 Contract 3 structures have now gone live since our last newsletter was published in April. The communities benefiting from these most recent upgrades include parts of the following areas:

Barford, Bishops Tachbrook, Budbrooke, Claverdon, Chesterton, Deppers Bridge, Honiley, Hooknell, Lighthorne Rough, Littleworth, Marton, Moreton Morrell, Ratley and Wasperton.

Over 77,500 properties across the region are now able to connect to the fibre network thanks to the work completed by the CSW Broadband Project.

The pace of deployment is now starting to slow down somewhat as we deliver some of the more complex builds towards the end of Contract 3, which is due to be completed in December 2023.

The intention is then to move on to delivering the government’s Project Gigabit initiative and we will hopefully be able to provide you with a further update on this in our October newsletter.

As always, once we have received confirmation that a particular upgrade has been completed in the current build phase, we will try and inform as many of the affected residents as possible.

Remember, once your property has been upgraded, you won’t get a faster service automatically. You need to order the improved service with your chosen ISP in order to benefit from it. See our ‘Your questions answered’ section later in this newsletter for more information on this.

Thousands of Warwickshire residents could benefit from Openreach’s proposed FCP plans

Thousands of residents and business owners in rural areas of Warwickshire are set to benefit from an Openreach proposal to upgrade whole exchange areas to full fibre through their Fibre Community Partnership (FCP) scheme.

So far, Building Digital UK (BDUK) have approved six FCP schemes in the following exchange areas – Alderminster, Ilmington, Furnace End, Great Alne, Haseley Knob and Tanworth-in-Arden.

While some in these communities have already benefited from a full fibre connection from work carried out by the CSW Broadband Project or commercial providers, the aim is to upgrade the remaining properties in these exchange areas so that everyone in these communities can benefit.

The intention is for the schemes to be funded through the government’s Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme and so the network build in your area will not cost you a single penny.

Under the terms of the scheme, eligible residents and businesses can show their support by pledging the value of a gigabit voucher – worth up to £4,500. The value of these vouchers is then aggregated to offset the total cost of the build.

However, failure to secure enough voucher pledges will mean that the specific scheme in your exchange area will not be able to go ahead, so your support could be invaluable.

Openreach’s FCP team are actively engaging with residents and business owners in these areas to explain the benefits that full fibre connectivity can bring to their communities by talking to them directly, attending a series of parish council meetings and through online channels such as community Facebook pages.

Having a full fibre broadband connection provides homes and businesses with access to lightning-fast speeds through a far more reliable and stable connection, allowing you to browse the web faster, conduct online tasks more quickly and stream films and TV services without delay.

It also allows you to use multiple devices at the same time without your connection slowing you down and enables you to work from home more easily. Access to a full fibre connection has even been shown to increase the value of your property.

To pledge your support for better connectivity in your community, simply go to Openreach’s Connect My Community website, enter your postcode and click the Search button.

You’ll see details of how much has been pledged so far and you can add your support for the scheme in your area by clicking on the green ‘Pledge’ button and completing the simple online application form.

CityFibre making excellent progress with FTTP rollout in Rugby

Back in our October 2022 newsletter, we reported how network builder CityFibre had begun the roll-out of their new £17 million gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across Rugby.

The project, which started last September, aims to reach nearly every property in the town, providing residents and businesses with a fast, reliable network that will future-proof all their digital needs.

The build is progressing well with the infrastructure roll-out already completed in most parts of the Rokeby & Overslade, Admirals & Cawston and New Bilton areas of the town. The Newbold and Brownsover ward will be the next area to be upgraded.

The roll-out is being completed by CityFibre’s build partner, Callan Connect, who are working closely with Rugby Borough Council to ensure that any disruption is managed as safely and efficiently as possible.

The full deployment programme is expected to be completed in 2024 and both CityFibre and Callan Connect would like to thank everyone for their ongoing support and patience with regards to this.

As CityFibre build wholesale networks, it means that there are a range of ISPs for customers to choose from, including Vodafone, TalkTalk, Zen Internet, Giganet and iDNET amongst others.

Anyone interested in upgrading their homes / business to the lightning-fast broadband speeds provided by full fibre can find out more about the build, pre-register their interest and ensure they are updated on service availability at www.cityfibre.com/PR.

Alternative solutions will support our quest for gigabit-capable connectivity

As we have reported before, the government has ambitious plans to provide ‘gigabit capable’ broadband speeds of up to 1000Mbps to at least 85% of UK properties by December 2025 and to at least 99% by 2030.

The intention is to build a long-lasting network across the UK that will increase our competitiveness, boost productivity and meet the future demands of consumers and businesses for decades to come.

At least 80% of this coverage is expected to be achieved by the full fibre roll-out plans of commercial providers such as Openreach, Virgin Media, CityFibre and an array of smaller network builders, collectively known as AltNets.

The purpose of the government’s £5 billion Project Gigabit programme is to enable ‘harder to reach’ communities to access lightning-fast gigabit-capable broadband in areas where network providers don’t have any plans to upgrade commercially.

CSW will oversee this work in our area through the full fibre deployment contract that is due to be awarded later this year by Building Digital UK (BDUK), the government agency who oversee projects like ours.

While the aim is to take full fibre to as many eligible premises as possible with the funds that will be made available, it is unrealistic to expect all of these eligible properties to benefit from a full fibre connection due to the costs involved with laying fibre to the more remote locations in our region.

BDUK recognise that this will be an issue across the nation and so a number of alternative, potentially more affordable gigabit-capable solutions are currently being investigated.

At a more local level, the CSW Broadband Project is also looking into what we can do over the coming years to try and ensure that no one misses out on the benefits of better connectivity.

Such solutions will include provision for better 4G and 5G mobile connectivity and possible hybrid solutions (e.g. a combination of fibre deployment and perhaps fixed wireless access to ensure connectivity for the more expensive, harder to reach areas of that community).

Another potential solution could be via low earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations such as Starlink* or OneWeb. The UK Government’s Alpha Trials programme is currently supporting research into whether this could provide an effective and economically viable solution for hard to reach areas.

While this is still currently a relatively pricey solution for consumers in terms of the hardware and monthly service charges, costs are likely to come down in the near future as more and more companies – including Amazon and Facebook – enter the new race for space, all vying for a piece of the mega constellation pie.

So, while full fibre is still the preferred option, we are looking at potential alternatives for where full fibre is unlikely to be an economically viable solution to try and ensure that we can all benefit from lightning-fast connectivity in the coming years.

*If you know of anyone who is currently using a low earth orbit satellite solution – such as Starlink – in the Warwickshire / Solihull area, please encourage them to share their experiences / opinions of using this system by emailing us at broadband@cswbroadband.org.uk

Case studies needed – Tell us your story!

If having faster broadband has made a real difference to your life or business, why not tell us about it by submitting a case study.

We would also like to hear from you if your property has not yet benefited from an upgrade. Again, all we need are a few lines telling us of the difficulties you are experiencing and how this is impacting on your household.

Copy for your own website or newsletter

As always, we have a range of short articles of around 300 words that can be downloaded for use in your own newsletters / websites should you wish to use them.

Your questions answered

Here are some of the Questions and Answers (Q&A’s) that residents have raised recently. Our website has a full set of Frequently Asked Questions, which are regularly updated.

Once an upgrade is complete, will I automatically get a faster service?

No. You must order an improved broadband package through your chosen Internet Service Provider (ISP) to take advantage of the faster speeds. This is what we suggest you do.

First of all, enter your landline or address into the BT Broadband Availability Checker.

If your property has been upgraded to superfast broadband via a Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) solution, then ‘VDSL Range A & B’ will be listed under ‘Featured Products’ along with the speeds you are likely to achieve.

If your property has been upgraded to ultrafast broadband via a Fibre to the Premise (FTTP) solution, then ‘WBC FTTP’ will be listed under ‘Featured Products’ column.

Our How to use the BT Broadband Availability Checker webpage will help you make sense of these results.

Then use one of the many broadband comparison sites available online (such as those listed below) to find and order the right package at the right price for your household or business:

Broadband Choices, Broadband Finder, Broadband Genie, BroadbandProviders, Cable.co.uk, Choose, Comparethemarket, MoneySuperMarket, Uswitch and Which?

The ordering process is slightly different if your property has benefited from an FTTP upgrade. Our Ordering an FTTP service webpage provides you with information on the installation process and also includes a list of ISPs who state that they offer residential and / or business packages in all or parts of the CSW region.

Can CSW influence how much ISPs charge for their services?

As access to the network is available to all suppliers on an equal basis it is a purely commercial decision on the part of an ISP as to which packages they offer and at which price range.

A number of websites, including MoneySavingExpert.com, Usave and Which? provide useful advice on how to haggle for the best broadband deals which will hopefully help you to save money.

You can find more frequently asked broadband questions on our website.

