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Tuesday, 29 September 2015 20:10

Fibre4Barnet seeks support

Written by
Ken Rowland, Fibre4Barnet campaigner, beside BT cabinets excluded from the latest promised upgrade Ken Rowland, Fibre4Barnet campaigner, beside BT cabinets excluded from the latest promised upgrade
Fibre4Barnet, the pressure group set up by Ken Rowland to try to force British Telecom to complete the rollout of high-speed broadband to the whole of High Barnet, says a possible wait of up to two years for further improvements is “totally unacceptable”.

BT announced in September that it does plan to upgrade five of the nine cabinets that were left out of the initial upgrade programme.

But Fibre4Barnet believes this latest undertaking from BT is a belated and inadequate response towards providing a superfast broadband service for several thousand properties in and around the town centre and in surrounding streets.

In order to break the current stalemate Fibre4Barnet is urging local businesses to pool their efforts and apply for broadband connection vouchers in the hope of securing fast broadband from County Broadband, a wireless internet service provider.

Mr Rowland says that if ten companies could co-operate and help secure a connection from County Broadband, this would be far quicker than waiting for BT.

Fibre4Barnet is also steeping up its campaign to encourage local businesses and residents to continue lobbying BT. Their objective is to force BT to include three telephone cabinets that are still not covered by the latest proposed upgrade.

This omission means that houses and businesses in a dozen streets close to the town centre still have no future prospect of a high-speed connection, including properties in High Street, Great North Road, Bath Place, Belgravia Close, Bruce Road, Chipping Close, Christchurch Lane, Hadley Grove, Leicester Road, Lucan Road, Stapylton Road, and Union Street.

Mr Rowland said another of Fibre4Barnet’s immediate concerns is that there is no guarantee that a superfast connection will be available from the five cabinets identified for an upgrade. Each will depend on a survey by BT, and in the past cabinets have been removed from the upgrade programme.

Fibre4Barnet sets out the steps which householders and businesses can take to put pressure on BT and explore the possibility of securing a connection from other providers:

  1. Lobbying BT – a two-year wait is totally unacceptable.
  2. Talk to County Broadband – Fibre4Barnet consider County Broadband is a viable alternative to BT. www.countybroadband.co.uk/home/work/
  3. Encourage local companies to sign up for the government’s connection voucher scheme which is the most cost effective way for small businesses to access fibre broadband quickly and cheaply. www.connectionvouchers.co.uk

The community can help by:

  1. Asking any small business to contact Fibre4Barnet on 07900695650 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to discuss pooling connection vouchers.
  2. Asking our friends and family to register on the Mayor of London, BT and Openreach websites. Cabinets have been known to move in and out of plan so it’s vital we increase the registrations to show an ever-growing demand.

www.london.gov.uk/priorities/business-economy/for-business/connectivity/connectivity-map
www.productsandservices.bt.com/products/speed-checker
www.superfast-openreach.co.uk/expression-gen.aspx 

3. Check out www.countybroadband.co.uk and let Fibre4Barnet know what you think.

Notes:
County Broadband is a wireless internet service provider (WISP). This means rather than using traditional telephone cables to deliver a broadband network they use aerials instead. A core network of aerials transmits the broadband signal to each community, and then on to each house or business.

Small businesses can receive up to £3,000 each to cover cost of installation. Once the connection is established then all business and all residential premises can subscribe at whatever tariff suits them based on their individual needs.

Thank you for your continued support.
Ken Rowland F4B “Working for a better Barnet”

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