Superfast Broadband – the latest

The Parish Council-led team, on behalf of Connecting Cheshire, would like to say a big thank you to all the residents in the Audlem exchange area who registered their interest in receiving Superfast Broadband (SFBB) to the area.

The team, which comprises Parish Councillors Phil Johnson, Heather Jones, Dave Higham and Geoff Seddon and volunteers John Tilling and Geoff Smethurst, heard last week that the vast majority of the exchange area is in the 96% roll-out of SFBB throughout Cheshire. Although Connecting Cheshire and BT have drawn up a 15-month programme starting in January, they are hopeful that the work will be completed by September 2014.

The areas not covered in the roll-out are:

• Sandy Lane and Bath Lane
• Bagley Lane, Woodhouse Lane, Kettle Lane, Wood Orchard Lane and Paddock Lane
• Woore Road (from Paddock Lane eastwards)
• Longhill Lane (from Woore Road to Monks Lane) and Bunsley Bank
• Buerton

All of these areas, together with Burleydam and three other areas in Cheshire, are the subject of a Rural Community Broadband Fund bid which was submitted to Defra by Connecting Cheshire in October. If successful it is likely that SFBB would be installed to these areas at the end of the programme.

To see the Connecting Cheshire map showing the areas covered, click here or to see an Openreach video click here.

Lead-in process

Prior to any work starting Connecting Cheshire will be holding an event in the Public Hall telling us when work is likely to start. Once it does the process will be:

• Lay new fibre cables from an exchange that is already up and running. This could be Crewe, Nantwich or Whitchurch;
• Install new green cabinets close to the existing ones;
• Install fibre cable from the Audlem exchange to the new green cabinets and link those to the existing ones.

Most of the fibre cable will be routed through existing ducts, but in the 'more remote areas' there may be some new infrastructure, ie, digging up roads.

When the new cabinets appear this doesn't mean that the system is ready to go straight away: there is about a two-month lead-in.

Going live

There will be a further event in the Public Hall giving more information when SFBB goes live.

The likely download speed is up to 80 megabits per second, with an upload speed of 4 megabits per second. These speeds will vary depending on the proximity to a cabinet.

ISPs will be writing to users in advance of the 'go live'. Users will be able to choose whether to opt for SFBB, which will incur a 'minimal' extra cost – perhaps £2 to £3 per month – or not.

Business Users

Connecting Cheshire has committed to supporting 900 small businesses (SMEs) throughout the whole area. These can be anything from a 'one-man band up to 250 employees. They will be able to receive 12 hours free support. Unfortunately, there are two exclusions, which are agricultural and retail businesses. For more information, click here.

This article is from our news archive. As a result pictures or videos originally associated with it may have been removed and some of the content may no longer be accurate or relevant.