Posted in Project News, Newsletter Archive | Comments closed

Newsletter – April 2023

By cswstaff | Published: 24th April 2023

Over 77500 properties now able to connect to the fibre network

Topics in this edition:

CSW Project updates – Contract 3
Millions of broadband consumers hit by April price hikes
Harbury & Shipston first to benefit from Gigaclear’s FTTP rollout
CityFibre complete Binley Woods FTTP broadband build
Over a third of UK consumers don’t know if they have full fibre broadband
Case studies needed – Tell us your story!
Copy for your own website or newsletter
Your questions answered

CSW Project updates – Contract 3

Another 18 Contract 3 structures have now gone live since our last newsletter was published in January. The communities benefiting from these most recent upgrades include parts of:

Alcester Heath, Austrey, Bearley, Bassetts Pole, Coughton, Dorsington, Knowle, Priors Marston, Radford Semele, Snitterfield, Stratford (Rother Street), Upper Fulbrook and Warwick (Woodloes Lane).

Over 77,500 properties across the region are now able to connect to the fibre network thanks to the work completed by the CSW Broadband Project.

As always, once we have received confirmation that a particular upgrade has been completed, we will try and inform as many of the affected residents as possible.

Millions of broadband consumers hit by April price hikes

Millions of broadband customers have been hit with price hikes of up to 17.3% this spring, off the back of a sharp increase in the cost of living, MoneySavingExpert recently reported.

ISPs can increase their prices mid-contract by the rate of inflation as ”published” in January each year, plus an extra amount on top (usually around 4 percentage points), as set out in their terms and conditions.

Providers have blamed the increase, which is then introduced to consumer bills between March and April of that same year, on their underlying and operating costs going up substantially as a result of regulatory requirements, higher energy prices and increased network costs.

In February, industry regulator Ofcom announced it would investigate the practice of mid-contract price hikes, amid concerns telecom providers aren’t being clear enough about what customers can expect to pay over the course of their contracts.

The MoneySavingExpert article, which was published earlier this month, provides a useful table showing a list of ISPs, how much prices will rise by and when they will come into effect, as well as advice on switching (if you are out of contract) and haggling for a better deal if you are still in contract.

It is also worth remembering that there are a lot of smaller ISPs out there that only very rarely increase their prices, if at all and quite a few of those have also adopted price freezes.

If you live in an area that has recently been covered by a new alternative FTTP network, then the aggressive market competition that currently exists between providers often ensures that prices should remain low as they all compete for your custom.

Harbury & Shipston first to benefit from Gigaclear’s FTTP rollout

The communities of Shipston-on-Stour and Harbury are set to become the first in Warwickshire to benefit from the ultrafast full fibre broadband networks currently being built by Gigaclear, one of the UK’s largest Altnets.

The network builder has invested heavily in a build programme that will bring fibre to the premise (FTTP) broadband to between 5-8,000 residential and business properties across the county.

The company’s main access cabinets in both Shipston and Harbury have now gone live, meaning that residents and businesses in these villages will soon be able to take advantage of a network offering ultrafast broadband with upload and download speeds of up to 900Mbps.

Services will start going live in Shipston-on-Stour and Harbury in April and will continue to do so during the spring and early summer. Services in Southam will also start going live during the summertime.

Priors Marston is also set to benefit from Gigaclear’s full fibre build programme later this year, while a number of other communities across Warwickshire are also being considered for future builds beyond that.

As Gigaclear are building a whole new infrastructure network, residents and businesses will have a range of ISPs to choose from once the networks have gone live. For more information on how to order a service, visit: Ultrafast Full Fibre Broadband | Gigaclear

CityFibre complete Binley Woods FTTP broadband build

Network operator CityFibre have also announced that they have completed their deployment of a new 1Gbps Fibre to the Premise (FTTP) broadband network to over 1,000 homes in the Warwickshire village of Binley Woods.

The project, which only started in August 2022, cost around £500,000 to build and is an extension of CityFibre’s existing network in nearby Coventry.

As CityFibre build wholesale networks, it means that there are a range of ISPs for customers to choose from, including Vodafone, TalkTalk, Zen Internet, Giganet and iDNET amongst others.

Over a third of UK consumers don’t know if they have full fibre broadband

A recently published YouGov survey has revealed that over a third of the adults asked were still unsure as to whether their home broadband ISP connections were based off “full fibre” technology or not.

For the avoidance of doubt, a full fibre connection – often referred to as ‘Fibre to the Premise’ or ‘FTTP’ – is where the fibre connection goes directly into your home. With an FTTP connection, the benefits include: significantly faster and more stable speeds, greater reliability, faster latency times, lower maintenance costs and so forth.

However, as ISP Review mentioned in their recent article on this subject, numerous broadband ISPs have spent much of the last decade selling slower “part-fibre” or “hybrid-fibre” (e.g. FTTC, G.fast, Hybrid Fibre Coax) solutions as “fibre broadband” products, which is one of the reasons why so many people continue to be confused about the terminology today.

In 2021, the Gigabit Take-Up Advisory Group proposed several changes to the Government and Ofcom, which were aimed at helping to boost the take-up of gigabit-capable broadband services. One of those included clearer labelling of broadband packages to help consumers understand the differences.

Although there hasn’t been a great deal of movement on this over the last couple of years, Ofcom have now launched their consultation on improving broadband information for customers.

If you would like to have your say on how you think this could be improved, the above consultation is open until 3^rd May 2023.

Case studies needed – Tell us your story!

If having faster broadband has made a real difference to your life or business, why not tell us about it by submitting a case study.

Copy for your own website or newsletter

As always, we have a range of short articles of around 300 words that can be downloaded for use in your own newsletters / websites should you wish to use them.

Your questions answered

Here are some of the Questions and Answers (Q&A’s) that residents have raised recently. Our website has a full set of Frequently Asked Questions, which are regularly updated.

How do I switch to a different broadband provider?

You may wish to switch your broadband provider for a number of reasons including: poor quality of service, moving house or business premises, you need additional features that your current internet service provider (ISP) doesn’t offer or you can get a better and / or cheaper deal with another ISP.

Whatever your reason for wanting to switch, the first thing you need to do is check to see if you can leave your current provider. You will need to check your current contract and make sure that you have completed the minimum term because if you haven’t, you could be hit with a heavy cancellation fee for leaving early.

Even if you have served the minimum term, most ISPs will still require you to give them a month’s notice and there may be a cancellation fee involved.

The next step is to find a broadband package that suits you. There are a number of comparison sites available which you may want to take a look at before making a decision including:

Broadband Choices, Broadband Finder, Broadband Genie, BroadbandProviders, Cable.co.uk, Choose, Comparethemarket, MoneySuperMarket, Uswitch and Which?

It is also important that you check that the new service you wish to sign up to is available in your area. While some of the sites listed above will only provide information at a postcode level, others allow consumers to search for broadband providers by their exact address.

From April 2023, new rules introduced by Ofcom, the telecoms regulator, mean that you’ll only ever have to contact one provider (the one you plan to switch to).

The process should also be faster, taking as little as a day, and providers will have to compensate you if something goes wrong and you’re left without service for more than one working day.

There are a number of websites, including Which? and Moneysaving Expert which can offer you further information and expert advice if you are thinking of switching broadband providers.

I have been let down by the engineer who was supposed to be installing my broadband. What can I do?

Unfortunately, this is outside the remit of the CSW Broadband Project as our role is only to install the fibre network. This is an issue that you will have to take up with your ISP as it is down to them to arrange for the installation.

There are millions of cases each year where broadband or landline customers experience connectivity issues, installation delays or missed engineer appointments from either their current or new broadband provider which is why in April 2019, Ofcom introduced their automatic compensation scheme.

Under the terms of the agreement, if an engineer does not arrive on schedule or cancels with less than 24 hours’ notice, you will receive £26.24 in compensation. If a service stops working and is not fully fixed after two full working days, customers will be entitled to £8.40 for each day that the service is not repaired.

If a new provider (ISP) has indicated the specific start date of a new service, but fails to start the new service by the promised date, you will be entitled to £5.25 for each day the service is delayed, including the missed start date. (These new rates of compensation came into effect as of January 6, 2023.)

You should receive this compensation, which will usually appear as a credit on your bill, within 30 calendar days.

Unfortunately, not all ISPs are signed up to this scheme. However, if you are a BT, EE, Hyperoptic Broadband, NOW Broadband, Plusnet, Sky, TalkTalk, Virgin Media, Vodafone or Zen Internet customer (information correct as of January 6, 2023) then you should be covered by the scheme – as outlined above.

You can find more frequently asked broadband questions on our website.

