My Road is showing as commissioned but I have not received an email?

Firstly, check your email junk folders.

Secondly, there can be a delay between commissioning and the DCMS being notified (It is the DCMS who issue the vouchers)

Thirdly, not every property was issued a voucher (see below question/answer) so you should try to subscribe to several ISP's in any case and you may be successful.

In any case, don't panic, if you pledged at the start you will get a connection in due course.

Why have I not received a Voucher from DCMS after submitting a Pledge?

So, it turns out that we generated a huge number of pledges back in November, nearly double the number in fact required to make our project financially viable.

As a result, Openreach have only submitted a sufficient number of our pledges to the DCMS to cover the build cost. This of course is sensible and explains why not all of us have received a voucher. Should some of those who have received vouchers fail to confirm them additional ones will be released as required.

There is of course also the possibility that the voucher did not arrive in your inbox for some reason so to be certain check the list of outstanding premises on the home page and act accordingly.

If I had Pledged but never received a voucher will I still be able to receive FTTP ?

Yes, assuming that you were eligible then the service will be available to you. Sufficient vouchers are available to cover the entire village project.

I didn't sign up but want to be included?

Those who did not sign-up at the outset may still be able to connect to the service if the necessary infrastructure has been commissioned in their road. The best way to verify this is to try and order the service on-line once your neighbours are successfully connecting.

What speeds can I expect?

The network will support speeds up to 1Gbps but your actual speed will depend upon the package that you choose from your chosen ISP. This will be from at least 30 Mbps right up to a blistering 1000 Mbps.

How much will the installation cost me?

The whole installation of the network to the village will be FREE OF CHARGE. You will of course have to pay for your ISP connection as you do now and we expect this will be a bit more expensive than your current package - see next question for more.

How much more expensive will the new contracts be ?

We cannot say for sure because it will depend upon your chosen ISP, the speed you choose, the term of the contract, what packages you bundle and of course how good you are at haggling.

It will obviously cost more to double your connection speed and secure a reliable connection, but the increase shouldn't be excessive and will be negligible compared to the effect upon the value of your home and convenience of supply.

How do I determine my current Broadband speed ?

There is a link provided on the Registration form. It is important to use this one as its the official one the contractor will also use to verify your grant award.

The maximum grant of £7,000 is available to those speeds UNDER 30 Mbps.

How long will it take to get connected?

As soon as residents complete the Pledge sign-up We work will commence and carried out over the following 12 months, so we expect by the end of 2021.

Can I apply for my home & my business?

Yes, if they have separate phone lines and are different entities and have separate mail addresses. You should make a separate registration for each where possible as this will help our project.

Can I stay with my current provider?

It depends who it is. Virgin will certainly not be available but SKY have just been included to the list joining BT and Talk Talk plus others . It appears most of the village are already with these available anyway.

What commitments will I have to make?

Before the project goes ahead there will be a signing up process and you will have to commit to at least doubling your current line speed and to a minimum of at least 30 Mbps. Contracts will be for a minimum of 12 months.

What if I do nothing?

You simply carry on as you are, nothing changes however you need to give some serious thought to the effect that this may have upon the value of your home. There is a lot of evidence to suggest that homes with slow Broadband connections can be seriously devalued. If you want to read more on this check out this article.

How is the scheme funded ?

The Government (DCMS) is providing vouchers (up to £1,500 residential and £3,500 business) for rural post codes with a speed less than 100 Mbps. From this September KCC will provide 'Top up' funding to a maximum of £7,000 for BOTH rural residential & Businesses for with connections of less than 30 Mbps and properties at least 3 years old.

Openreach then claim these voucher credits directly on our behalf.

Who are the contractors?

We have chosen to proceed with Openreach Community Fibre Partnership.

What about contracts expiring beforehand?

First off, the timescale to complete the project is up to 12 months although it is likely that some phases will come on line as they are installed. We anticipate Autumn/Winter 2021 for the new service to be available.

Some of your contracts will mature before then of course, so you need to be aware of early termination fees and perhaps select the most lenient provider. You could also look for 1-month rolling contracts. Another option would be to change beforehand to one of the FTTP providers such as BT or Talk Talk in the hope that they will offer a free upgrade to the faster products.

Please let us know of your experiences in this regard so that we can share with others

Why is my property not showing as being eligible?

When Openreach surveyed the village they found that some properties were just too difficult to connect to the new fibre network.

There are also some properties which are under 3 years in age and these do not qualify for the grant scheme.

These properties have therefore been excluded from the Openreach proposal and therefore vouchers are not available to support them.

We consider that this is unfair and have agreed with Openreach that if we generate significantly more vouchers than that required for our scheme that they will engineer in these homes at the Build phase.

If you are one of these properties effected we recommend that you register on our list on the main page.