Our fibre network is live. And growing!
Since our last update, residential and business customers around Home Farm and Silent Pool have been enjoying our hyperfast broadband. Other potential customers have been able to see this service in action at meetings we have held at Albury Vineyard (many thanks to them for being our “marketing suite”.)
At the Vineyard we have been able to demonstrate what hyperfast broadband can do for your television viewing. We have shown BBC’s Planet Earth II on a 4K TV streaming in Ultra High Definition (UHD) and High Dynamic Range (HDR) which requires a newer TV with the capability. This is quite apart from the improvement you will experience in home working – anyone using Office 365 will appreciate being able to work with live content, keep your changes synchronized, with applications continuing to run at high speed and with a responsive user interface. Another welcome side effect is that every B4SH connection provides enough capacity that all family members can use the service at the same time, without annoying any home workers.
Since going live before Christmas, there has been much activity both in installation and route planning for the next phases. We have now installed duct up to The Bothy in Albury Park with provision for service to all properties being made along its route (see photos of duct installation around the Apostolic Church). Our installation team have also taken the duct behind the houses on Sherborne and The Street in Albury as far as Weston Yard. We avoid tarmac if at all possible, so our route may not be visible – hopefully our banner is better seen (thank you to Careprint for their printing skills).
Broadband for the Rural North (B4RN) will be making a further visit to us to blow 3km of fibre cables to The Bothy and into Albury so that we can connect further clusters of customers. Anyone wishing to take service, please do get in touch. If our service is already coming to your area but you have a contract that is running with another supplier, it is worth noting that you can usually get short contract extensions, which avoids you having to sign up for another long period. You can also escape from a contract whenever price increases are imposed.
Our route currently terminates at Weston Yard but will have the capacity to extend, should there be demand and investment from the rest of Albury.
We are particularly keen to hear from residents to the south of The Street.
We have been spreading the word about B4SH:
- made various presentations to groups of residents who want to know more about B4SH
- spoken at various parish meetings; met new champions to support them in promoting us locally
- presented at an ‘Inspiring Rural Business’ sumit
- responded personally to enquiries from all over the Surrey Hills (and beyond!)
- talking to local District Councils to outline our plans
- winners of ‘Young Business of the Year’ at the Guildford Innovation Awards
- will be at Innovate Guildford at GLive on 23 March
We are having ongoing discussions regarding investment from several areas, so we can buy the duct, fibre, chambers etc. No amount of volunteer labour can help in this regard without materials. We are currently engaged with the following areas:
- Littleford and Green Lanes
- Shamley Green
- Blackheath – south eastern
- Albury Heath ‘island’ of Brook Lane/Little London, Park and Heath Lanes
- Farley Green and Farley Heath
- Burrows Cross
- East Chilworth /West Albury
- Winterfold
- Smithwood Common and Willinghurst
If you live in these areas, please get in contact as we may have a champion who we can put you in touch with. If you are not on this list, but would like to bring service to your area, can we suggest you:
- Speak to your neighbours and get an idea of potential take up
- Contact us. We can meet with you to discuss how we can support you in arranging a meeting local to you, where we can explain our service and the costs involved.
- We can also put you in touch with others who have contacted us and you can perhaps work together. We now have a database of addresses that spreads all over the Surrey Hills. (Note, we always seek your permission before any information is shared).
We are always looking for new team members. There are opportunities for those who don’t mind a bit of mud; it’s not all about heavy lifting and digging, for example as you’ll see in the pictures there is much duct to be reeled out! We would also love some help in the office. If you’d like to help us with finding out about and plotting land ownership (we need free wayleaves), that would be helpful, as would any banking admin skills. All we need is a can do attitude!
If you fancy joining us, get in touch or stop by and have a chat.
Do keep spreading the word. There’s nothing more disappointing to hear than, “We didn’t know we could get your service and signed a contract a few weeks ago”.