Posted in Project News, Newsletter Archive | Comments closed

Newsletter – January 2023

By cswstaff | Published: 16th January 2023

Over 77000 properties now able to connect to the fibre network

Topics in this edition:

CSW Project updates – Contract 3
Switching & haggling really can reduce your broadband bills
Alcester & Bidford first to benefit from FullFibre’s FTTP rollout
Government triples value of UK Gigabit Broadband Vouchers
Starlink to help strengthen internet in remote UK places
Copy for your own website or newsletter
Your questions answered

CSW Project updates – Contract 3

Another 21 Contract 3 structures have now gone live since our last newsletter was published in October. The communities benefiting from these most recent upgrades include parts of:

Ansley, Aylesmore, Balsall Common, Blackdown, Chastleton, Clopton, Cubbington, Hill Wootton, Honiley, Hunningham, Idlicote, Kenilworth, Little Compton, Long Itchington, Snitterfield, Stratford upon Avon (Parts of The Ridgeway & Meer St areas), Wishaw and Wroxall.

Over 77,000 properties across the region are now able to connect to the fibre network thanks to the work of the CSW Broadband Project.

As always, once we have received confirmation that a particular upgrade has been completed, we will try and inform as many of the affected residents as possible.

Switching & haggling really can reduce your broadband bills

As many mobile, pay TV and broadband providers prepare to increase monthly bills this spring, the latest research from Which? has found that customers could save over £200 a year by switching providers.

The survey asked over 5,000 UK consumers whose mobile, broadband or TV and broadband package had recently ended whether they had haggled or switched provider and if so, how much money they had saved in the process.

Their findings showed that there could be compelling savings on offer – particularly for those who were willing to switch to a new provider. But even those who would rather stick with their current provider can reduce the amount they pay by haggling with them.

Across the board, more than seven in 10 customers who switched providers saved as a result, with TV and broadband package customers saving an average of £162 a year by switching – a discount of around 13%, though customers with some providers saved even more.

There were also big savings to be had for broadband only customers who switched, with an average saving being £92 – an average discount of 16%.

Even if you are happy with your provider and don’t want to switch, you can still make a saving by negotiating (haggling) for a better price. Savings are not the only potential benefit of haggling – it is also a chance for you to get a faster speed or get more data included in your package.

While the results of the survey suggested that the average customer who upgraded still ended up paying less, there is no doubt that the biggest saving for hagglers was for those who downgraded their broadband deal. So, if you have 500Mbps but find that 100Mbps is sufficient for your needs, that’s certainly worth discussing with your provider.

The study also found that customers who do nothing when their contract ended were the ones who were at greatest risk of overpaying on their broadband bills, with some broadband customers potentially facing price rises of nearly 14% this spring.

The Which? website provides a more, in-depth analysis of the survey’s findings as well as valuable tips and advice on how to switch broadband provider and how to haggle on your broadband deal.

Alcester & Bidford first to benefit from FullFibre’s FTTP rollout

Bidford on Avon and Alcester are set to become the first communities in Warwickshire to benefit from the ultrafast full fibre broadband networks currently being built by FullFibre.

The network builder, which is the second biggest wholesale only AltNet in the UK, is investing over £3 million to bring fibre to the premise (FTTP) broadband to between 10-15,000 residential and business properties across the county.

Services will start going live in Bidford later this month and will continue to do so through to the spring. Services in Alcester will also start going live during the springtime.

Other Warwickshire communities set to benefit from FullFibre’s extensive build programme later this year include New and Old Arley, Kineton and Kingsbury, while a number of other communities are also being considered for future builds beyond that.

As FullFibre are building a wholesale network, residents and businesses will have a range of ISPs to choose from once the networks have gone live. More information on how to order a service can be found on the FullFibre Fibre Heroes website.

Government triples value of UK Gigabit Broadband Vouchers

Building Digital UK, the executive agency that oversees the UK Government’s various broadband and mobile programmes, has confirmed that they are tripling the value of the vouchers they issue to homes under their Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme.

The scheme previously offered grants worth up to £1,500 for homes and £3,500 for businesses in rural areas to help them get a gigabit-capable broadband (1Gbps) service installed.

However, eligible homes and businesses will soon be able to apply for up to £4,500 to cover the costs of obtaining a gigabit-capable connection.

The hope is that by issuing vouchers with bigger values, it will enable operators to deploy into increasingly remote areas, where build costs would previously have been too expensive for such projects to proceed.

Under the scheme, vouchers are available to properties in areas with broadband speeds of less than 100Mbps – and where there are no near-term plans for a gigabit deployment in that specific area via either a commercial provider or a state aid supported build like the CSW Broadband Project.

Overall, more than 111,000 vouchers have already been issued through the government’s vouchers schemes, and to date, more than 77,000 of these vouchers have been used to connect premises to gigabit-capable broadband.

Starlink to help strengthen internet in remote UK places

In December, the government revealed that satellites operated by Elon Musk’s Starlink technology are to be used in a trial to get high-speed internet to remote homes and businesses across the UK.

The trial, which is part of the government’s plans to ensure everyone can access reliable broadband coverage, will test how more than 3,000 low-Earth orbit small satellites can be used to help “very hard to reach” places.

The rollout will initially be trialled at three remote locations, after which, the government will then consider the viability of using the technology in other remote areas across the UK.

Recent tests have shown that in many locations, Starlink satellites can deliver internet speeds of up to 200Mbps (megabits per second) – four times faster than the current UK average speed of just over 50Mbps.

Broadband signals beamed down by relatively low-flying, fridge-sized satellites can therefore be an effective way for remote areas to get high-speed internet access, especially in locations where operators can’t install fibre cabling or it simply isn’t economically viable to do so.

Michelle Donelan, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said that, “These trials aim to find a solution to the prohibitively high cost of rolling out cables to far-flung locations” and stated that satellites could well “be the answer” to getting isolated places in the UK connected to high-speed broadband.

Copy for your own website or newsletter

As always, we have a range of short articles of around 300 words that can be downloaded for use in your own newsletters / websites should you wish to use them.

Your questions answered

Here are some of the Questions and Answers (Q&A’s) that residents have raised recently. Our website has a full set of Frequently Asked Questions, which are regularly updated.

Once an upgrade to my property is complete, will I automatically get a faster service?

No. You must order an improved broadband package through your chosen Internet Service Provider (ISP) to take advantage of the faster speeds. This is what we suggest you do.

First of all, enter your landline or address into the BT Broadband Availability Checker.

If your property has been upgraded to ultrafast broadband via a Fibre to the Premise (FTTP) solution, then ‘WBC FTTP’ will be listed under ‘Featured Products’ column.

Our How to use the BT Broadband Availability Checker webpage will help you make sense of these results.

Then use one of the many broadband comparison sites available online (such as those listed below) to find and order the right package at the right price for your household or business:

What is Fibre on Demand?

We have again received a number of enquiries from residents recently where the BT Broadband Availability Checker suggests that a product called FTTP on Demand is available at their property, offering speeds of up to 1000Mbps.

FTTP on Demand is therefore likely to remain a niche product for those who are prepared to pay the often very expensive additional installation charges and a higher ongoing monthly cost.

For more information on making sense of the BT Broadband Availability Checker results, visit our How to use the BT Broadband Availability Checker webpage.

You can find more frequently asked broadband questions on our website.

Posted in Project News, Newsletter Archive | Comments closed

Newsletter – October 2022

By cswstaff | Published: 7th October 2022

Over 77000 properties now able to connect to the fibre network

Topics in this edition:

CSW Project updates – Contract 3
How CSW is helping to deliver Project Gigabit’s objectives
CityFibre to start £17m rollout of FTTP broadband in Rugby
Ofcom asks broadband ISPs to halt price hikes and offer social tariffs
Copy for your own website or newsletter
Your questions answered

CSW Project updates – Contract 3

Another 20 Contract 3 structures have now gone live since our last newsletter was published in June. The communities benefiting from these most recent upgrades include parts of:

Admington, Alveston, Bishopton, Black Hill, Budbrooke, Clifford Chambers, Frankton, Great Wolford, Grendon, Hartshill, Heathcote, Kingsbury, Middleton, Napton on the Hill, Princethorpe, Stockton, Upper Brailes and Welford-on-Avon.

As a result of this, over 77,000 properties across the region are now able to connect to the fibre network thanks to the work of the CSW Broadband Project.

As always, once we have received confirmation that a particular upgrade has been completed, we will try and inform as many of the affected residents as possible.

Remember, once your property has been upgraded, you won’t get a faster service automatically. You need to order the improved service with your chosen ISP in order to benefit from the upgrade.

To check on your property’s superfast status, enter your landline number or address into the BT Broadband Availability Checker. Our How to use the BT Broadband Availability Checker webpage will help you make sense of the Broadband Checker results.

How CSW is helping to deliver Project Gigabit’s objectives

Back in July 2018, the government published the Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review, which outlined their ambitious plans to provide world-class digital connectivity that is ‘gigabit-capable’, reliable, long-lasting and widely available across the UK.

The intention was to make the UK a world leader in digital connectivity – increasing our competitiveness, boosting productivity and meeting the future demands of both consumers and businesses.

