Ever So Close

The road is closed, trenching has begun, and cable is being pulled.  No one has committed to a completion date but one of the workers did say that things were going "exceedingly well".  Sounds good to me!

Road Closure Sign is Up!

We are closing in on a completion.  A sign indicating that the road will be closed for installation of the new conduit is a clear indication of that progress.

Both Call Flow and Openreach have pledged to have our service up and running quickly once the new conduit is built.

I hate to make predictions but June is starting to look possible?

Inching Forwards

We now have a schedule for the closure of Brandenham Lane on the RWBM website for the last two weeks of May.  The same dates are on Openreach's works calendar according to Call Flow.

Hopefully everything will be routine from here on out and come mid-June we will have high speed service.

Sign Post for Progress?

Call Flow has added us to their database!  This means that you can enter your postcode and get an estimate for your speed and see how much that speed will cost you.   You can also place your order and get in line behind me.

https://www.callflow.co.uk/coverage-and-speed/

We have not heard anything, yet anyway, to indicate that June is not going to be feasible as our go-live.  It is all up to the road closure proceeding smoothly and Openreach doing their thing expeditiously!

Below is what went out to the residents of the Island:

Call Flow are hopeful of providing Superfast Fibre Broadband to Temple late next month, if Highways stick to allowing Bradenham Lane closure

​ so that our Fibre Cable can be brought down from the A404​

. They have now published their tariff and estimate speeds of up to 80Mbps, 

​though​

 our village expert calculates

​ more likely​

 

​up to 50​

Mbps.  

If you are interested to subscribe to Superfast Fibre Broadband then please read on. If you are not interested and are satisfied with the Standard Broadband you currently use then there is nothing you need do, nothing will change. 

Call Flow are making a special offer of free installation and a free modem for their top unlimited package. It will be at the same price as their middle "capped" package for which there is a

​ £60​

 installation charge. Who wouldn't, I'll be signing up for

​ the Special Offer​

, along with Anytime Phone Calls. 

Please note that the prices include Line Rental but phone calls are charged by the minute other than free calls to 0800 and 0808 numbers. A Phone Package can be bought, either Evenings & Weekends or Anytime. 

It is an Eighteen-Month Contract with early termination fees. 

Please see precise details by clicking on this Link. If you pre-order, your payment will not be processed until Call Flow contact you on your live date. 

https://www.callflow.co.uk/cov erage-and-speed/ 

Put in your postcode and select your address from the dropdown. 

Maybe by the Start of the Summer

Highways RBWM is unwilling to move the closure of Bradenham Lane forward any more than to the middle of May.  It seems that we are somewhat ring fenced by other work being done on the 404 and the policy of not having the signage for two projects competing with each other.  The project that is most in our way is a four week effort being done by Highways England and ending the middle of May.   Andy Hudson, the Director from Openreach that is helping us to get connected, has had someone on his staff meet with Highways England in hopes that if their project is done more quickly than four weeks, that we might then get a jump start on ours.  Andy is hopeful that this will be the case.

The bottom line is that we will not get the fibre to our new cabinets until May.  This is why we were hoping that Openreach could have come to terms with Randall Farms.  It is too late now for a second path to help us but if we had been able to gain access to our neighbouring farm land we would likely be saving some months of waiting.  I guess having waited for years a couple of months is not that long but I am still disappointed that any additional delay is being added on top of the months and months that we have already seen tacked on the end of our original promise date.

If there is any good news it is that we have been assured that Call Flow will be ready to connect the fibre and offer us service in the minimal possible time.  We have not gotten any indication from them, however, as to what they expect that length of time to be.  I think that we can be assured that it will have been a year from when we had originally hoped to have been connected to when we are FINALLY brought out of the dark ages of Internet connectivity.  I lived on a boat in near Washington D.C. fifteen years ago and had better connectivity that I do now living in the shadow of one of the world's greatest cities.  It is really a little appalling.  Hopefully not for much longer.

The Latest - Another Delay ... Go Figure

As our luck may have it, mostly bad that is, the conduit between the top of the lane at the 404 and our cabinets down here in the village is not passable and 200 meters of new conduit will need to be installed.  This will require a closure of the Brandenham Lane and that has been requested by the contractor that will do the work for Openreach.  The standard for such requests would be that our closure would be granted for some time three months from now.

This would, obviously, be painful as the original promise date for our improved service was a year ago this coming June!  This is the worst case though.  The contractor has requested an expedited closure.  If that fails then Andy Hudson will make the request through a more senior channel.  His hope is that we could still get the closure we need in the next couple of weeks.

This is where having a second route being worked in parallel may have helped us in regards to timings.

Stay tuned.

Couple More Tickboxes Checked Off

Openreach has completed a run of Fibre down the 404 and across traffic to near our exit from the 404 North.  This is the good news.  The bad news is that the task of running the fibre through our existing duct works requires a specialist contractor and to the best of our knowledge this has not yet been scheduled (our Openreach contact is on holiday).

As of today another contractor, working on behalf of Call Flow, is connecting power to the new cabinet that will house our high speed connection hardware.   We have asked Call Flow for an update on how long it will take to offer us service once the fibre is connected but our contact there is on holiday.

Finally, given all the holidays above, I reached out to Superfast Berkshire to see if they had any news. Guess what?  On holiday!  I kid you not.  Is there a special telecoms conference going on somewhere this week?

Hopefully the duct works overlay part of the project will be scheduled soon and will not encounter any issues.

This is where it would be nice if we could have to paths being pursued at one time.