Superfast Broadband - May Update

Bringing faster broadband to our rural areas

Project Update May 2012

Please forward this LINK to your village contacts –
we need to spread the word!

In this month’s update:

Reminder

CSW Broadband now on social media – come and join the conversation

Maps showing Champions and registrations now live on the website

Champions’ packs ready for collection

Business invited to register as potential suppliers

Events in your area – come along to find out more

Do you run a community website, prepare a printed newsletter or send out an e-newsletter?

Questions & Answers

Don’t forget to visit our website: www.cswsuperfastbroadband.org.uk

Reminder

Don’t forget to complete the surveys on our website – this is how we will show demand for the service and attract a better outcome from our procurement to enable us to get superfast broadband cross the widest possible area www.cswsuperfastbroadband.org.uk 

All Authorities across the country will be going to procurement at the same time. Bidders will go where there is highest demand, and therefore the highest return on their investment. Some areas have over 16,000 responses (having started this process before we did). We currently have over 4800 responses, so there is a long way to go if we are to attract a good tender response, and only a short time to do it in!

CSW Broadband now on social media – come and join the conversation

We are now on the major social media channels and are already creating a buzz. Join in for up-to-date information and an opportunity to influence how the project develops

Facebook Page -  https://www.facebook.com/CSWSuperfastBroadband

Twitter - https://twitter.com/#!/cswsuperfast

Linkedin -  http://www.linkedin.com/groups/CSW-Superfast-Broadband-4403473

Maps showing Champions and registrations now live on the website

We now have maps on our website showing where our Champions are located and where registrations have been made.  http://www.cswbroadband.org.uk/map-of-survey-responses/

You can zoom in to specific areas and gain a whole range of information. You can even go right down to street level, although it should be noted that because the data is mapped to the centre of a postcode it will not be possible to identify which specific households have completed the surveys, only the numbers of surveys completed. Because of data protection we are not able to identify Champions or survey respondents individually, but if you wish to reach your local Champion please contact your parish council for details.

If there is no Champion for your area, or if you would like to help with your local campaign please register as a Champion through the site and we will be in touch. http://www.cswbroadband.org.uk/downloads-and-resources/for-community-champions/

Champions’ packs ready for collection

For those areas where we have Champions registered we have now prepared Champions packs. These include:

·         Posters

·         Flyers

·         Postcards

·         Business cards

·         Guidance on running a local campaign and other resources that are available

Business invited to register as potential suppliers

Once we go out to tender the potential contractors will be encouraged to use local suppliers and sub-contractors wherever possible. We are creating a register of local companies that could sub-contract into the project, which includes everything from ground works and civil engineering through surveying to wireless provision and many more fields. To be in with a chance of benefitting from this opportunity please register your business: http://www.cswbroadband.org.uk/suppliers/supplier-registration. Your details will then be published on our project website and made available to companies on the BDUK Framework through our data room.

Please note that inclusion in this register does not in any way imply that these businesses have been “approved” by Warwickshire County Council, and does not guarantee that these businesses will receive work through the project.

Events in your area – come along to find out more

We will be holding events in each of the Boroughs/Districts throughout the project. The first events to help you find out more about the superfast broadband project have been run in Rugby, North Warwickshire and Stratford and the final one of this series is detailed below. More are planned in the autumn

Tuesday 22nd May 2012

Committee Room 2, Shire Hall, Warwick

From 7pm to 8:30pm

Do you run a community website, prepare a printed newsletter or send out an e-newsletter?

We are preparing monthly bulletins for use in electronic or printed form so that you can simply cut and paste them into your own publications. If you would like to receive these updates please email broadband@warwickshire.gov.uk stating UPDATES in the message subject

Questions & Answers

How do I find my Local Broadband Champion?

Because of data protection we are not able to publish individuals’ contact details on our website. All Champions are being asked to inform the local parish council what they are doing, so the parish Clerk should have this information, although it may take a week or two for the Champions to contact the Clerks.

I don’t have a Champion in my area, how do I become one?

Simply register through our website at http://www.cswbroadband.org.uk/downloads-and-resources/for-community-champions/

What do Champions do?

Champions will work with the parish council and with other residents to drive up the registered demand in their area. We are providing printed and on-line materials and also supporting in many other ways. However, we are a very small team so we do rely on Local Broadband Champions and on communities themselves to help bring improved broadband to each area.

So is my area going to get broadband without me doing anything?

Clearly the telecoms companies do have business development plans, but these are subject to commercial confidence and they will only be required to divulge these to us one we get into the actual procurement period (to ensure that we don’t fund work that they were planning to do anyway). If we are able to show high levels of demand in areas that these companies were not planning to invest in, they can be influenced to bring forward their plans or to develop into new areas so as to gain a competitive advantage. Therefore it is in everybody’s interest to register through our surveys, even if you think you ought to be getting broadband without this project.

I want my business to provide goods or services to the project but my sector is not on the list on your website

That’s not a problem. Simply complete the form in the usual manner and then enter the heading under which your service should appear in the box underneath the categories. Please try to keep this fairly generic so that we don’t end up with 1001 categories with only one business under each. If you make it too specialised the chances of a supplier using the list are also reduced. http://www.cswbroadband.org.uk/suppliers/supplier-registration/

What are the realistic chances of my area seeing any improvement in broadband speeds?

That is reliant on 3 factors:

1.       We can demonstrate demand in your area. For this we need as many completed surveys from your area as possible - 100% response from an area with 100 properties is better than 10% from an area with 1000 properties

2.       How effective our procurement is – the whole country will be going out to tender at pretty much the same time, so we need to prove a good business case and that means showing potential suppliers that there is a demand for the service and that we have reliable information about the current provision

3.       The design of the network – this will depend on the levels of demand and which technologies are used. We are stating that the solution should be capable of upgrade to the 2020 EU targets of 100% coverage at 30Mbps and 50% subscriptions at 100 Mbps or more. Until we know how the network will be designed to achieve these ambitions we cannot say exactly what speeds any given area will achieve under the current project. It should also be noted that because of the size of the national roll-out new technology is emerging all the time, and so limitations that existed just a few months ago may no longer be an issue.