Next generation broadband upgrade under way
In addition to the recently announced speed upgrades to the
Virgin Media network, and perhaps of more interest as many people in Addingham
still cannot connect to the Virgin network. Superfast West Yorkshire http://www.superfastwestyorkshire.co.uk/
have started work installing a Fibre To The Cabinet (FTTC) broadband upgrade in
the village that will allow much higher internet speeds down phone line based
broadband.
Addingham is part of phase 4 of the Superfast West Yorkshire
(SFWY) plan, which is scheduled between January and June 2015. With
a final link for some premises, whose lines connect direct to the exchange, due
by September 2015. (Ironically this was the first cabinet seen to be
installed).
The SFWY project is funded by the government under its BDUK
programme to provide 90-95% of rural premises ‘superfast’ (>24Mbps) internet
speeds. The remit of the plan is to provide these speeds to those who
do not already have access to such speeds. So in Addingham this
means that only premises in postcodes who do not have access to the Virgin
network are due to be upgraded, however due to a quirk of how FTTC is delivered
it is understood more people than that will get a choice.
FTTC involves installing new cabinets in the street next to
the existing BT telephone wiring cabinets to inject a faster broadband signal
onto the phone line closer to the customer premises. Because (according
to SFWY, and I have not been able to prove them right or wrong) all except one
of our cabinets serve premises without Virgin coverage, only the cabinet 9E(?)
(serving Moor Park Drive, Moor Park Close and Moor Park Crescent ) will not be
upgraded.
So 5 out of the eventual 6 cabinets in Addingham will get
FTTC presence (the new cab 5 being in front of the exchange for the phone lines
that go direct) giving all customers connected to those cabinets a choice of
FTTC service from whichever Internet Service Provider they choose. (For
those with the choice of Virgin they can of course stay with Virgin too using
their cable network)
FTTC can deliver speeds of up to 75Mbps downstream.
Although some longer lines may get less than this, speeds should be in the
region of 30+Mbps.
Technically speaking installation of FTTC cabinets in an
area opens up the possibility of supply of a product called Fibre To The
Premises on Demand (FTTPoD), which can reach speeds of over 300Mbps. If
this is enabled then individuals, or more likely companies, can individually
make a request to have FTTPoD supplied. However the ‘construction’ costs
(ie BT digging the ducting into the street from nearest cabinet to your
premises and blowing the fibre down it) will all form part of the installation
costs to the end customer which can be many thousands of pounds. It is
not clear if FTTPoD will be offered in Addingham.
