About 2 years ago a local Test Valley resident got a little fed up with the hopeless broadband provision in the Test Valley.
She set up a group to try to get superfast broadband to 12 villages in the Test and Dun Valleys, working with Virgin Media to bring fibre to the home (FTTH – i.e. minimum speeds of 100mbps).
Do look at the following links to find out more: www.tvneed4speed.co.uk and also the FB page www.facebook.com/tvneed4speed.
In short (all explained in more detail on the website) they have until July 31st to get 1,000 households and businesses across the Virtual Town (the 12 villages) signed up with Virgin Media showing that they would be interested in the service. The villages involved are:
West Tytherley
Broughton
Houghton
Stockbridge
Goodworth Clatford
Wherwell
Chilbolton
Michelmarsh
Timsbury
Kings Somborne
Firsdown
Winterslow
They got 1,400 households and businesses registered before Christmas with Virgin, but now need people to sign up AGAIN now that Virgin have finalised the build plans and outlined the costs involved.
It is only one registration per household and you need to go to www.virginmedia.com/cablemystreet. If your boardband is too dreadful to do it online then you can complete the attached form and email it back to wtbbg@tvneed4speed.co.uk and the group will sign-up for you.
10 things you may not know about the Virgin Media offer and high speed internet…..
1) There is no legal commitment to signing up. You can later decide to not take the service.
2) You only pay for installation once the network is built and you are able to receive the service.
3) Installing fibre to the home can cost thousands. BDUK, the government body responsible for broadband rollout in the UK, use the figure of £10k for connecting fibre to a single rural home – VM are charging £300.
4) Because the network is fibre it is capable of carrying data rates over 100x faster than the 200Mbs service currently being offered. This is futureproofing.
5) High speed internet adds to the value of your home. Homebuyers are willing to pay, on average, £23k more for a property with high speed internet.
6) Not having high speed internet affects the saleability of your home.
7) You don’t HAVE to have a trench dug in your front garden. The fibre from the kerb to your home can be laid on the surface in a ruggedised duct.
8) Data usage increases by 50% every 18 months. This means that to maintain what you do now on the internet in three years’ time will require more than double the speed you have now. Think back to dial-up – would you be willing to go back to those speeds?
9) VM will not be able to hike the prices as soon as the network is installed. They are heavily regulated by Ofcom and the only tariff they are allowed to charge is their national tariff.
10) If we don’t meet the sign-up target by the end of July this opportunity, which may be the only option available to people within your own community, will disappear.
