- What is the point of all of this?
- I don’t need faster broadband.
- Can’t we wait for someone else to do it, the Government have promised a full fibre rollout by 2025, haven’t they?
1. What is the point of all of this?
Nationally the UK telephone system is being replaced.
Exchange by exchange it is changing from Copper Wires to Fibre Optic Cable.
All our telephone and internet services use the copper wires, either completely or in part. The moment we plug our router or telephone into the wall-socket, it connects to the copper network; emergency pendants, alarm systems, telephone calls, Alexa, Siri etc whether hardwired or Wi Fi all are currently delivered via copper wires.
This change is happening right now across the country, the Salisbury Exchange was the first exchange to be completely turned in October (2023), affecting 21,808 premises.
This is not about the internet or how fast our broadband is, and it really doesn’t matter whether we use the internet a lot, not very much, or not at all. The infrastructure changes that are happening nationally are decommissioning our current copper system and everyone will need to connect to the new fibre optic cable.
2. I don’t need faster broadband.
This change is happening for everyone; from those with no internet through to households which rely on the internet for their livelihood.
We, along with the rest of the UK are moving to full fibre which delivers gigabit capable connection all the way into your home or business.
Openreach have targeted 2026 to complete the decommissioning of the copper wires that deliver our telephone service. Whether we use the internet a lot or not very much we will all need to connect to the fibre optic cable; it is a case of when and not if you connect. And whilst the change essentially is not internet / broadband speed driven, it is a bonus that because of the change we will get a faster, more reliable broadband service.
3. Waiting for the government to upgrade us.
Rural areas by their very geography are at the back of an extremely long queue, and various government committees have expressed the worry that they could be left behind for an extremely long period.
Hullavington and Norton have been through 2 National Procurements (Rollouts) in the last 4 years –
The first ended in 2020 resulted in no bid being received for us.
The second procurement finished mid-February 2023 – again no bid.
We sucessfully ducked out of a third one.
Our community Fibre Partnership is now a part of the national fibre rollout,