With all the excitement that arose due to the Prime Minister appearing at
the official opening of the Gigaclear FTTP network in Northmoor last week it is
perhaps only right that DEFRA should update its coverage figures of the RCBF
scheme released earlier in August 2014.
The headline is that once project
builds that are under way are included to provide 2014/2015 figures some 2,808
homes, 460 business premises and 1 other type of premise will have benefited.
This is probably the sum total of what will be reported by DEFRA, since the 17
local authorities that got some extra money earlier in 2014 will include their
figures in the larger BDUK roll-out where DCMS publish the overall figures.
| 2013/2014 in year | 2014/2015 in year | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Community Project | Domestic premises | Business premises | Other Premises | Domestic premises | Business premises | Other Premises |
| Rothbury (FTTC) | 1,430 | 107 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Fell End (FTTP/H) | 29 | 29 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Northmoor & Bablockhythe (FTTP/H) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 518 | 4 | 1 |
| Tove Valley (5GHz WiFi) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 423 | 173 | 0 |
| Fibre GarDen (FTTP/H) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 408 | 147 | 0 |
| Total all projects | 1,459 | 136 | 0 | 1,349 | 324 | 1 |
The Gigaclear project in Northmoor and
Bablockhythe we believe had £186,000 of funding via the RCBF and this was
matched by Gigaclear to give a cost £718 per property passed, and as around 100
premises were not previously able to get broadband at all this will make a big
difference to people and along with the other symmetric Gigabit coverage from
Gigaclear present in the area this may make central Oxford look like the poor
brother broadband wise.
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In Northmoor, Gigaclear charges a £100 connection fee, but then you still have to physically connect to the fibre in the street. Boxcom charges £95 for the first 17m (15m lawn, 2m paved) of that connection, and more beyond, though you can do it yourself.
That builds up the cost per property connected.
It also transfer’s the aggro and the cost of the last X meters away from the network operator and onto the subscriber.
…just another way that GC can keep the costs to them down and get the figures/finances to work.
Apparently a much higher number than expected are DIY’ing it rather than paying Boxom. It is anyway the same preterminated kit that boxcom install as those who DIY it get to install themselves.