In March 2021, the UK government unveiled Project Gigabit – the £5bn rollout programme that would help them to achieve these objectives. The aim is to provide gigabit-capable broadband speeds of up to 1000Mbps to at least 85% of UK premises by the end of 2025 and at least 99% by 2030.

About 80% of the nation’s gigabit-capable coverage is expected to be achieved by commercial providers through their own deployment build plans.

The focus of Project Gigabit, therefore is on improving the connectivity of those final 20% of homes and businesses, where the private sector network builders have no plans to do so. These areas typically being located in the more rural and semi-rural areas of the country.

In England, the Project Gigabit programme is being centrally managed by BDUK (Building Digital UK) who have put Warwickshire and Leicestershire together in a contractable region known as Lot 11. It will be the job of the CSW team to oversee the upgrade of properties not covered by commercial plans in this area.

The first step – before procurements can begin and contracts can be awarded – is to identify precisely which areas of Warwickshire and Leicestershire are not expected to benefit from the build plans of commercial network builders over the next three years.

Only once we have the answer to that can we identify where public funding will need to be allocated.

We are currently in the process of helping BDUK to ascertain this information with a view to Lot 11 then going out to tender early next year with the build programme likely to start at the end of 2023.

Of course, the CSW Broadband Project is already delivering on these Project Gigabit objectives and has been for some time. Around 20% of our Contract 2 build and 99% of our Contract 3 build has been delivering gigabit-capable, full fibre solutions to homes and businesses across Solihull and Warwickshire.

Our Local Full Fibre Networks Project (LFFN) has also upgraded 220 public sector buildings across Warwickshire. 159 of these were schools – including 138 primary schools, 12 secondary schools, 5 nursery schools and 4 community special schools.

Other sites that benefited from this upgrade included 19 libraries, 12 fire stations, 5 hospitals, 5 social services buildings, 4 county council or district council offices and 3 community centres amongst others.

In addition, nearly 1000 residential and business properties that were in close proximity to the above sites were also able to take advantage of having a full fibre connection.

We will of course provide you with regular updates on how the Lot 11 procurement and contracting process progresses over the coming months via this newsletter.

CityFibre to start £17m rollout of FTTP broadband in Rugby

Network builder CityFibre has begun the £17 million rollout of a new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network across Rugby – with the aim of reaching nearly every home and business in the town.

The project, which started in September, is being backed by Callan Connect – one of CityFibre’s existing civil engineering partners, who also worked with CityFibre on their Coventry and Solihull network builds.

The infrastructure build has already started in the Rokeby, Overslade and New Bilton areas of the town, with the full deployment expected to be completed in early 2024.

With Rugby already well served by Virgin Media’s broadband network and Openreach also in the midst of a large FTTP deployment across the same area, CityFibre will no doubt face some competition for customers from their gigabit-capable rivals in the town.

However, for local residents and businesses, this can only be a good thing as such competition is likely to see some attractively-priced deals being offered by different network providers all vying for their custom.

Back in August, CityFibre also started work to bring full fibre connectivity within reach of almost every home and business in Binley Woods in Warwickshire.

The new infrastructure rollout that will future-proof the town’s digital needs for generations to come is expected to be completed by late 2022.

Local residents and businesses can find out more about these builds and register their interest at www.cityfibre.com/homes.

Ofcom asks broadband ISPs to halt price hikes & offer social tariffs

Ofcom has recently revealed that 29% of UK households (8 million) – double last year’s 15% – are still having problems paying their phone, broadband and TV bills. In response, they’ve called on major ISPs to reconsider annual price rises and have ordered some ISPs to introduce social tariffs as soon as possible – as reported by ISPreview recently.

The article notes that consumer broadband, phone and mobile services are often considered to be quite reasonably priced in the UK, but there are always those – often in the most disadvantaged groups – who may struggle with paying their bills. This has become a much bigger problem thanks to the pandemic, a surge in inflation and the cost of living crisis.

The UK Government and Ofcom has so far largely responded to this crisis by encouraging more ISPs to proactively introduce and promote low-cost social tariffs and Ofcom has also previously warned of further action if providers fail to put more effort into tackling this issue, which they said could include the potential introduction of an industry-wide regulated social tariff.

A number of providers have launched social tariffs or upgraded ones they already had and take-up of social tariffs has more than doubled in the last 6-months from 55,000 to 136,000 homes but that is still on 3% of those eligible.

Ofcom have also expressed concern that many of those same ISPs have separately continued to hit their regular customers with inflation busting annual price hikes of around 10% with even higher prices expected for 2023.

In Ofcom’s view, such providers should now “consider whether large price rises can be justified at times of exceptional financial hardship,” but they’ve so far stopped short of making a more significant market intervention.

The regulator’s recently published ‘Treating vulnerable customers fairly’ paper provides revised guidance on how firms should support customers in debt or who are struggling to pay and states that providers should rotate between a range of communications channels – such as letters, email, phone and text – to increase the chances of reaching customers in debt to offer support.

As ever, the biggest barrier to the adoption of a social tariff remains the issue of awareness, with 70% of eligible customers not even realising that such packages exist – despite all the publicity that has been given to them over the last 12 months. The onus is clearly on ISPs to do a better job promoting them.

For more information about the social tariffs that are currently available through a variety of ISPs and whether you and your family qualify for one of these packages, MoneySavingExpert.com’s Broadband for low income families webpage is a good source of information and advice that is updated on a regular basis.

Copy for your own website or newsletter

As always, we have a range of short articles of around 300 words that can be downloaded for use in your own newsletters / websites should you wish to use them.

Your questions answered

Here are some of the Questions and Answers (Q&A’s) that residents have raised recently. Our website has a full set of Frequently Asked Questions, which are regularly updated.

Can CSW Broadband influence how much suppliers charge for their services?

With the cost of living crisis starting to bite, this is something that we are often asked. However, we have no influence over the prices charged by commercial providers. Our role is to extend the wholesale fibre network as far as possible, and we are doing this through the contracts that we hold with Openreach.

As access to the network is available to all suppliers on an equal basis it is a purely commercial decision on the part of an ISP as to which packages they offer and at which price range.

A number of websites, including MoneySavingExpert.com, Usave and Which? provide useful advice on how to haggle for the best broadband deals which will hopefully save you money at a time when broadband prices are set to rise.

As mentioned earlier in this update, with many households currently struggling to pay their broadband bill, MoneySavingExpert.com’s Broadband for low income families webpage provides regularly updated information on the social tariffs that are currently available and information to help you find out if you qualify for these.

What is the process for ordering and installing an FTTP service?

The ordering and final installation process for the Fibre to the Premise (FTTP) solutions that are now being rolled out in Contract 3 of the CSW Broadband Project is a little bit different to the FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet) solutions that were predominantly rolled out during Contracts 1 and 2.

‘WBC FTTP’ will be listed under ‘Featured Products’ on the BT Broadband Availability Checker results page, if FTTP is available at your property. For more information on making sense of the results returned from your enquiry, visit our ‘How to use the BT Broadband Availability Checker’ webpage.

As the level of full fibre coverage has steadily increased across the UK, so have the number of ISPs offering FTTP packages. For a full list of all the ISPs who have stated that they offer residential and business packages across the CSW region, please visit our Fibre to the Premise (FTTP) webpage.

There are a number of comparison sites that you can use to find the best FTTP broadband package for your needs and your wallet, including: MoneySuperMarket.com, Broadband Finder, Broadband Choices, Broadband Genie, Broadband Providers, Choose, Comparethemarket and u-Switch.

Whichever ISP you chose to provide your service, the installation process will be similar to that shown in this short installing full fibre to your property film from Openreach.

Once you have ordered a service with your chosen ISP, they will contact Openreach. They will then arrange an appointment to come and fit the service. The engineer will run fibre from the nearest distribution point (either over a pole or via underground ducting) to your property. The fibre will then be connected to a small box on the outside wall of your property at ground level.

The fibre will then be run through your wall to the inside of your property, where the engineer will install a small powered wall-mounted unit that they will then plug your router into.

They will then typically test your full fibre connection on one of your preferred devices to make sure that the service is working properly and that you can start making the most of your faster and more dependable connection.

Finally, it is worth noting that the ‘WBC FTTP’ product should not to be confused with the far more expensive FTTP on Demand – a separate commercial product offered by BT which is NOT being installed through the CSW Broadband Project.

