Air Broadband now have 25 confirmed subscribers, with only 5 more to go to reach the target of 30 required for the scheme to launch in West Wickham.
Air Broadband Progress: 25 subscribers
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Hi, my partner and I have just moved to the west Wickham and were interested to hear about Air Broadband as our service is so slow. I see you still need subscribers – do you have any more info please?
Hi Rachael
The scheme is for Air Broadband to procure a fibre link from the Horseheath Cabinet, which has Superfast broadband, to a property in the East of Horseheath. From there the broadband is transmitted over high-speed Wifi from Horseheath to Hill Farm from where it is relayed directly to subscribed properties with a line of sight of Hill Farm. Properties without line of sight will receive their Air Broadband signal from subscribed neighbouring properties and availability of Air Broadband is now expected towards the middle/end of March once the number of subscriptions has reached the required minimum subscribers (and allowing for installation etc).
The scheme requires installation fees and equipment totaling around £200, has a minimum period of 12 months subscription and provides 3 tiers:
If you are interested in joining the scheme, you can sign up at http://www.airbroadband.co.uk/sign-up-for-superfast-broadband-now/ or drop me an email with your address – I still have a couple of forms spare from the Dec 2015 village meeting.
This scheme came about after the last change and delay in November 2015 to provision of better broadband to the village announced by BT-OpenReach. The latest estimated date by BT-OpenReach for this is now December 2016. However, most of the village is fed up with BT-OpenReach and Connecting Cambridgeshire having suffered several delays in having access to better broadband (through the governments funding) due to various “reasons” given by both BT-OpenReach and Connecting Cambridgeshire. For example, since June 2015 their position has changed 3 times, and a quite a few dates have been missed over the years (2012, 2014, 2015) with Connecting Cambridgeshire having had a few missed opportunities to address the problems raised (choosing to listen to BT-OpenReach rather than Village residents). Needless to say the majority of the village have lost trust in BT-OpenReach and Connecting Cambridge to the level they are no longer prepared to wait and run the latest timescale lottery – though this time the MP Lucy Fraser is also providing the latest Connecting Cambridgeshire and BT-OpenReach date.
A point to note though is Connecting Cambridgeshire and Lucy Fraser are only telling village residents what BT-OpenReach are currently telling them. For example, in Lucy Frasers previous meeting in Oct 2015 where the Dec 2016 date was announced, at least two other items announced at that same meeting have subsequently been withdrawn: (1) the Common Road FTTC upgrade (again – which would have brought temporary respite to a number of residents) (2) Fibre to premises still unable to receive broadband through the final upgrade (who are now being told that satellite is likely their only government partial-funded option). Understandably, these erode confidence and faith that the new Dec 2016 will be met.
Hope this helps