Two rural broadband projects in Oxfordshire are now closer to achieving their goals.
Thanks to the BDUK (Broadband Delivery for the UK) project in Oxfordshire being signed between BT and the local council, it emerges that rural providers will now be able to get on with bringing fibre broadband to those who most need it.
Two projects, Cotswolds Broadband and Northmoor Broadband are now working together with the local council to ensure that superfast broadband rollout to everyone can happen simultaneously.
A report in Think Broadband reveals that roughly 5,480 locations that had fallen outside of the superfast catchment area in Better Broadband for Oxfordshire will get either FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet), full FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) or fixed wireless broadband. The first 5,000 of these will be served by Cotswolds Broadband with the remaining locations to be connected by the Northmoor project.
Cotswolds Broadband’s CEO Hugo Pickering says in a blog post:
“Following the announcement of the County Council contract with BT, Oxfordshire’s broadband team met with us and one other local project to agree how we will work together and ensure that superfast broadband will be available to all residents and businesses in their communities.”
This project will mainly bring broadband to superfast not spots in west Oxfordshire. Northmoor Broadband is focussed on bringing fibre broadband to Bablockhythe, Northmoor and Moreton and is considering using Gigaclear’s Eaton and Appleton fibre link to get the job done.
Money for both projects is coming from Defra’s RCBF (Rural Community Broadband Fund) which has been used to fund projects in Durham, Rothbury and Uppingham.
Cotswolds Broadband has set up a pilot project which it’s aiming to get up and running by the end of the year. Northmoor Broadband hasn’t posted any details on when it expects to start digging.
Following renewed pressure from DCMS (Department of Culture, Media and Sport) local governments have been threatened with being denied quick access to extra cash for broadband if they withhold information about where hard to reach rural folk are based.
BDUK rollout means that roughly 90 per cent of homes and businesses will benefit from a superfast speed boost. It’s not been made clear where those in the 10 per cent are based, meaning that smaller local ISPs have been unable to jump in to fill the gaps.
Image: Jim.Court/Flickr
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