Posted in Project News, Newsletter Archive | Comments closed

Newsletter – June 2022

By cswstaff | Published: 21st June 2022

Over 76,500 properties now able to connect to the fibre network

Topics in this edition:

CSW Project updates – Contract 3
UK ISPs urged to support low-income homes by offering discounted packages – Update
Government proposals would make gigabit broadband mandatory for all new homes
Upgrading landlines to digital technology – what you need to know
Copy for your own website or newsletter
Your questions answered

CSW Project updates – Contract 3

Another 20 Contract 3 structures have now gone live since our last newsletter was published in March. The communities benefiting from these most recent upgrades include parts of:

Abbots Salford (near Salford Priors), Bishop’s Tachbrook, Bishopton, Bradnocks Marsh, Cherington, Clifford Chambers, Haselor, Kenilworth, Lighthorne, Nether Whitacre, Outhill, Radford Semele, Stretton under Fosse, Upper Quinton, Wappenbury and Willington.

As a result of this, over 76,500 properties across the region are now able to connect to the fibre network thanks to the work of the CSW Broadband Project.

As always, once we have received confirmation that a particular upgrade has been completed, we will try and inform as many of the affected residents as possible.

UK ISPs urged to support low-income homes by offering discounted packages – Update

In our last newsletter, we reported on how Ofcom’s Affordability Report had found that only 55000 households across the UK had taken up a cheaper broadband social tariff package offered by UK ISPs.

Since then, as was recently reported by ISP Review, the Government’s Culture Secretary, Nadine Dorries, has increased the pressure on the bigger UK ISPs by calling on them to put more effort into promoting the existence of such tariffs, which are usually offered to those who may be unemployed or on certain benefits.

One of the biggest reasons for the lack of take-up has been the lack of consumer awareness around the existence of such tariffs. Ofcom found that 84% of benefits recipients were unaware that they existed.

This is partly due to the fact that broadband ISPs do not tend to openly promote these plans alongside their main products. They are often hidden away on separate pages, which require more effort to uncover and so, while a number of broadband ISPs currently offer low cost social tariffs, only 1.2% of the estimated 4.2 million eligible households have actually signed up for them.

The Culture Secretary has now reinforced Ofcom’s plea for ISPs to make such tariffs more prominent on their websites and making it easier for consumers to sign up by writing to the bosses of a number of UK ISPs, asking them to clearly outline their plans for drawing more attention to such concessions.

Broadband connectivity may only account for a small slice of household expenditure but it has increasingly become a necessity for many and with the country in the midst of the current cost of living crisis, access to such packages will be a welcome relief for those who are most in financial need.

Government proposals would make gigabit broadband mandatory for all new homes

In late December 2021, the UK government launched a technical consultation on proposals to change building regulations to ensure that new homes have gigabit-capable connectivity installed in them as standard practice.

Around one in ten new-build homes are still being built without gigabit connections. These are mostly in smaller developments, where the cost can be higher or where broadband companies have not had the time they need to install connections before houses are completed.

Changes to the existing Building Regulations (2010), would mean that home developers would be legally required by law to build gigabit-capable connectivity into new homes in England and make it a priority as part of their building work.

Developers would also be required to bring broadband network operators on board to consider gigabit capable connectivity when construction plans are submitted to local councils / planning authorities.

These measures will not only give more people access to future-proof internet connections but also reduce the need for costly and disruptive work to install them retrospectively.

Since these changes were first unveiled back in March 2020, progress has been slow – largely due to delays relating to the COVID-19 pandemic but the launch of the consultation was a step in the right direction.

The consultation has now closed and the Government has stated that they “aim to publish the consultation response and lay the implementing legislation as soon as Parliamentary time allows, with the legislative amendments coming into force as soon as possible.”

For anyone thinking of purchasing a new build property before the new law comes in, our advice would be to check with the developer that they have installed or are planning to install gigabit-capable broadband and get written confirmation of this BEFORE you buy.

Upgrading landlines to digital technology – what you need to know

The technology that we use to make landline phone calls is due to be upgraded over the next few years but what does this mean for you as a landline customer?

Traditionally, landline phone calls have been delivered over the old ‘copper’ telephone network known as the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). However, the equipment used in the PSTN was developed and installed in the 1980’s and is becoming harder and increasingly more expensive to maintain. BT has therefore taken the decision to retire the PSTN by the end of December 2025.

Telecoms providers have been investing heavily in new systems and infrastructure networks such as full fibre, which means that in the future, landline calls can be delivered via digital technology called Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), which uses a broadband connection.

Your landline provider will contact you well in advance of when the process to start migrating your old landline to your new telephone service will apply to you and your property.

Once a home service is moved from PSTN to VoIP, the phone will generally work in the same way as it always has, but it will need to be plugged into a broadband router instead of into the phone socket on your wall. If you need any new equipment – e.g. a new router, your provider should sort this out for you.

This change from PSTN to VoIP will affect other devices that rely on a phone line – such as some fire and burglar alarm systems and telecare devices. It is therefore important that you mention those devices to your provider and check if they need to be replaced or reconfigured in order to continue working when they notify you that your service is to be migrated.

Once the PSTN is switched off, if you wish to continue having a landline phone, but don’t already have broadband or don’t use a broadband service, you will generally still need to have a suitable connection. Ofcom expects that providers will have a range of options for people in this situation.

However, as VoIP services will operate successfully on broadband connections of less than 1Mbps, customers should not be forced to take out a high-speed broadband package if they do not want to.

One issue with VoIP that has raised concerns with residents is what happens during a power cut at your property? A phone connected to a broadband router wouldn’t work as it gets its power from the property’s mains electricity supply. So what if you needed to call the emergency services?

If you rely on your landline – for example, you don’t have a mobile phone, are unable to use a mobile phone or you don’t have a mobile signal inside your home – your ISP must make sure that you are able to contact the emergency services in the event of a power cut. This could be in the form of battery back-up so that your landline will continue to work for the minimum of at least 1 hour.

However, since the end of 2018, Ofcom’s published guidance states an expectation to ‘recommend only providing battery back-up or other protection facilities to vulnerable consumers.’

If you would still quite like the option of a back-up solution but aren’t in a vulnerable group, ISP Review’s Solutions for Battery Back-up of Fibre Broadband and VoIP article provides you with some options.

If you have any further queries or concerns about the migration to VoIP technology, we suggest you contact your landline or broadband provider in the first instance. More information is also available at the Future of Voice website.

Copy for your own website or newsletter

As always, we have a range of short articles of around 300 words that can be downloaded for use in your own newsletters / websites should you wish to use them.

Your questions answered

Here are some of the Questions and Answers (Q&A’s) that residents have raised recently. Our website has a full set of Frequently Asked Questions, which are regularly updated.

Once the upgrade to my property is complete, will I automatically get a faster service?

No. You must order an improved broadband package through your chosen Internet Service Provider (ISP) to take advantage of the faster speeds. This is what we suggest you do.

First of all, enter your landline or address into the BT Broadband Availability Checker.

If your property has been upgraded to ultrafast broadband via a Fibre to the Premise (FTTP) solution, then ‘WBC FTTP’ will be listed under ‘Featured Products’ column.

Our How to use the BT Broadband Availability Checker webpage will help you make sense of these results.

Then use one of the many broadband comparison sites available online (such as those listed below) to find and order the right package at the right price for your household or business:

What is Fibre on Demand?

FTTP on Demand is therefore likely to remain a niche product for those who are prepared to pay the often very expensive additional installation charges and a higher ongoing monthly cost.

For more information on making sense of the BT Broadband Availability Checker results, visit our How to use the BT Broadband Availability Checker webpage.

You can find more frequently asked broadband questions on our website.

Posted in Project News, Newsletter Archive | Comments closed

Newsletter – March 2022

By cswstaff | Published: 9th March 2022

Nearly 76,000 properties able to connect to the fibre network

Topics in this edition:

CSW Project updates – Contract 3
Ofcom urges all UK ISPs to support low-income homes by offering discounted packages
Thousands of properties in CSW region to benefit from Openreach’s latest Fibre First plans
Finding out your data usage can help you get the right broadband package for your household
Case studies needed – Tell us your story!
Copy for your own website or newsletter
Your questions answered

CSW Project updates – Contract 3

Another 46 Contract 3 structures have now been confirmed as having gone live since our last newsletter was published in December. Some of these have been partially live for some time but we only tend to publish this information once we are sure that all the connections served by those structures have been completed.

The communities benefiting from these most recent upgrades include parts of:

Alcester Heath, Astley, Bentley, Beoley, Bidford on Avon, Bishops Tachbrook, Bodymoor Heath, Burton Hastings, Caldecote, Clifton on Dunsmore, Dordon, Dunchurch, Fillongley, Freasley Common, Great Alne, Hampton in Arden, Hockley Heath, Knowle, Maxstoke, Meriden, Middleton, Napton, Nuneaton, Over Whitacre, Ratley, Rugby, Shelfield Green, Stockton, Stretton on Dunsmore, Tanworth in Arden & Wolston.

As a result of this, over 76,000 properties across the region are now able to connect to the fibre network thanks to the work of the CSW Broadband Project.

As always, once we have received confirmation that a particular upgrade has been completed, we will try and inform as many of the affected residents as possible.

