An opportunity has arisen that could make Ultrafast broadband available to every household and business throughout the parish. A gigabit broadband connection would enable downloads at nearly 1000 Mbps compared with the best currently available within the parish of about 30- 40 Mbps.

Homes and businesses in rural areas of the UK may be eligible for funding towards the cost of installing gigabit-capable broadband when part of a group scheme. Rural premises with broadband speeds of less than 100 Mbps can use vouchers worth £1,500 per home and up to £3,500 for each small to medium-sized business to support the cost of installing new fast and reliable connections. Gigabit-capable broadband connections offer the fastest and most reliable speeds available and the Government is committed to a vision of a digitally connected Britain.

Services like Netflix, YouTube, iPlayer etc. will start to outstrip the currently available speeds as they offer higher definition. Today many households have two or three devices per occupant which added together can easily overload your internet connection and result in “buffering” or the link being lost in the middle of a program.

Patching Parish Council have investigated the process which could lead to every household in the village and many households and businesses in surrounding areas within the parish having access to Ultrafast Broadband. We anticipate zero installation costs and no increase in the monthly cost of your current internet connection, if you have/maintain normal High Speed Broadband (>30Mbps).

If you decide to upgrade from High-Speed to Ultrafast there could be a monthly increase in cost but there might not be...this remains to be confirmed once we know the level of interest within the parish. The deadline for applications is 31 march 2021 with the timescale from completion of the application process to availability in your home or business expected to be 9- 15 months. You are under no obligation to upgrade to Ultrafast broadband, this is about having the option to do so.

Are you interested? If so, you need to provide your name, address and postcode to the clerk at Patching Parish Council so that you could be added to the joint application if the decision to proceed is agreed. (By providing this information you consent to Patching Parish Council sharing these details with third parties associated with the scheme). We also need to know if you are a business or a domestic/residential user. There is no commitment at this stage...but we need to have numbers so that we are able to determine the best installer and locations so that the cost of installation may be accurately assessed.

Every household added to the joint application attracts funding from Central Government plus a top-up from WSCC towards the installation/infrastructure costs. We hope to be able to include all of the approximately 100 households and the many small businesses within the parish. Your commitment would be a 12 month contract with virtually any provider for normal High-Speed broadband. This could mean nothing more than an extension to your current contract.

If interested please contact the clerk: patchingpc@gmail.com giving your name, address and postcode and state if you are a domestic or business user. (This is also the contact to discuss any questions or concerns).

September 2020