1. Superfast Broadband
Enablement of Outstanding Commercially Funded Cabinets incl. Basingstoke PCPs 92, 95, and 102
Meeting with BT Openreach – 12th August 2015

2. Current Situation
Openreach have enabled ~1600 cabinets commercially in Hampshire and the BDUK programme a further 269 and increasing.
Around 20 cabinets in Hants (incl. Southampton & Portsmouth) which were due to be enabled commercially appear to be in limbo, with the fibre rollout appearing to be focussing solely on BDUK work.
These include Basingstoke PCPs 102 (Everest Park), 92 (Marnell Park), 95 (Limes Park), and Sherfield-on-Loddon PCP 15 (Taylor’s Farm), all new-build sites.
There is widespread deployment of existing fibre in close proximity (from approx. 300m to each cabinet), installed under both the commercial programme (such as PCPs 45, 104, 35 and 39 on Popley Way either side of 102; 101 in Marnell Park; 83 & 86 in Limes Park) and BDUK funding (43, 88 & 97), and there don’t appear to be any obvious technical blockers (space and power abound) so residents feel these should be quick and easy to deliver.
Existing ADSL broadband speeds are relatively poor due to exchange distance, providing maximum speeds of 2-4Mb to these areas.

3. Cabinet Locations Basingstoke PCPs 20, 92, 95, 102 and Sherfield-on-Loddon 15

4. PCP102 (Everest Park)
~405 properties supplied, within approx. 500m radius. It therefore looks to be in the top third of commercial programme cabinets by property volume across the county.
A single leaflet drop by our campaign group in Summer 2014 resulted in >25% of properties stating that they would take fibre within 6 months of it being made available (vs a national average believed to then be below 20%). We believe with more campaigning take up could be significantly higher, but we had proved our point.
Openreach responded and said they’d make fibre available to PCP102 within 6mo, by March 2015, but no work has subsequently taken place.
Existing cabinet in space on public land, almost certainly power available; and fibre serves several existing FTTC cabinets within m.
Development by Linden Homes (Phase 1, ), and Taylor Wimpey (Phase 2, )

5. PCP 92 (Marnell Park) Cabinet serves approx. 224 properties.
Approx 200 commercially enabled cabinets in Hants serve less properties (~12.5%); however over 50% of BDUK cabinets serve less properties.
PCP101 serving other ‘half’ of the development (mainly constructed by David Wilson Homes) was enabled in 2013.
Fibre work by Openreach in some of cabinet footprint 2-3 weeks ago, believed to be in relation to new David Wilson “Spiers Meadow” development.
Some form of survey previously carried out, fibre cabinet location marked on grass with paint; but no work carried out since.
Virgin Media installed ducting to small number of properties in cabinet footprint during the past month due to enabling works for Spiers Meadow.
PCP92 footprint in Marnell Park mostly constructed by Taylor Wimpey ( ).

6. PCP 95 (Limes Park)
Cabinet believed to serve approx. 270 properties (over 25% of the commercially-enabled cabinets in Basingstoke serve less properties).
Nearby cabinets enabled both commercially (eg PCP96, April 2010, and PCPs 83 & 115), and under BDUK funding (eg PCP97, March 2014).
Limes Park comprises majority of “Rooksdown” area of Basingstoke, reported by HCC/BDUK Superfast Hampshire news on 4th Aug to have the highest fibre take up in the county at 68%; no reason to think PCP95 would be any different.
Believed to have been previously scheduled but works cancelled?
Development constructed by Persimmon & Taylor Wimpey (small level of development to convert existing buildings still ongoing, increasing number of connected properties).

7. Costings
Hants BDUK programme Wave 1 covers 75,000 properties at cost of £13.8M (£184/property); 27.5% of this funding is from BT (source here).
So far (What’s Happening in Hampshire, 5th Aug 2015), 59,000 properties covered across 269 cabinets (average of 220 properties/cabinet). Therefore in total we can expect approx. 341 cabinets to be tackled, at an average cost per cabinet of £40,469.
We estimate the cost per property of enabling PCP102 is nearer £75, and this would be at zero cost to the taxpayer.
However BT would have to fund the full cost (heresay suggests in the order of £30,000), vs. only approx. £11,128 (before take-up clauses kick in) towards each BDUK supported cabinet.

