I have registered Goodleigh with the BT Community Fibre Partnerships scheme. I have done this because during a meeting with a director from BT to discuss options for Goodleigh he offered to personally help with the application. I decided the most appropriate action was to 'strike while the iron was hot'.
The following are some key aspects associated with the scheme:
- The scheme enables the installation cost of fibre to be part grant funded by BT
- It is dependent on having a school that does not have super fast broadband
- It can be progressed without the school's active involvement, though hopefully they will see the potential benefit and support the application in the interest of current/future pupils
- The community i.e. all of us collectively, will need to raise the funding shortfall
- The grant funding available from BT is up to £30k or 75%
- My guess is the installation cost will be about £40-£50k
- The most likely solution for Goodleigh is installation of a new fibre-enabled cabinet in the village
- Anyone within 1.5km (line distance from the cabinet) will be able to have super fast broadband
- This distance is likely to increase as new technology is introduced
- Implementation timescales are 8-12 months