Pig tails, patch trays, and prospective connections:
Progress update
Our excellent volunteer installation team have extended our network into the various buildings in Albury Park, The Bothy and as far as Weston Yard. Tarmac drives have been negotiated, fields mole-ploughed, fences navigated and grass reinstated.
Enthusiastic helpers were on hand to help us blow the fibre from Home Farm through our newly installed duct and the previous weekend we had two very long days splicing and connecting our 288 fibres at the cabinet. This was done with the excellent support of a network engineer from B4RN, (Broadband for the Rural North) who drove down to help us. Huge thanks to Paul Parsons.
The new arrivals at Silent Pool, Mandira’s Kitchen (formerly Surrey Spice) are connected but if anyone else would now like to take service in our live areas, please let us know.
Behind the scenes, there is ongoing planning in how to reach our next destinations. In an ideal world, we would raise funds in areas in a “domino” fashion so that as we install in one area, the next area has raised the funds which will mean we can continue to grow the network, and so on, so that we create rings of network and with it, resilience.
As we pass through areas, all properties are provided for, even if they don’t at that stage wish to take up the service.
We continue to be supported by Careprint who do all our printing and produced the very effective banner at Sherbourne, “Get A Gig On”. We are also now wearing new fluorescent tabards with our B4SH logo!
Can You Help?
More volunteers have joined our installation team and others have offered help with communications, planning and IT. Much remains to be done and we need your assistance in order to keep progressing at pace. We never turn down offers of help and are currently seeking:
- Fibre splicer/s – a course is available and even if you have no experience, all that’s needed is patience, dexterity and good eyesight!
- Anyone with a digger or tractor and a few hours to spare who would like to be part of our installation team
- Network engineer, perhaps retired, to work behind the scenes in helping to plan our network and routes
- Someone with an understanding or interest in the technical side of our network to keep records of our fibres, routes and connections.
- Road crossings negotiator – we would like someone to be the liaison between us and Surrey County Council
- Invoicing and simple book keeping help
Being involved in any form is a great way to meet people from the local community and you would be supporting a worthwhile cause. If you know someone who might be interested, please feel free to forward this newsletter to them. If you’re just intrigued about what we’re doing, do drop by. If you contact the office we can tell you where we’re working.
What’s Next?
We continue to spread the word at presentations and meetings and have been out and about with more meetings planned. Do let us know if you would like us to present to your area.
We hold community meetings at Albury Vineyard who continue to be very supportive as our “marketing suite”. It is an ideal opportunity for us to demonstrate what hyperfast broadband can do for television viewing and you can see our actual speed tests. Anyone working from home and using Office 365 will appreciate being able to work with live content, keep changes synchronized, and continue to run applications at high speed with a responsive user interface. Another welcome feature is that every B4SH connection provides enough capacity so that all family members can use the service at the same time, without affecting the speeds for any home workers.
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 – especially residents to the south of The Street.
We are also raising interest in:
- Shamley Green
- Blackheath – south eastern
- Albury Heath ‘island’ of Brook Lane/Little London, Park and Heath Lanes
- Farley Green & Farley Heath
- Burrows Cross
- East Chilworth/West Albury
- Winterfold
- Smithwood Common & Willinghurst
- Pitch Hill and Ewhurst
- Holmbury St Mary
If you live in these areas, please let us know as we may have an area champion who can get in touch with you. 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).
Please feel free to forward this newsletter (Download as a PDF) and do a letterbox drop in your area if you think people might be interested. Our investors can be from anywhere, so please spread the word!