West Devon Borough Council are supporting a Fibre Community Partnership scheme in and around Bridestowe. The scheme from Openreach intends to provide fibre broadband for residents of areas without a high-speed internet connection. If you join the partnership, you could get the fastest and most reliable broadband currently on offer, with fibre straight to your door. To register your interest in this scheme all you need to do at this stage is to register your interest at www.openreach.com/connectmycommunity.
How does the scheme work?
Each address involved in the scheme 'pledges' a voucher through the Government’s Gigabit Voucher Scheme. When Openreach receive enough pledged funding to cover the cost of building a proposed network, the scheme gets the go-ahead, and the new broadband network is installed.
There is no cost to you to make a pledge.
If you support the scheme with a pledge, when the network is complete, you will need to take out a 12month contract with an Openreach internet service provider that’s available in your area – you can find details here.
You will have fibre capable of 1000Mbps, but to meet the terms of the voucher scheme, the fibre contract you take needs to only provide a connection speed of double your previous speed, or at least 100 Mbps (whichever is lower).
It’s a popular scheme that has helped to connect over 100,000 homes and businesses to high-speed broadband.
What are the benefits of full fibre broadband?
Full fibre is more reliable than traditional copper connections. A full fibre broadband signal isn’t affected by external interference, whereas copper can be impacted by outside electrical signals, such as electric fences and bad weather.
A family of four can all stream ultra-HD or 4K quality video simultaneously, without waiting or buffering.
Research shows that prospective home buyers look at a property’s broadband service when considering a purchase. Having gigabit capable/full fibre broadband installed could add up to £5,000 to a property’s value.