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Compton Fibre Newsletter No.8
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Important information about what to do and when
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Starting today,
FTTP is now also available to order in
Compton Street
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From 21 January 2021, residents in the SO21 2AT, 2AU, 2FF and the 3 westernmost addresses in SO21 2AS postcodes who use the Openreach availability checker have been seeing this message:
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Great news. Ultrafast Full Fibre is available at your address
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What to do
If you haven't already ordered, please get your order in soon, so Openreach can redeem the vouchers which will pay for our share of the costs.
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When?
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Basically, as soon as you can. By the end of January, preferably.
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Some BT Fibre offers expire today.
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The Terms and Conditions of the Vouchers say that the new service must be installed within twelve months of the voucher date. Residents are being given installation dates in March, which is getting close to the deadline. I'm told that DCMS is being flexible over dates because of Covid-19, but we should do our best to try to meet the date.
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Once Openreach have formally told me that the installation is complete, we have a 10 working day deadline to place orders. I expect that notification within the next few days.
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Problems?
If you have any problems with ordering, please let me know.
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Which FTTP service providers can I choose?
When we started this project, apart from BT, there was a limited choice of ultrafast fibre suppliers. Several household names are now on the list of Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) providers, but not many are supporting addresses in Compton..
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As of today only BT and EE are taking orders for FTTP in Compton.
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So you will have to go with one of those unless you can persuade another provider to take an order for installation within the deadline.
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About ordering from BT
- If you are already a BT customer and login to their site to request an upgrade to FTTP, they show only a few options. I had to ring them to get the Full Fibre 100 offer.
- They told me the installation would be in two stages. First, an engineer runs the fibre from the nearest pole (connection point) to your house. You don't need to be there and he doesn't enter the house. Second, an engineer comes and installs the equipment inside your house.
- You can cancel your landline but it may not affect the cost.
- BT are offering a service called Digital Voice which routes calls over the internet. This was news to me. I'll try to include more information in a future newsletter.
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When you place an order
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I need to keep track because the funding for this project depends on people taking up the service to redeem the DCMS vouchers.
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Questions and Answers
- I've applied for a small business voucher - do I have to have a business contract for my fibre broadband?
A: No. Small businesses can use residential contracts.
- Can I/do I have to keep my old landline?
Unlike previous generations of broadband, with full fibre you don't have to have a landline contract. The fibre installation uses a cable that has a copper strand in it as well as the fibre. So you can connect your old phone and should be able to retain your old phone number if you want to and if your chosen supplier supports it. Check with your supplier.
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What happens next?
If I haven't heard from you, I'll try to contact everyone individually to see if you have any queries.
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We may also do a leaflet drop to all properties in the area covered by this rollout.
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As we get more information about deadlines and the installation process, I'll send further newsletters.
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About this newsletter: We set up this newsletter so that we can send you occasional updates about the project. You can always keep an eye on the project website at cfp.comptonshawford.uk.
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If you have any questions, please reply to this email.
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Adrian Walmsley
Community Lead
Compton Community Fibre Partnership Ltd
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