Remember, once your property has been upgraded, you won’t get a faster service automatically. You need to order the improved service with your chosen ISP in order to benefit from the upgrade.

Ofcom urges all UK ISPs to support low-income homes by offering discounted packages

Consumer broadband services are often considered to be quite reasonably priced in the UK, but there are always those, often in the most disadvantaged groups (i.e. those on a low income or those who are unemployed) who may struggle with paying their bills, a recent ISP Review article notes.

This has become a much bigger problem during the COVID-19 pandemic, which is also being made worse by a surge in inflation and the rising cost of key services, such as energy (gas and electric).

According to Ofcom’s new Affordability Report, some 1.1 million households (5% of the UK) are “struggling to afford their home broadband service”.

However, the report also notes that out of an estimated 4.2 million households in receipt of Universal Credit – just 55,000 homes (1.2% of those eligible) have actually taken up one of the cheaper broadband social tariff packages that are available from a number of UK ISPs.

One of the biggest reasons for this has been a sheer lack of consumer awareness around the existence of such tariffs. The regulator has called on all ISPs to do a lot more to raise awareness and ensure it is easy for those eligible to sign-up.

To read the ISP Review article in full, including information on some of the ISPs who are already offering social tariff packages, visit Ofcom finds just 55000 UK Homes on a Social Broadband Tariff.

Thousands of properties in CSW region to benefit from Openreach’s latest Fibre First plans

In late January, Openreach announced plans to build a new ultrafast, ultra-reliable ‘full fibre’ broadband network in the Dunchurch and Castle Bromwich exchange areas of the CSW region.

This upgrade could benefit around 9000 homes and businesses across the two exchange areas and is in addition to the work that Openreach has already announced as part of their extensive Fibre First expansion programme across the Warwickshire & Solihull area.

As we have reported previously, over the last couple of years Openreach have stated their intention to upgrade ‘the majority of residential and business properties’ served by 29 exchanges in Warwickshire and another five in Solihull to full fibre.

The Warwickshire exchanges include: Alcester, Atherstone, Bidford on Avon, Coleshill, Curdworth, Exhall, Fillongley, Harbury, Henley in Arden, Hurley, Kineton, Lapworth, Moreton Morrell, Newton Regis, Nuneaton, Pebworth, Rugby, Shipston on Stour, Snitterfield, Southam, Stratford upon Avon, Welford on Avon, Wellesbourne and Wolston.

The exchanges Openreach intend to upgrade in Solihull include: Berkswell, Hampton in Arden, Meriden, Shirley & Solihull. This latest announcement brings it to a total of 31 exchange areas across our region.

While their ‘Where and when we’re building Ultrafast Full Fibre Broadband’ webpage gives some indication of timescales for these builds, Openreach will publish more comprehensive information about this on their website as the detailed surveys and planning are completed and the build progresses.

Finding out your data usage can help you get the right broadband package for your household

When you are looking for the best broadband package to suit your household’s needs, one of the most difficult things to get to grips with is exactly how much data does your household use each month.

For example, playing online games and streaming music uses a lot less data than you might think. On the other hand, those of you binge-watching high definition box sets on Netflix can soon find your data allowance used up in no time if you don’t have an unlimited broadband package.

Fasterbroadband’s broadband usage calculator can help you find out how much data your household is using by giving you an idea of your data usage needs in an average month.

To get your broadband usage estimation, you simply need to answer the twelve questions on their broadband usage calculator web page. These questions will gather information regarding your household’s usage habits, for example: internet browsing, emails sent and received, online gaming and the streaming of music and TV.

The data that is entered into the calculator is anonymous and isn’t stored anywhere. It is used solely for the purpose of the calculation.

While the broadband usage calculator should only be used as a guide, it will give you an indication of your usage, which could be invaluable in helping you to choose a broadband package to suit your household’s needs.

Case studies needed – Tell us your story!

If having faster broadband – whether superfast (over 30 Mbps) or ultrafast (over 100Mbps) – has made a real difference to your life or business, why not tell us about it by submitting a case study.

We would also like to hear from you if your property has not yet benefited from an upgrade. Again, all we need are a few lines telling us of the difficulties experienced and how this is impacting on your household – for example during lockdown.

Copy for your own website or newsletter

As always, we have a range of short articles of around 300 words that can be downloaded for use in your own newsletters / websites should you wish to use them.

Your questions answered

Here are some of the Questions and Answers (Q&A’s) that residents have raised recently. Our website has a full set of Frequently Asked Questions, which are regularly updated.

Can CSW Broadband influence how much suppliers charge for their services?

We have no influence over the prices charged by commercial providers. Our role is to extend the wholesale fibre network as far as possible, and we are doing this through the contracts that we hold with Openreach.

As access to the network is available to all suppliers on an equal basis it is a purely commercial decision on the part of an ISP as to which packages they offer and at which price range.

What is the process for ordering and installing an FTTP service?

Whichever ISP you chose to provide your service, the installation process will be similar to that shown in this short installing full fibre to your property film from Openreach.

The fibre will then be run through your wall to the inside of your property, where the engineer will install a small powered wall-mounted unit that they will then plug your router into.

You can find more frequently asked broadband questions on our website.

Posted in Project News, Newsletter Archive | Comments closed

Newsletter – December 2021

By cswstaff | Published: 14th December 2021

Nearly 76,000 properties able to connect to the fibre network

Topics in this edition:

CSW Project updates – Contract 3
CSW Project updates – LFFN programme nears completion
FREE mobile Wi-Fi routers for those with super-slow broadband speeds
Thousands of homes & businesses in Rugby to benefit from Openreach’s Fibre First programme
Ofcom’s End-of-Contract notifications deliver broadband savings for customers
Tools to help you calculate your business broadband needs
Copy for your own website or newsletter
Your questions answered

CSW Project updates – Contract 3

Another 14 Contract 3 structures have gone live since our last newsletter was published in mid-September. The communities benefiting from these most recent upgrades include parts of:

Brinklow, Burton Dassett, Corley, Earlswood, Hampton Lucy, Honington, Marton, Meriden, Monks Kirby, Offchurch, Piccadilly, Tanworth in Arden, Tidmington & Weethley.

As a result of this, nearly 76,000 properties across the region are now able to connect to the fibre network thanks to the work of the CSW Broadband Project.

As always, once we have received confirmation that a particular upgrade has been completed, we will try and inform as many of the affected residents as possible.

Remember, once your property has been upgraded, you won’t get a faster service automatically. You need to order the improved service with your chosen ISP in order to benefit from the upgrade.

You might like to use a broadband comparison site such as MoneySavingExpert.com, Broadband Choices, BroadbandProviders, Compare the Market or uSwitch to find a fibre broadband package to suit you and your family’s needs.

If your property has benefited from an FTTP upgrade, our Ordering an FTTP service webpage provides you with all the information you need, including a recently updated list of ISPs offering FTTP services in our area.

CSW Project updates – LFFN programme nears completion

Our work on the LFFN Programme is nearing completion with 207 of the 220 sites now completed. As mentioned previously, through the LFFN programme, we have used the sum of nearly £3.9 million that we were awarded to bring full fibre gigabit connectivity to 220 public sector buildings across Warwickshire.

Another 8 sites will be completed before December 31^st, with the final five due for completion by February 2022 at the latest.

Of the 220 sites benefitting from this scheme, 159 are schools – including 138 primary schools, 12 secondary school, 5 nursery schools and 4 community special schools.

The other 61 sites that have been upgraded include a total of 19 libraries, 12 fire stations, 5 hospitals, 5 social services buildings, 4 county council or district council offices, 3 community centres, 2 registry offices, 2 museums and a justice centre amongst others.

Nearly 1000 residential and business properties in close proximity to these sites will also be able to take advantage of having a full fibre connection as a result of our LFFN work and it is hoped that suppliers will use this as a springboard to bring the benefits of full fibre to an even wider community in these areas now that the new network is in place.

FREE mobile Wi-Fi routers for those with super-slow broadband speeds

If super-slow broadband speeds are having a negative impact on your household or business, we may be able to help you through our Mobile Broadband Connectivity Project.

We’ve recently been testing a number of mobile Wi-Fi broadband devices in areas that are yet to benefit from a fibre broadband upgrade and the uplift in speeds has been very impressive in some of these areas.

CSW has now bought a limited number of these devices and we are now looking for residents and businesses in Warwickshire to help. Under the terms of the project, we would provide you with the equipment free of charge for a period of at least six months.

Those who are experiencing the slowest speeds are the ones who are most likely to benefit from this project, so if you are getting speeds of 5Mbps or less then please get in touch. (You can check what speeds your business can currently achieve using the the BT Broadband Availability Checker. Our How to use the BT Broadband Availability Checker webpage will help you make sense of the Broadband Checker results).

Simply email gavintristram@warwickshire.gov.uk with your name, address, postcode and landline number as well as a very brief description of how slow broadband speeds are having a negative impact on your household or business.

