Superfast Cornwall’s new 2018-2020 part-EU funded programme is now underway, and it includes sufficient funding to upgrade about half the remaining 16,000 slowest premises in Cornwall. Superfast Cornwall have now published the list of postcodes that high level modelling shows they should be able to upgrade at www.superfastcornwall.org/future-programme. These postcodes still need more detailed surveying and planning, which will happen on a rolling basis until late 2019. Once surveyed, there will be more certainty of the expected coverage, and this will also be published.
The Roseland needs to fit within a wider programme which has to be planned holistically across Cornwall, the timings of which depend on which of the 15 main ‘parent’ exchange serves the area. There are 8 Phases in total, and the exchanges serving The Roseland exchanges are in Phase 6. This means that the surveying and planning should be complete by March 2019, at which point we will have far more certainty about which areas can be upgraded. These areas should be built and live by October 2019.
As you may expect, Superfast Cornwall receive many requests asking for areas to be brought into the programme or brought forward. They have a couple of FAQs which explain why they cannot do this at www.superfastcornwall.org/faqs. However, in our discussion they assured us that the quality of the on the ground surveying is very high, and that surveyors are briefed to cover as many premises as feasible. As an example, their Phase 1 rollout was able to reach close to 50{c8c3b3d140ed11cb7662417ff7b2dc686ffa9c2daf0848ac14f76e68f36d0c20} additional premises within the budget for that phase. Superfast Cornwall are happy to come and share the expected coverage when the surveys have been completed.
Because the funding will not enable a solution to be delivered everywhere, Cornwall Council are funding the Superfast Cornwall Grants Scheme, available to communities and businesses not covered in the 2018-2020 programme – see www.superfastcornwall.org/alternative-solutions. These grants could be used to contribute towards the set-up costs of any viable technical solution capable of delivering superfast speeds, including 4G mobile, wireless and satellite. It could also be used to contribute towards the costs of a fibre solution, for example through Openreach’s Community Fibre Partnership scheme at https://communityfibre.openreach.co.uk/.
If you have any queries, please see if they are answered at www.superfastcornwall.org, and if not you can contact the Superfast Cornwall office at info@superfastcornwall.org.