WVBG short listed for Award

Harborough Mail have short listed the Welland Valley Broadband Group for a Pride of Harborough Award.  Finals are held on Thursday 16th April.
See link:  http://www2.harboroughtoday.co.uk/pride2014/

Cancelling BT Broadband contract

Miranda Roberts posted on Welland Valley Broadband Group Face Book page the following comment:
Just had an interesting call from BT wanting me to renew my broadband contract that expires on May 1st. I interrupted their spiel to say I was swapping to ultra high speed with Gigaclear and they told me that I could still stay with BT as my ISP as it was their engineers that were doing the installation. I corrected him and he went a bit quiet. I hope they don't say this to other people who might not have enough information to be able to quibble and then get stuck with BT for another year.

I copied this to Joe Frost at Gigaclear and he wrote back as follows.  Perhaps you could alert residents in your Parishes who have ordered Gigaclear:

The BT call centre people appear to be incapable of understanding that there are other networks out there and so argue with customers non stop that they aren’t moving to Gigaclear, they are staying on the BT network and shouldn’t change to another ISP as the BT service is better… We also had a BT rep tell some customers that our contract wasn’t worth the paper it was written on – considering ours has been reviewed by our lawyers against the BT contract that was a strange statement..

The next row that will come about is when customers start to cancel their service with BT and BT will insist they take a MAC code to move provider – customer says I don’t need a MAC code I am moving to a cable provider (because BT doesn’t know what fibre is) then BT says ok you need to pay a canx fee of £30 – customer then says no as I am not intending to come back to BT ever – BT insists you pay it – argument goes on – then gets stopped dead by the customer saying to BT – ok in that case I want you to issue me with a deadlock letter – call terminates at that point with BT saying ok don’t worry about it!
We are told that the words deadlock letter will stop the argument straight away as it means BT has to get its legal team involved and for £30 it cant be justified.

NB:  It is not necessary to sign a 1 year contract with BT.  The contract can revert to a ONE month notice period.

Gigaclear have acheived the order target set prior to implementation

Great news!
Gigaclear have now achieved their pre-implementation order target and are working on the plan to deliver FTTP broadband to our area.  This makes the project financially viable for Gigaclear.
The contractors have told us unofficially they are booked from the end of March.
Once we have news on dates we will publish them.

Uppingham School go Gigaclear

Gigaclear is now live at Uppingham School, Rutland with 800 pupils connected into the network.
Demand for bandwidth has increase dramatically as video-learning and other Internet learning resources become the norm in classrooms. Since moving to Gigaclear fibre, the ultrafast network has helped Uppingham School meet and surpass this demand, as the school reported its first-ever Terabyte of data – one million Megabytes – downloaded/uploaded in a single day recently.

Welland Valley Northamptonshire Villages to get Gigaclear

Gigaclear have now extended the planned FTTP network to include Welland Valley villages in Northamptonshire including:

• Ashley
• Brampton
• Dingley
• Stoke Albany
• Sutton Bassett
• Weston by Welland

Gigaclear secure £7M additional funding

Gigaclear have secured about £7m in funding from CF Woodford Equity Income Fund — which is part of Neil Woodford’s fund management group — as well as other existing and new private shareholders. The Neil Woodford funds are now the largest investor in Gigaclear owning approx.. 30% of the company.

This new money will be used to build the FTTP network throughout the Welland Valley.

Follow up to LCC / BT presentation!

We have had to write again yesterday to LCC because of information passed to us by a resident in another village: 
Email to Assistant cheif Executive, LCC: 

'Talking today to a resident in another Parish they told me that Gigaclear were withdrawing from Hallaton. I questioned what can have given this impression, to be told that Hallaton residents had received a letter about it. We are still at a loss to understand the reasons for the first letter, but the impression that is spreading is maybe what the author hoped to achieve. It seems that to gain a few shekels of gold from Hallaton, the letter may prove very, very expensive for the County Council if Gigaclear were to withdraw. I would hope that LCC are carrying out a full investigation to establish why such a letter was sent in the first place and the potential financial impact it may cause.'

In discussions with Gigaclear today they tell us that they have their sales team on the ground again from Monday 16/2/15 and plan to complete the orders phase within two weeks.
Finance for our area is in place and to speed up installation additional work teams are being ordered.

Leicestershire County Council / BT presentation in Hallaton

We have sent several emails to LCC pointing out that the letter sent to Hallaton residents did not disclose the financial interest LCC have in the BT product and failed to mention Gigaclear.

At the Hallaton presentation there was considerable discussion regarding the performance that residents would receive from FTTC product.  The answers were vague and no guarantees could be provided to residents.

We have today written to Matthew Kempson the LCC project manager as follows:

In answering a question regarding the broadband speed a resident could expect at a distance from the cabinet, you answered that 95% of residents should get an average of 24Mbps.

The follow up to this from our John Neilson was, what is the lowest number to be expected on the basis that 24 was an average. So what was the lowest number used to calculate the average? You said you would take this away to find out.

I believe I am correct in thinking that the only way to find out what the actual speed would be for a resident, would be to order BT Infinity on a 12 month contract from an ISP and see what it is. What redress does a resident have if the performance falls short of the 24Mbps?
Currently I have an 8Mbps contract but get 0.3Mbps.

Bringhurst: You explained that residents in Bringhurst who are connected to the cabinet in Great Easton would see an uplift in broadband speed. Again it would appear the only way for a resident to find out what speed could be achieved is to order BT Infinity and then be stuck with it for 12 months contract if the speed is poor. So residents can make an informed decision vs Gigaclear option could you please indicate what broadband speed the residents should expect as a minimum.