Once we have received this information, we will need to check the mobile coverage with the different mobile network operators in your area to see whether we will be able to provide you with a solution.

Applications will be assessed for suitability on a first come, first serve basis.

Thousands of homes & businesses in Rugby to benefit from Openreach’s Fibre First programme

In a press release on the 17^th November, Openreach announced plans to build a new ultrafast, ultra-reliable ‘full fibre’ broadband network in Rugby, which will see thousands of people living and working in the town benefit from this major broadband upgrade through their Fibre First programme.

This latest announcement is in addition to the news that we reported in September, whereby the majority of homes and businesses served by the Alcester, Atherstone, Curdworth, Fillongley, Harbury, Hurley, Kineton, Moreton Morrell, Newton Regis, Nuneaton, Pebworth, Shipston on Stour, Snitterfield, Southam, Welford on Avon, Wellesbourne and Wolston exchanges will also benefit from an upgrade to full fibre.

Openreach had already announced their intention to upgrade the majority of properties served by the Bidford on Avon, Coleshill, Exhall, Henley in Arden, Lapworth and Stratford upon Avon exchanges in Warwickshire as well as the Berkswell, Hampton in Arden, Meriden, Shirley & Solihull exchanges in Solihull, bringing it to a total of 29 exchange areas across our region.

While their Full Fibre Build Programme document gives some indication of timescales for these builds, Openreach will publish more comprehensive information about this on their website as the detailed surveys and planning are completed and the build progresses.

Ofcom’s End-of-Contract notifications deliver broadband savings for customers

Research from the UK telecoms regulator Ofcom has found that 1.3 million broadband ISP customers have secured better deals as a result of their new End-of-Contract Notification (ECN) system.

ECN was introduced in February 2020 for all fixed broadband, mobile, home phone and pay TV providers. It was designed to help tackle the so-called ‘loyalty penalty’ by keeping customers informed about the best deals and encouraging switching or moving to a better broadband package at the end of their contract, when staying with their existing ISP would often see prices rise, often significantly.

Enough time has now passed that Ofcom can finally assess the impact of these changes and the results appear to be broadly positive.

For example, Ofcom stated, “There is evidence that indicates that these time prompts from providers are working. In our research, two thirds of customers who were sent an end-of-contract notice recalled receiving one. Of those, 90% found it helpful and a fifth reported that they were prompted into action they would not have otherwise taken.”

Further information on this research study can be found in the ISP Review’s Ofcom’s End-of-Contract Notifications Deliver Broadband Savings article. More information on End-of-Contract Notifications can be found on Ofcom’s website.

Tools to help you calculate your business broadband needs

While most speed test tools are designed with residential broadband users in mind, it can be a much more complicated affair for business broadband users when trying to work out what bandwidth speed requirements they need to run their day-to-day operations successfully.

A number of factors need to be considered, for example when setting up a VoIP phone system. These include dealing with issues such as ‘jitter’, which can have an impact on both video and call quality.

If you are trying to run a business from a rural area or on an FTTC or ADSL connection, upload speeds can be radically slower than download speeds, which can again have a serious impact on how your business can operate effectively.

Amvia’s business broadband speed checker and VoIP calculator have been designed with these factors in mind.

For example, the VoIP calculator can help businesses to discover how much bandwidth they need to allocate to effectively run their VoIP system, whether it is for one or over 100 users.

So for any businesses – whether large or small – who are struggling to get to grips with such requirements, the VoIP calculator used in conjunction with the business speed test, can help give you the valuable information you need to help guide your network and IT based decisions to adequately meet your business needs.

Copy for your own website or newsletter

As always, we have a range of short articles of around 300 words that can be downloaded for use in your own newsletters / websites should you wish to use them.

Your questions answered

Here are some of the Questions and Answers (Q&A’s) that residents have raised recently. Our website has a full set of Frequently Asked Questions, which are regularly updated.

How do I switch to a different broadband provider?

You may wish to transfer broadband for a variety of reasons, such as:

Poor quality of service
You need additional features that your current internet service provider (ISP) does not offer
You think the deal you are subscribed to is not providing good value for money
You are moving house/business premises

First of all, check if the contract period you signed for with your existing supplier has expired. Contracts are generally for either 12, 18 or 24 months. Most contracts require you to give your ISP a month’s notice.

If it hasn’t expired, you may be liable for a cancellation fee or even the balance of the fee until the contract runs out. It’s your choice if you decide you want to buy yourself out of a contract that hasn’t yet expired.

It is also important that you check that the new service you wish to sign up to is available in your area. BroadbandUK’s BroadbandProviders.co.uk website is particularly useful for this as it allows consumers to search for broadband providers and packages by their exact address rather than just by postcode area.

There are a number of comparison sites available and we’ve listed a few more of these below that you may want to take a look at before making a decision:

Finally, if you are thinking about switching your broadband provider, the Which? and Moneysaving Expert websites offer some invaluable (and impartial) advice and information which you may find useful.

Are there any alternative broadband solutions available?

If there is no fibre deployment specifically planned for your area, either through the CSW Broadband Project or through commercial providers, there are a number of alternative options that you could look into.

For example, your community may want to consider a Fibre Community Partnership solution. Before embarking on such a scheme you may wish to bear in mind that these can take time to organise and may require local activists to lead the project.

Of course, any community solution will need to be paid for and a good place to start is the Government’s Gigabit Voucher Scheme. Under the scheme, those eligible for the funding can use vouchers worth £1,500 per home and up to £3,500 for each small to medium-sized business (SME) to support the cost of installing these fast and reliable connections with gigabit-capable speeds.

The individual vouchers can be pooled together to pay towards the overall cost of the build for that community, which helps to ensure the best value for all concerned.

Another option worth looking into is mobile broadband. This technology relies on a good mobile broadband connection so it is important to check the mobile coverage in your area before committing.

You can do this by using the mobile coverage checkers available on the individual mobile network operators (MNO) websites or by using the Ofcom mobile and broadband checker where you can check to check the coverage of all four MNOs in one place.

Although mobile coverage has historically been a bit hit and miss in some rural areas, network coverage is improving and increasing thanks to schemes like the Shared Rural Network, which may make this a more viable option.

There are now a number of mobile Wi-Fi router devices on the market which, combined with an external antenna, can really improve your mobile broadband connections / speeds (depending on the coverage in your area) which may also be worth researching.

Finally, you may wish to consider a satellite-based solution such as Spacex’s Starlink or OneWeb, the BT and the government-backed satellite maker which aims to provide rural broadband to people cut off from the UK’s fibre networks.

Both of these work through a system of hundreds of fridge-sized satellites orbiting around the earth to provide consistent broadband coverage to subscribers.

Although these systems may not come cheap, some of those who have suffered with sluggish internet for years believe that it is a price worth paying and there is evidence to suggest that the cost for the hardware is starting to come down.

You can find more frequently asked broadband questions on our website.

Posted in Project News, Newsletter Archive | Comments closed

Newsletter – September 2021

By cswstaff | Published: 17th September 2021

Nearly 76,000 properties able to connect to the fibre network

Topics in this edition:

CSW Project updates – Contract 3
Thousands of Warwickshire residents to benefit from Phase 2 of Project Gigabit
Openreach announces Fibre First programme extension across Warwickshire & Solihull
Mobile Connectivity Project – could we help your business?
UK Govt to trial running fibre broadband lines via water mains
More and more ISPs providing FTTP services in the CSW region
Copy for your own website or newsletter
Your questions answered

CSW Project updates – Contract 3

Another 25 Contract 3 structures have gone live since our last newsletter was published at the beginning of June. The communities benefiting from these most recent upgrades include parts of:

Allesley, Avon Dassett, Berkswell, Bubbenhall, Fillongley, Hill Wootton, Kenilworth, Meriden, Middleton, Priors Marston, Snitterfield, Southam, Stretton on Dunsmore, Winderton, Wolverton & Wootton Wawen.

As a result of this, nearly 76,000 properties across the region are now able to connect to the fibre network thanks to the work of the CSW Broadband Project.

As always, once we have received confirmation that a particular upgrade has been completed, we will try and inform as many of the affected residents as possible. With this in mind, we have recently conducted a mail-out campaign to over 6,500 residents and businesses to let them know that their properties have now been upgraded as a result of the work we have already completed in Contract 3.

Remember, once your property has been upgraded, you won’t get a faster service automatically. You need to order the improved service with your chosen ISP in order to benefit from the upgrade.

You might like to use a broadband comparison site such as MoneySavingExpert.com, Broadband Choices, BroadbandProviders or uSwitch to find a fibre broadband package to suit you and your family’s needs.

If your property has benefited from an FTTP upgrade, our Ordering an FTTP service webpage provides you with all the information you need.

