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Compton Fibre Newsletter No.11
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With thanks to everyone who was willing to take up a government-funded Rural Gigabit voucher,
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this is a final newsletter to tell you that the rollout of Full Fibre in Compton is now complete and paid for.
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On Tuesday 11 May 2021, Openreach told us:
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Re: CFP39505-PF94351 - Twyford XX Compton
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I can confirm that all 19 vouchers have now been redeemed to a value of £44,971.00 which cover the contract value, your community partnership has met its obligations.
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We can now close down the company that we had to set up.
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In December 2019 we registered the Compton Community Fibre Partnership with Openreach.
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This followed years of complaints about poor internet speeds in Compton Village, and being left out of the Hampshire-funded Superfast Broadband project.
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On 31 December 2019, Openreach gave us an initial estimate of just over £56,000.
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On 31 January 2020, when we got the final price, this dropped to just under £45,000.
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During February 2020, using leaflet drops and the Compton Fibre website , we quickly gathered volunteers to order the service as soon as it was available and generated enough funding in DCMS vouchers to cover the costs, with some to spare.
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In March 2020, at a public meeting in the Scout Hall, the community gave approval to setting up a limited company to sign the contract with Openreach.
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The Parish Council voted a grant to cover the fees involved.
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On 23 March 2020, just before the first lockdown was announced, the new company, Compton Community Fibre Partnership Ltd., signed the contract for Full Fibre with Openreach.
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Our company would be liable for any shortfall in the funding, so it was reassuring to have more than enough volunteers for vouchers.
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We had all watched the progress of fibre installation during the rest of 2020.
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On 21 January 2021, we received official notification the the service was available to order.
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As required, everyone ordered promptly, so it was disappointing that it took three months for all the voucher holders' installations to be completed.
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Compton Community Fibre Partnership Ltd. has served its purpose, so we will close it down.
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We'll leave the CFP website up for the time being, to help other communities thinking of setting up a similar project.
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Was your installation delayed?
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If so, you may be entitled to compensation.
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If you were given an installation date and it was missed, and if you haven't already received compensation, it's worth contacting your supplier.
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Are you getting the speeds you expected?
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With the first generation of superfast broadband, FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet), download speeds depend on your distance from the cabinet.
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With Full Fibre, or FTTP (Fibre To The Premises) you should be getting very close to the rated speed of your contract. The engineer should have checked this before signing off the installation.
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Some people found that their own wifi couldn't keep up with their new fast fibre broadband.
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If this affects you, Zen and BT have whole home wifi offerings for a monthly fee.
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You can also buy your own wifi extenders or mesh systems which may be more economical in the long term.
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BT and Openreach have said that they will get rid of the old copper landline service by the end of 2025.
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The transition details are still vague, but BT and Zen are offering Voice-over-Internet (VOIP) services already.
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My thanks to everyone who supported this project, by being willing to take up a voucher (even if in the end you weren't asked to do so), by ordering promptly, by responding to emails from DCMS, and by being patient during the protracted installation process.
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We're delighted with our new broadband service.
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About this newsletter: We set up this newsletter so that we could send you occasional updates about the project.
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As the project is now complete, this is the last newsletter.
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I will still be happy to do my best to answer answer any questions you may have.
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Adrian Walmsley
Community Lead
Compton Community Fibre Partnership
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