8. Broadband Speeds
By way of a sample, the latest 10 BDUK cabinets completed (as of 5th Aug and announced on Superfast Hampshire’s Twitter feed) are:
Locality
PCP#
Postcode
ADSL Speed
Rownhams 26
SO16 8AL
Crondall (Hart) 6
GU10 5QJ
10 – 19.5
Chandlers Ford 48
SO53 5PQ
3 - 7
Sway
SO41 6AZ
Bentley 1
GU34 4PP 22
SO16 0YD
1 – 3.5
Lymington
SO41 3AB
5.5 – 12.5
Bransgore 7
BH23 7AB
2 - 6
Wallop 5
SO20 8QA
3 – 7.5
Romsey 4
SO51 7LY

9. Broadband Speeds (2)
By contrast the estimated speeds for Basingstoke PCPs 92, 95 and 102 are:
… which are significantly lower than 9 of the last 10 cabinets upgraded under the BDUK programme, a programme which on average serves half the number of properties of PCP102, at greater expense, and into areas showing less demand.
The BDUK programme is meant to be getting Superfast Broadband to as large a number of properties as possible, where demand is highest, for as little public cost as possible, and this demonstrates that left to Openreach’s management, is failing to do so in Hampshire.
Priority appears to be spending Government money before the time runs out?
All of these recently completed cabinets are in Phases 13b and 14b of the rollout programme. PCP102 was scheduled for Phase 13a, and 92 and 95 for Phase 10a (2013), so why were they missed in the first place?
PCP#
Postcode
ADSL Speed
Properties Served 92
RG24 9RU
1 – 3.5
224 95
RG24 9GY
1.5 – 4
270
102
RG24 9TX
405

10. Technology
The ‘next’ Openreach broadband technology, G.Fast, which should support a move from Superfast to Ultrafast, is entering trials in several areas from this summer/autumn.
Apart from being overloaded with BDUK work, have Openreach decided it’s no longer cost effective to deploy additional FTTC cabinets when they have to cover the full cost and have not yet started work, when technology like G.Fast is just around the corner (all being well during the trial stage)?
On recent new-build sites such as Everest, Limes and Marnell Parks, which (should have!) good, new, ducting, and are relatively densely populated, is FTTP not a viable option? Especially as Basingstoke is one of the initial areas to support FTTPoD, and hence the exchange must support FTTP.

11. Alternatives
No Virgin Media coverage across the footprint of 92, 95, 102;
However coverage is very close by; Virgin installed new ducting ~1 month ago, from Popley Way (~15m from Everest Park), around 1.25km through Marnell Park past a (very small #) of the properties covered by PCP92, to another new development. Footway boxes were installed adjacent to each property passed (no service yet available), it’s anticipated VM would therefore extend this under their Project Lightning.
3+/4G is now available (coverage not 100% 4G however); but providers generally don’t offer plans aimed at home/SOHO use, and for the average consumer set-up is harder.
Great expectation of Openreach fibre, so little interest in satellite, HiWiFi (local provider covering a few others areas of Basingstoke, but not these sites due to promise of Openreach FTTC making it uneconomic), etc.
Consideration for opening discussions with eg/ Call Flow, but funding would be required and Openreach have said these cabinets will get fibre commercially, so little attractiveness.
Hampshire CC/BDUK appear to not interested (despite claims to want to help current and recent new build sites) due to cabinets all being tagged ‘commercial’.

