Unit 7, Weston Yard, Albury, Surrey, GU5 9AF
01483 347437

B4SH news: We have live service!

December 2018 update

The biggest news is our service is now live! We have connected customers around Home Farm and Silent Pool and residents and businesses are now using the B4SH hyperfast broadband service. What a good Christmas present for our newly connected customers! One customer spoke passionately about how pleased he was, how he has moved everything over to B4SH and cancelled all his other services, land lines etc. His teenage daughters have been stress testing the network to see just how fast it really is. All three daughters were simultaneously downloading films to watch off line, in a matter of seconds!

We celebrated the event with a glass of Albury Vineyard’s delicious sparkling wine on Monday evening and were joined by volunteers, area champions and our pioneer investors. There was awe at the demonstration of what hyperfast broadband can do for your television viewing. We showed BBC’s Planet Earth II on a 4K TV streaming from BBC iPlayer in Ultra High Definition (UHD) and High Dynamic Range (HDR). It took people’s breath away.

Many thanks again to Nick Wenman of Albury Vineyard for kindly hosting our event and it was good to see our broadband connection in action.

As Nick said, “It’s working at brain speed!”

team_b4sh_launch party

team_b4sh

To get our service up and running a mention must again go to Broadband for the Rural North (B4RN) who made a second visit to make final connections in the cabinet to the Zayo cable and in London and then test everything. It is really great to have their support.

One of our connected businesses, Careprint at Home Farm, have been delighted to have a symmetric service which has really improved the way they can do business. We must also thank them for all their printing contributions – maps, cards, banners.

Not wishing to rest on our laurels, our next steps early in the new year are to decide where to go next. We have ongoing discussions with a number of areas, but it will absolutely depend on investment, as without this we cannot buy the duct, fibre, chambers etc. No amount of volunteer labour can help in this regard.

We will, of course, need teams of able bodies to get out walking and digging sections of the route. Take a quick look at B4RN’s website or Facebook pages and you will see that the volunteers are not all in the flush of youth, so don’t be shy about stepping forward to volunteer! We will also need to know how many potential subscribers are likely to take the service. Some areas with near a cabinet may be less inclined to change as they have service they can “put up with”, as someone described it.

For those interested in getting service to their area can we suggest the following:

  • Speak to your neighbours and get an idea of potential take up
  • Contact us, and we can meet with you to discuss how we can support you with a view to arranging a meeting local to you, where we can present our service
  • We will present at this meeting to all local interested residents and businesses
  • We can also put you in touch with others who have contacted us, as we now have a database of addresses that spreads all over the Surrey Hills from High Clandon to Run Common, Gomshall to Ewhurst. (Note, your permission will always be sought before any information is shared).

As mentioned before, we are considering various areas for our next phases:

  • Southern Albury (southern side of The Street) as far as Weston Yard (further if investment)
  • Albury Heath ‘island’ of Brook Lane/Little London, Park and Heath Lanes
  • Blackheath – south eastern
  • Littleford and Green Lanes
  • Farley Green

If you live in these areas and are happy for me to put you in touch with a local champion, please let us know. Champions working together will be much more effective at gathering support.

We also have a new volunteer to thank, who is taking the lead on our marketing. He is Taybridge Consulting’s, Alastair Dodwell. We now have a smart new logo and Alastair has launched our fantastic new website. Do take a look and share it with you friends and neighbours. For those who do not use social media, we are keeping the Blog up to date with latest news. Facebook and Twitter continues to be fed and thank you for all your supportive comments.

For those who missed it, we were very proud to be awarded ‘Young Business of the Year’ at Guildford Innovation Awards. Angus Denny, Walter Willcox and Tim Metson accepted the award at The Guildhall.

Keep us informed of any road closures local to you – we always try to work with civils contractors to install our duct at the same time – saving inconvenience as well as expense.

We would like to offer a toast to you all for a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. To your very good health, from the whole B4SH team

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