Areas announced that will benefit from extra broadband funding in Berkshire

While the Rural Community Broadband Fund (RCBF) was not a perfect process
and the arguments over mapping could continue for a century, the important news
is that some more homes and businesses are set to benefit from extra money in Berkshire.

Berkshire secured funding of £550,000 from the RCBF in its final funding
round the Superfast Berkshire website is giving some more detail on the areas
to benefit. We have supplemented the list of areas with the information we have
also been able to garner. Once all the money has been spent the result should
be that an extra 3,330 properties have access to much better broadband with the
vast majority enjoying superfast speeds.

• Aldermaston Cabinets 1 from Silchester, cab 3 from
  Woolhampton exchange and cabinets 16 and 17 from the Tadley exchange serving
  Calleva Industrial Estate.
• Brimpton Cabinet 2 from Woolhampton exchange
• East Ilsey Believed to be Cabinet 2 which is on the High
  Street and serves East Isley. Cabinet 1 is in West Ilsey and is possibly going
  to be part of the main project roll-out. Postcodes RG20 8SR, RG20 8SS, RG20,
  8SP and RG20 8SW at around 2.6 miles from the cabinet would not benefit from a
  FTTC solution. Exact technologies will be part of what the BT survey will
  figure out.
• Beenham Cabinet 4 from Woolhampton exchange
• Compton Cabs 2 and 4 on School Road and the High Street in
  Compton.
• Hampstead NorreysCabinets 3 (RG18 9SA) and 5 (RG18 0TE) on
  the Hermitage exchange
• Brightwalton Cabinet 1 on the Chaddleworth exchange
• East Garson Cabinet 1 and the oddly numbered 601 on the
  Great Shefford exchange
• Inkpen Cabinet 1

NOTE All of the above is of course subject to survey and
discovery of issues that may make a cabinet too expensive to deploy, or if FTTP
was chosen for an area (no indications if this is the case for any areas yet)
whether collapsed ducting pushes the price up.

There is some bad news though, Aldworth, Ashampstead and Winterbourne which
were part of the original 12 areas in the plan were found to be too costly to
provision as part of this funding round. It is possible that the Superfast
Extension Plan (SEP in civil service speak) that is providing funding for work
in the 2015 to 2017 with the aim of national coverage at superfast speeds of
95% may help these and other parts of Berkshire that are not part of the main
broadband project for the county.