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Good news at last!
Our team has recently had it confirmed by Openreach that the Abbotts Ann Exchange FTTP upgrade project is now fully funded. Everyone who is on the Abbotts Ann Exchange will now get upgraded to FTTP – with the £850,000 project cost being funded by the government Digital Culture Media & Sport (DCMS).
If you are still waiting for your voucher from the DCMS – don’t worry. You now won’t get one. The DCMS did not want to over fund our project – so voucher validation emails were sent out in batches, so that Openreach didn’t get overpaid for the project.
No doubt you will have seen the work taking place throughout the village – most recently a 2 mile stretch of fibre being laid all the way up Dunkirt Lane. This is all part of the infrastructure upgrade.
According to the project lead at Openreach, the estimated completion date of all the infrastructure work is 23rd March 2023. This includes the physical work we are seeing now around the village, but also the full testing back to the exchange of the updated fibre infrastructure.
Next Steps
Once the installation works have been completed, householders then will need to upgrade their current broadband to full fibre / FTTP – as per the terms and conditions of the voucher scheme. We will provide a detailed guide and FAQ early in the New Year to help local householders choose the best ISP for their needs – as well as offering advice about keeping your old landline number, when moving across to full fibre broadband to your property.
All of this is fairly stress free and simple – and we want to make it as easy as possible for everyone. So keep an eye out for that information in the New Year.
We would like to add our appreciation and thanks to everyone who has helped us along the way – the volunteers who leafleted and answered questions at the early stages of this campaign.
Because of this collective effort, we can now look forward to a village digital infrastructure worthy of the 21st Century.
Finally, a huge thank you to you too – for your patience and support throughout this long process. It’s definitely had its ups and downs, at some points it felt like it would never happen. However, with a small and dedicated team, surrounded by a group of dedicated volunteers it feels all the sweeter to have finally achieved what we had set out to do more than two years ago.
Jeremy Mason, Keith Saunders, Dawn Rose, Louise Mason
Abbotts Ann FTTP Fibre Upgrade Project Team