12. Across the County… the Hampshire 22
Exchange
Cabinet
Planned Date
Planned Phase
Postcode
Sta
Status 7/8/15
Lymington
Cabinet P2
FTTC Planned for 30th September 2015
Phase 09a
SO41 9EY EA
30-Sep-15 - Sorry it's taking us longer than planned to get your cabinet ready for service. Please bear with us.
Ringwood
Cabinet P11
FTTC Planned for 30th June 2015
Phase 09b
BH24 2AD
Titchfield
Phase 10a 2013
PO14 3EP
31-Dec-15 - Sorry it's taking us longer than planned to get your cabinet ready for service. Please bear with us.
Cabinet P5
PO14 4BP
Bassett, Southampton
Cabinet P7
SO16 3NG
31-Dec-15 - Sorry we need to do more work on our network before we can make your cabinet live. Bear with us. (NB. Cabinet is in place)
Winchester
Cabinet P57
FTTC Planned for 31st March 2015
SO22 4NY
31-Mar-16 - Sorry it's taking us longer than planned to get your cabinet ready for service. Please bear with us.
Southampton
Cabinet P60
Phase 06a 2011
SO14 1ZA
31-Mar-16 (No comments)
Basingstoke
Cabinet P20
RG24 7BH
31-Mar Cabinet to be enabled between Apr-16 and Mar-17. Date to be confirmed once the survey is complete.
Cabinet P92
RG24 9RS UR
Cabinet P95
RG24 9GX
Cabinet P102
FTTC Planned (exchange ready 25th March 2011)
Phase 13a 2015
RG24 9GB
No date/status
Sherfield on Loddon
Cabinet P15
RG27 0AZ
Twyford
SO21 1NJ
Hampton, Soton
Phase 11b
SO17 1RR
Cabinet P17
SO14 0SL
Cabinet P26
SO18 2DT
SO18 1DL
Cabinet P53
SO17 2LP
Cabinet P63
SO17 1RS
Cabinet P69
SO17 2AH
Portsmouth
Cabinet P72
PO1 2DH
No date/status, however: Cabinet to be enabled between Apr-16 and Mar-17. Date to be confirmed once the survey is complete..
Ptsmouth Nth End
Cabinet P51
PO2 0AZ
Your address has been successfully matched; however we cannot determine ADSL availability at this address

13. Questions for Openreach
Why were the cabinets missed in the first place?
Has any surveying of these cabinets been done to date? If not, can this be done asap to give the maximum chance over overcoming any issues identified and delivering without further delay?
If so, have any issues been identified?
Could the resources freed up from the loss of BDUK Wave 2 contacts in Berks (and to a lesser extent Devon & Somerset) be used to speed our rollout, if not why not?
Looking at the steps in the process to enablement, where are the resource shortages that are preventing earlier enablement, or is the process such a finely oiled machine that they are throughout?  It’s understood that most of the physical install is contracted out, are suppliers unable to deliver faster or what are the restrictions here?
What can OR do to influence HCC/BDUK programme to allow some prioritisation towards completing the commercial rollout without risking penalties?
Abbotswood seems to have been delivered in two months from contract signature, whilst we don’t have a third party providing gap-funding, why can’t our cabinets be enabled so quickly from now?
What can be done to bring cabs back forward from a current forecast of Mar 17?
Do OR/BT see any risks that may push dates back even further?

14. Questions for Openreach (2)
Can the status for PCP102 on the BT Wholesale site be changed so that a forecast date and speed estimates are shown, as they are for other cabinets? And can status on superfast-openreach.co.uk be reverted to EA to show the cabinets are still in the plans to be upgraded?
Is OR plan to do all outstanding Commercial B’Stoke cabinets together (92, 95, 102, SoL 15)… or will they be done piecemeal… and if so why?
And are any of the BDUK Wave 2 areas in Basingstoke scheduled to be enabled at the same time, though for the most part this seems to cover commercial rather than residential areas?
Could the community do any more to speed rollout, be it demonstrating further demand, taking any identified issues up with third parties, carrying out any work (BARN-like), obtaining additional funding from developers, pressing HCC, etc? Or is the programme plan cast in more concrete than a cabinet base and highly immovable?
It appears the new DW Spiers Meadow site is being addressed as both OR and Virgin have been running cables incl. fibre to site.  Do we know if they’re getting FTTP?  And what about Merton Rise (RG24 9XF) currently under construction in the gap between Limes, Everest and Marnell sites, which seems to be served by PCPs89 and 90 – these don’t appear to be enabled or have any plans either?

15. Thank you