People can only make an informed decision between the BT or Gigaclear options if they have a guarantee of the speed they would get from a BT solution.
Gigaclear make clear what speed will be delivered.
Perhaps in the letter to Hallaton residents this issue should be addressed, so residents are fully informed on broadband speed to expect rather than order and be disappointed. An average would be less than acceptable as it would be vague indication of what a resident will be getting for their money. 

LCC tell us they will be writing to all Hallaton residents again explaining that they have two options: Gigaclear or BT.

Leicestershire County Council promote BT to Hallaton residents

Residents of Hallaton have received a letter from Leicestershire County Council [LCC] alerting them to a presentation by BT on 11^th February 2015.  What LCC did not disclose in the letter is that they have a financial interest in residents signing up to a BT solution as they get a fee for every BT order above a defined level.

We the Welland Valley Broadband Group have always been clear that our objective is to get fast, reliable and affordable broadband for all residents.

Through pressure from our group, LCC held discussions with Gigaclear and agreed that they would invest in the Leicestershire Parish’s in the Welland Valley.

As we have always explained the villages of Hallaton & Medbourne would have the option of subscribing to the BT ‘Fibre to the Cabinet’ with the existing copper cable used to the property, or Gigaclear ‘Fibre to the Property’ solutions.  All other villages in the Welland Valley will have Gigaclear or nothing.

The BT FTTC solution has been funded by taxpayers via LCC, whereas the Gigaclear FTTP solution is completely funded by the company.

The most important issue for users of broadband are the speed, reliability and affordability:

The speed achieved via FTTC over copper wire is dependent on the distance from the cabinet.  For instance at 500m [on the cable route] from the cabinet the speed has reduced by 62%, at 1.25KM the speed has reduced by 83%.  FTTC data upload speeds used for Skype, Cloud applications etc. are 25% of the data download speed.

The use of the existing copper cable has, as we experience many reliability issues.

FTTP is a fibre cable direct into the property offering up to 1,000Mbps for both data download and upload irrespective of the distance from the system centre. 10,000Mbps options are also available for business users.

The costs of the alternative services are comparable.

Hallaton residents have a choice of supplier: BT or Gigaclear.

The Welland Valley Broadband Group want the best, high quality, long term solution for our community.  Please carefully investigate fully the options available to meet your long term requirements.

LCC have now confirmed to us that they will be writing to all residents again indicating that BT is not the only broadband provider in Hallaton.

Gigaclear on YouTube

If you have any doubts about Gigaclear product performance go to:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=gigaclear

Welland Valley FTTP project extended to cover Northamptonshire Villages

Following the enthusiastic response from the Leicestershire Villages in the Welland Valley, Gigaclear have announced that the fibre roll out is now to be extended into the adjoining villages in North Northamptonshire.
Villages such as Weston by Welland, Sutton Bassett, Ashley and Dingley are now able to order the Gigaclear FTTP system.

70% of the way!

Gigaclear are now working on a number of projects related to the Welland Valley.  The field salesmen have been deployed to other areas therefore for the past couple of weeks.
The good news is that we are at 70% of the orders needed and Gigaclear say they are on target to complete the order requirement in the next few weeks.

Lyddington 'Fibre to the Property' roll out complete

The roll out of fibre cable to all properties is now complete in Lyddington, Rutland.
This is great news for the Welland Valley as our fibre cable will come from Uppingham, through Lyddington and on via Stoke Dry.

Half Way There!

Prior to commitment of over a £1M investment Gigaclear are seeking to obtain commitment from ~40% of our residents.
Currently they have signed up half of the required number of residents in order to start digging in the Fibre Cable.

Gigaclear Field Sale team spotted in Horninghold

The Gigaclear field sale team are now in the area to meet with residents and complete FTTP sales.
One of the team was in Horninghold last Friday.
We understand that they will be here until approx. end of February.

Gigaclear roll out in Lyddington, Rutland

For some years the village of Lyddington has been using a FTTC system installed by Rutland Telecom.  Rutland Telecom were taken over by Gigaclear some years ago and the operation has now been closed down.
Gigaclear are upgrading the village to a full 'Fibre to the Property' system as a part of the Welland Valley Fibre Loop.
Gigaclear are installing two main Fibre loops from Uppingham where the connection is located for the wider broadband network.
The Eastern loop goes to the villages around Peterborough.  The Western loop is going via Lyddington then on through Stoke Dry to Stockerston and the other Leicestershire Welland Valley villages.

Gigaclear experience from a user in Oxfordshire

One of our Welland Valley Champions from Glooston met a couple recently who are Gigaclear users.
They said they were happy to pass on their experience with Gigaclear:

Hi John

My name is Lucy McCormick (Chris McCormick's step mother) you met us at your local pub on Christmas Eve and you asked us to e-mail you with our experience of Gigaclear so here it is!

We have been nothing but delighted with the service we have received from Gigaclear - they have kept us informed with every step right from the moment we signed up for it a few months ago.  The set up was very smooth with regular text messages at each stage.
The phone for customer enquiries was a local number and we received personalised attention every time with no need to be put on hold or wait for hours to be dealt with.

Now that we have Gigaclear in place I have no idea how we managed before without it - the internet is just so fast!  I haven't seen the buffering sign on our smart TV or iMac since we have had it.  We can watch programmes live on iPlayer now, videos on YouTube and with 5 of us in the house - all using the internet one way or another this was always a major problem for us before Gigaclear.  Especially as we live in a village and the internet was slow at the best of times.

The whole experience has been a real pleasure from beginning to end and I can't see any reason why it shouldn't continue to be.

I wish you luck with your quest to improve everyone's life in your village with a fast efficient internet.  You're doing a great job.  Let me know if there's anything else I can do.

Happy New Year. It was very nice meeting you.


Kind regards,

Lucy McCormick