End of life in the slow lane

The equivalent of a dual carriageway in broadband is about to arrive in West Bergholt, and the improvement in speed should be more noticeable than joining a motorway from a country lane!

Next week sees the installation of the first access point in the village by County Broadband, a company specializing in wireless broadband connections for rural communities. Earlier in the year residents and Village Bulletin readers will recall that the Parish Plan group started

discussions with County Broadband to determine how the village could move away from its not-spot backwater, and enter the mainstream of digital activity. Now after months of behind the scenes activity involving grant applications, discussions with the Parish Council and the equivalent of digital water-divining by County Broadband, the basic plumbing-in activity begins.

Here’s what will happen:

• Starting right now, residents can express interest (see link below) in becoming connected to the County Broadband systems, allowing access speeds of up to 8Mb (remember the days of 56K modems!);
• By end of September an access point will be installed on the highest point in the village; this will receive digital signals from Braintree – you will be lucky if you spot this, as it’s only the size on an A4 piece of paper!;
• In October County Broadband will be able to install receiving equipment in homes and businesses in the village. To begin with this will be confined to a line of sight distance from the first access point to individual properties;
• By the end of the year and depending upon the rate of take-up from residents, more access points will be installed to enable coverage of the whole village.

If you are interested (and we are expecting that many households will be eager to get onboard quickly) you should start by registering your interest at County Broadband’s website.

Click here to register your interest, or call County Broadband on 0845 686 5000.

The company is maintaining a register of interest, and will be forwarding contracts for service provision shortly. Their website also contains all the technical and installation information you’ll no doubt want to find out about, together details of connection and subscription fees.

Whilst the Parish Plan Group and the Parish Council will maintain a dialogue with County Broadband, and oversee the delivery of the service in the village, the basic model for residents and businesses is that of traditional customer and supplier. Accordingly, any queries relating to the service should be made directly with County Broadband. Having said this, news about the introduction of the system will feature on the village website www.westbergholt.net and periodically in the Village Bulletin.

Press down that digital accelerator and hang on to your hats!

Article composed by Chris Stevenson: Chair West Bergholt Parish Plans Group