Thousands of Warwickshire residents to benefit from Phase 2 of Project Gigabit

We are pleased to announce that Warwickshire has been included in Phase 2 of Project Gigabit, the government’s £5bn programme which aims to target – typically rural and hard to reach properties – that would have been left behind in broadband companies’ own commercial roll-out plans.

The joint bid with Leicestershire (known as Lot 11) will see an estimated 118,400 properties upgraded across the Warwickshire and Leicestershire region and is in addition to the roll-out work that commercial providers are also undertaking in the area (e.g. Openreach’s Fibre First programme).

Through the project, properties will be upgraded to speeds of up to 1,000 megabits or one gigabit per second – enough to download a HD movie in less than 30 seconds and lay the foundations for tomorrow’s tech such as 8K-quality video streaming.

It also means families will no longer have to battle over bandwidth and will give people in rural areas the freedom to live and work more flexibly as well as providing the speed and reliability needed to start and run businesses in such areas.

It should be noted that while Project Gigabit will prioritise areas with sub-30Mbps speeds, this will not be to the exclusion of all else.

Bidders for the Lot 11 contract will be required to ensure that their networks are available for use by other ISPs via wholesale (open access). We are hoping that a number of operators, both big and small will bid for the work in our area.

The procurement process for this contract (which will be worth in excess of £114 million) is due to begin in November 2022 with the delivery contract starting in October 2023. We currently estimate that this work will be completed by the end of 2025, though we will be able to provide more detail on this once the contract has been awarded.

As usual, these won’t be automatic upgrades for consumers, so once the new network is built then you’ll still need to order it from their preferred ISP to benefit from it.

The government (DCMS) have been conducting various public reviews and OMRs, which is the process that they often use when trying to identify existing commercial coverage of gigabit-capable broadband networks and any planned coverage over the next 3 years.

By doing that, they can more easily target their support towards areas where commercial projects are not expected to reach (i.e. the intervention area).

With regards to the Solihull Metropolitan Borough area, it would appear – at this moment in time – that much of this area will be covered by commercial providers own deployment programmes but we should get further clarity on this in the coming months.

Openreach announces Fibre First programme extension across Warwickshire & Solihull

Over the summer, Openreach outlined plans to build ultrafast, ultra-reliable Full Fibre broadband to at least three million more homes and businesses across the UK, including to over 67,000 across the Solihull and Warwickshire area, as part of an extension to their Fibre First commercial deployment programme.

Openreach had already announced upgrades to properties served by the Bidford on Avon, Coleshill, Henley in Arden, Lapworth and Stratford upon Avon exchanges in Warwickshire back in January 2020.

These latest announcements will now see the majority of homes and businesses served by the Alcester, Atherstone, Curdworth, Fillongley, Harbury, Hurley, Kineton, Moreton Morrell, Newton Regis, Nuneaton, Pebworth, Shipston on Stour, Snitterfield, Southam, Welford on Avon, Wellesbourne and Wolston exchanges within the county also benefit from an upgrade to full fibre.

Similarly, Openreach have also outlined plans to upgrade thousands of homes and businesses served by the Berkswell, Hampton in Arden, Meriden, Shirley & Solihull exchanges within the Solihull Metropolitan Borough area.

Mobile Connectivity Project – could we help your business?

If poor broadband speeds are impacting on your business then we may be able to help.

Over recent months, we have been testing a number of mobile Wi-Fi broadband devices in areas where the broadband is poor and the uplift in speeds in some cases has been particularly impressive.

Through our Mobile Connectivity Project, we have been able to secure some funding to purchase a number of these devices and we are now looking for SME’s (Small to Medium-sized Enterprises) to take part in our ongoing ‘proof of concept’ trial of these technologies.

In particular, we are looking for SME’s getting speeds of 5Mbps or less. (You can check what speeds your business can currently achieve using the the BT Broadband Availability Checker. Our How to use the BT Broadband Availability Checker webpage will help you make sense of the Broadband Checker results).

If your business meets the above criteria and you would like to be considered for this project, please email johnparmiter@warwickshire.gov.uk and gavintristram@warwickshire.gov.uk.

We will need the address, postcode and landline number associated with the business, along with a very brief description as to the nature of your business and how the lack of broadband provision is affecting the operation of that business.

Once we have this information, we will then need to check the mobile coverage in your area etc. which will help to determine whether we can potentially help you or not.

Applicants will be assessed for suitability on a first come, first serve basis.

UK Govt to trial running fibre broadband lines via water mains

In August a number of websites including the Guardian and ISP Review reported that the UK Government had launched a £4m ‘Fibre in Water’ project trial, which will experiment with connecting homes, businesses and mobile masts to gigabit capable broadband in ‘hard to reach’ remote and rural areas by running Fibre to the Premise (FTTP) cables through the water mains.

The trial is partly related to the review of existing Access to Infrastructure (ATI) Regulations 2016, which sought to find ways in which existing utilities networks could be harnessed via infrastructure sharing in order to improve the spread of ‘full fibre’ connectivity.

Infrastructure works – in particular the installation of new ducts and poles, can make up as much as 80% of the costs to industry of building new gigabit-capable broadband networks.

The project is designed to help cut those costs with the National Infrastructure Commission previously estimating that infrastructure re-use could lead to an £8bn cost saving for broadband builders.

Matt Warman, the Digital Infrastructure Minister stated: “The cost of digging up roads and land is the biggest obstacle telecoms companies face when connecting hard-to-reach areas to better broadband, but beneath our feet there is a vast network of pipes reaching virtually every building in the country.”

Broadband cables have already been deployed in water pipes in other countries including Spain.

The ‘Fibre in Water’ trial will run for three years and the final year of the project will explore scaling proven solutions right across the country. The plan is to select a consortium made up of telecoms companies, utility providers and engineering firms to lead and deliver the project. As part of this, a region or multiple regions of the country will be selected to host the trial.

More and more ISPs providing FTTP services in the CSW region

When the CSW Broadband Project first started deploying Fibre to the Premise (FTTP) solutions around five years ago, it is fair to say that the number of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) offering full fibre packages to residents and businesses was extremely limited.

However, now that FTTP has become the preferred method of deployment across the country more and more ISPs have started offering FTTP services – providing you the consumer, with more choice and more competitively priced packages and deals, as they fight for your custom.

We have therefore updated our Ordering an FTTP service webpage with links to all the ISPs who have stated that they offer either residential and/or business packages in the CSW region through the Openreach wholesale network that we are installing on this project.

Of course you might prefer to use a comparison site such as MoneySavingExpert.com, Broadband Choices, BroadbandProviders or uSwitch to find a fibre broadband package to suit you and your family’s needs.

Either way, whichever ISP you chose to order a service through, the installation process for the final connection to your property will follow a similar procedure, details of which are also provided on this webpage.

Copy for your own website or newsletter

As always, we have a range of short articles of around 300 words that can be downloaded for use in your own newsletters / websites should you wish to use them.

Your questions answered

Here are some of the Questions and Answers (Q&A’s) that residents have raised recently. Our website has a full set of Frequently Asked Questions, which are regularly updated.

What is Fibre on Demand?

We have recently had a number of enquiries where the BT Broadband Availability Checker suggests that a product called Fibre on Demand (FoD or FTTPoD) is available, offering speeds of up to 1000Mbps.

This is NOT the same as native Fibre to the Premise (FTTP), which is being installed to many areas through the CSW Broadband Project.

It is easy to get native Fibre-to-the-Premise (FTTP) services confused with FTTPoD because the two solutions function in identical ways, although their cost, contract and deployment methods have tended to be significantly different.

In a native FTTP setup, which is what CSW is installing, the fibre optic cable will have been installed outside your property (e.g. down your street), which makes it fairly quick and inexpensive to get connected.

By comparison FTTPoD is designed to be requested (‘on demand‘) in Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) capable areas where the fibre optic cables have yet to reach specific properties. In some cases, this will attract significant distance-based construction charges (civil works) worth thousands of pounds.

Because of the high costs involved (and often the requirement for a much longer than standard contract), very few providers actually offer FTTPoD. Some that we are aware of include Cerberus Networks and FluidOne. It’s worth doing your homework as there may be others.

This is likely to remain a niche product for those who are prepared to pay the additional installation charges and a higher ongoing monthly cost.

Can CSW Broadband influence how much suppliers charge for their services?

As access to the network is available to all suppliers on an equal basis it is a purely commercial decision on the part of an ISP as to which packages they offer and at which price range.

The best thing is to shop around for a deal that is right for you. There are a number of comparison websites to help you find the best broadband package for your household’s needs including: MoneySuperMarket.com, Broadband Choices, Broadband Finder, Broadband Providers, Choose & u-Switch.

Please remember that some price comparison sites work by receiving a commission from the ISPs and may not list all of the available options. Therefore, you may want to try several such sites before making a decision.

The MoneySavingExpert and Which? websites can provide useful and impartial advice on this.

You can find more frequently asked broadband questions on our website.

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