Following on from my earlier post and the traffic lights at Top Common, the Works Order below dropped into my inbox this morning. This covers the installation of the additional broadband cabinet at Top Common.
Works location: At the junction of STATION ROAD on TOP COMMON
Works description: WYMONDHAM, NORFOLK 40 - DSLAM 353113, 353126 - STREET CABINET & POWER INSTALLATION. Excavate to lay approx 10m BT ducts, Lay concrete plinth, Stand cab.Excavate and lay 20m of duct to Power Pole for Overhead Connection. Reinstate, Check and clear site.
seems to be an odd place to put an additional cabinate, especially as all the other phone lines in the village currently terminate on Guilers Lane. Any idea on the reasoning For this new location?
I believe that OpenReach may have considered a north/south solution to Spooner Row (with the railway line acting as the divide) given the proposed new builds.
Spooner Row is served by multiple telephony cabinets and I understood the original plan was to bring everyone and everything (telephones and broadband) back to a single cabinet. We have seen a huge spike in planning activity over the last 18 months and the problem with fibre-to-the-cabinet, as you will know, is that speeds fall away the further you are from the cabinet. Broadband users within about 300m of a cabinet can expect to achieve about the maximum possible downlink connection speed (currently 80 Mbps). Speeds fall to about 60 Mbps when 500m away from the street cabinet and, at 1 km, about 28 Mbps connection speed can be achieved.
A twin cabinet approach will see broadband users on Top Common achieving 80Mbps and not 20 something.
Works location: (PCP7_R6) DSLAM (NNDMZV) OPPOSITE SIDE OF HAWTHORNS BOTTLE CORNER ON BUNWELL ROAD BESTHORPE ATTLEBOROUGH NR17 2LW
Works description: BUNWELL R6 - R-Structure 486732, 486750 - STREET CABINET and POWER INSTALLATION. Excavate to lay approx 12m BT ducts, Lay concrete plinth, Stand cab. Excavate to expose low voltage cable for Power Connection and lay approx 12m duct. POWER engineer to carry out inspection prior to jointing. POWER jointing team to insert cable and execute jointing works. Reinstate, Check and clear site.
Have you heard anything more about the cabinet to be put in on corner of Top Common and Station Road? I haven't noticed traffic lights where they said they would be and no box was there the last time I went past. Have they been delayed maybe?
Hello Jo, the cabinet on Bunwell Road (just past the turn to Black Carr) is now installed and the electric goes in next week.
The cabinets for Gulier's Lane and Top Common are due very soon. I spoke to Better Broadband for Norfolk last Thursday and although she did not have install dates Karen was still happy her end. I now have access to daily traffic order updates and as soon as I have a works order for the village broadband I will let you all know on the messageboard.
I have just received an email from Better Broadband for Norfolk;
"A road closure is required to provide the power supply to the cabinet. Road closure booked for 18th – 22nd June. The works to install the cabinet and its power supply booked for the same time window. This will be followed by commissioning activities. Openreach still expect cabinet to be completed by end of June.
The second cabinet (Top Common) still on track for the following three months"
So, things will be tight towards the Openreach promise that we will have fast broadband "by June 2018" being achieved. Fingers crossed!
Regretfully, I have just received an email from Better Broadband for Norfolk;
"I am sorry but Cabinet 41 (Guilers Lane) is not going to be live by the end of June . It will be done as quickly as possible within the following quarter.
The power connection for Cabinet 40 (Top Common) is scheduled for 21st June"
So, the Openreach promise that we will have fast broadband "sometime between October 2017 and June 2018" has been broken!
Regretfully, I have just received an email from Better Broadband for Norfolk;
"I am sorry but Cabinet 41 (Guilers Lane) is not going to be live by the end of June . It will be done as quickly as possible within the following quarter.
The power connection for Cabinet 40 (Top Common) is scheduled for 21st June"
So, the Openreach promise that we will have fast broadband "sometime between October 2017 and June 2018" has been broken!
You could probably argue that it has been delayed for technical reasons, as they are clearly working on it. If they hadn’t started or scheduled the work that would be a broken promise.
Now, if the ‘proposed Development’ which is to be discussed at the village hall which offers assistance with parking for the pub is indeed that field, it is possible that the Gilers Lane box would need to be reconsidered because i imagine the existing box location could affect the parking entrance. I hope we don’t have to wait for a planning decision to get the new phone box installed
virgin don’t use openreach because they own their own network. In Norwich it is what was known as Bell Cable Media, then NTL. But it was a group of local ‘cable’ companies which all came under a single brand and was eventually bought by Virgin. But essentially there has always been Cable companies and BT openreach
It appears that my emails and telephone calls of last week to those that mastermind the roll out of broadband in Norfolk have returned a positive reaction this morning.
I have just had a call from my contact at Better Broadband for Norfolk and things are possibly back on. The "rod and rope" inspection of the existing trunking into the village has been rescheduled and this report will dictate the timescale of the remaining works to be conducted. I expect a call about this late next week. The earlier concerns surrounding the running of fibre under the railway line may have been exaggerated. Both the Top Common and the Guilers Lane will be happening "shortly". It is the supply of the fibre into Spooner Row that we will then need before be become a "connected community". Don't you just love the jargon!
