Superfast broadband is coming – honestly!
The Community Council contacted Superfast Cymru to enquire if they could provide information regarding the chances of superfast broadband being delivered to the Welsh St Donats Community or failing that whether the fibre optic deployment would result in any increase in speed for the community.
Superfast Cymru agreed to come and talk to the council and before our council meeting on June 2nd we had a presentation on access to higher broadband speeds in Welsh St Donats and local areas from Martin Jones of Superfast-Cymru. This company, with £250million funding from WAG and BT is working in partnership with BT to supply access to higher broadband speed as quickly as possible across all of Wales. The programme has begun in our area with about 2500 premises to connect, and all post codes are included. Those using the Bonvilston exchange will be completed by the end of the year, and Cowbridge will follow by mid 2016.
Welsh St Donats Community Council area is supplied by exchanges in Bonvilston and Cowbridge, which are Fibre Optic enabled. The Fibre Optic cables are then distributed from the exchanges in ducts to various “Green” cabinets and most properties, which are close to these cabinets, will have the opportunity to access the Fibre Optic superfast service at the cabinets , known as Fibre To The Cabinet (FTTC).
However speeds decrease the further away you are from a green cabinet and if you are too far away no increase in existing broadband speed will be seen. Most of the properties in the Welsh St Donats Community fall into this category.
The current proposal for the Welsh St Donats Community is to supply Superfast Broadband to as many properties as possible and or feasible via Fibre To The Premise (FTTP) which will involve running fibre optic cables to each property that signs up for Fibre Optic Superfast Broadband. The cabling is to be installed in ducts and via new poles and is programmed to be completed within 12 months.
When the planning is complete and the project is publicised it will be necessary to enquire and sign up with an ISP that will be offering superfast broadband. The maximum speed available via FTTP is 300Mb/s but this would be dependent on the package selected from the ISP.
In the meantime it is very important for all those interested in obtaining superfast broadband to register on the Superfast-Cymru website, contact will be made via email when the new broadband becomes available. You willhave to contactan ISP to arrange to get connected.