Internet upgrade - response from OpenReach

On the 24th June, BT Openreach got back to me with a proposal to upgrade the internet here in the village.

If I read the proposal correctly, out of the 29 houses included the application, it only covers 15 of them - 14 are not included. I suspect some of those that were not included are just too far away to be viable but I am surprised that some in the village (it seems those in the southern parts) have not been included. I will find out why that might be and ask them to let us know about all the houses that were missed and what the costs might be to connect them.

It also includes 17 properties that were not in the original proposal. I think this is fairly normal since they are all close by to houses that requested to be included. Most of these are closer to the Church and School. I will try and get in contact with those people and ask them to register their interest using the https://tinyurl.com/bickleigh-internet-upgrade form.

Seven houses filled in the form after I had sent off the application. One of them was lucky enough to get included but the other six did not. I will ask that they get included as well.

At this stage, I have quite a few questions and I suspect that you might too. If you have anything that you would like me to ask or say to OpenReach, please send me an email (michaelmcandrew@thirdsectordesign.org) and I will forward them on to the Rural Engagement Manager.

And if you are up for helping out move this along, just let me know - I could do with a hand!

Here is the email from OpenReach...

Please see attached offer letter containing the initial cost for us to bring fibre to your community. Once you’ve had the opportunity to discuss the estimate with your community, please let the Rural Engagement Manager located at the bottom of the letter know via email or phone call. They can then contact you in order to discuss the project in more detail and provide you with any help you may need.

There may be opportunities to further reduce the cost via self-dig however this will need to be discussed with the Rural Engagement Manager. See the bottom of the letter for contact details. If self-dig is an option, we will need maps and details of the landowners.

Not all projects are eligible for self-dig as it depends on many factors such as land type and area.

Please do not respond to this email as a Rural Engagement Manager will deal with your enquiries.