Broadband project update: confirm your voucher

Step by step instructions on how to confirm your voucher

The Two Gates Lane/Bellingdon Broadband Upgrade project is going well, we just need a few more households/businesses to sign up to make it happen.

Although we haven’t quite reached the threshold yet, in order to lock in the funding in anticipation of reaching enough vouchers, those that have signed up should be receiving an email from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to confirm their voucher. Please check your spam/junk folder if you haven’t received this. The email address that the email will come from is:

Gigabit Vouchers <gigabit.vouchers@notifications.service.gov.uk>

This form is very simple to fill in and “locks in” your voucher to our project.

The email should look something like this:

Clicking the link in blue takes you to this webpage to confirm whether you are applying as a resident, sole trader or business (please sign up as a sole trader or business if you can):

If you’re applying as a “resident”, please tick the appropriate boxes and submit your application. You’ll receive a confirmation email.

If you’re applying as a “business” or “sole trader” (self employed) you will be asked to provide evidence:

Please upload the evidence where indicated then fill in the following drop-down fields (this is for a sole trader and may vary for a business application), then click submit:

You should receive a confirmation email from DCMS/Openreach and that’s it!

Thank you so much if you’ve got this far – we know its been a bit of a long-winded process with lots of form filling. Fingers crossed we’ll all have a whizzy new broadband connection soon.

Please do encourage any neighbours who haven’t already signed up/pledged their voucher to do so: https://bit.ly/3aT7jEk

We’re happy to talk people through the process if needed or there are step by step instructions here: www.bellingdon.com/two-gates-lane-broadband-upgrade-project-how-to-pledge-your-voucher

Contact us on contact@bellingdon.com if you need any assistance!

Step by step how to pledge your voucher to the Openreach broadband upgrade project

A fantastic start to the project with over 30% of the project cost pledged already!

We’re aware of an issue with the postcode for Bloomfield Cottages not being recognised by the Openreach site. As Bloomfield represents a significant portion of the houses included in the project we’re working with Openreach to work out what is going on.

If you haven’t yet signed up, the link is below.

If you’re having trouble navigating the signup process please see our step by step guide below: “How to Pledge”.

There will be a separate project for Asheridge to follow shortly.

HOW TO PLEDGE

  • Go to https://www.openreach.com/connectmycommunity
  • When you get to the box below tick Yes
  • Enter your postcode details to confirm your eligibility and tick the “I’m not a robot” box. It may ask you to select squares with buses/traffic lights or parking meters in. Then click the green button with the magnifying glass:
  • You should now be able to see the current project status:
  • Please click the green button that says “Pledge for Two Gates Lane Ultrafast Community Project”
  • Fill in your details as either a business (if you run one from home, including self employed, use company number or unique tax reference [UTR] when prompted) or household.
  • If you get a message about extra funding please tick yes – this is really important and may be the difference between us being able to proceed and not.
  • Then submit the application. You’ll receive an email confirmation.
  • Finally thank you – we know this process has been a bit convoluted but we’re working within the parameters set for us. If you could email us on contact@bellingdon.com to confirm that you have pledged your voucher that would be great 🙂

In case you need it, here’s the link again:

“Two Gates Lane” ultra fast (full fibre/gigabit) broadband upgrade project now live!

Covers “Rural” Bellingdon including Bank Green

Postcodes HP5 2XT, 2UT, 2XU, 2XR, 2UR, 2XS, 2XW, 2XX and 2UU

Many Bellingdon residents have expressed an interest in signing up for Gigabit/Full Fibre/Ultrafast Broadband. Tony Orr and Hugh Griffiths have been spearheading the project, and have agreed the project parameters with Openreach who will be carrying out the required works, if we can get enough vouchers pledged under the government’s Rural Gigabit Broadband Scheme.

So that we can get the project underway, please could you now sign up on the voucher pledging website (essentially this tells Openreach they have the necessary funds from the government).  Details below.

You’ll be able to see how near we are to reaching the target amount once you’ve pledged your voucher. 

Please tick the box about additional funding, if it appears on your form. 

If you run a business from home (we believe this also includes the self employed – give your Unique Tax Reference where it says Company number), PLEASE sign up as a business. There is additional funding available for businesses. 

The project WILL NOT PROCEED until we reach 100% of the target so please encourage neighbours to sign up too. 

There is a relatively short window in which to pledge the required number of vouchers so please sign up as soon as possible

Pledge your voucher here: https://www.openreach.com/connectmycommunity

There is a separate project for Asheridge to follow, please get in touch if you’re interested in finding out more.

*”Fibre to the premises” which is not to be confused with “fibre to the cabinet” – this essentially means that the old copper wire that comes into your house is replaced with a fibre optic cable that can increase your broadband speed.

Gigabit Broadband Internet Access for rural* Bellingdon

Dear Resident,

The Government recently announced a fund of £5bn to subsidise the installation of Gigabit Broadband to Rural Communities.

This will hugely improve broadband speeds – up to 1 gigabit per second compared to the current 30-40 Mb per second – enabling improved working from home, and better streaming & downloading of music & films and other services.

Confused by all the letters and numbers? The main point is, its a lot faster. Its also not the same as “superfast broadband” or “fibre to cabinet” which most of us already have. This involves upgrading the individual connection to each and every house that signs up.

We are able to take advantage of this fund to pay for installation under the Rural Gigabit Voucher scheme (up to £1,500 per household installation).

Tony Orr (a Bellingdon resident) has been coordinating activities to date and recently asked home owners in Bellingdon (via the Cholesbury Grapevine, bellingdon.com website and BAACA monthly email) whether they wanted to sign up for the new service. Many of you did – thank you.

Please let us know if you’re interested by filling in this short form as soon as possible so we can gauge numbers.

What happens now?

The next step is that Openreach will send us a contract with all the addresses included in the project and costs. Once we’ve signed and sent back the contract, Openreach will transfer the addresses onto the voucher website portal.

At this point we will send you a link to the voucher portal website and each household will need to agree terms and request the voucher. Each household has to sign up for a 12-month minimum term to a service provider of their choosing.

Once Openreach have enough vouchers they will commence the rollout. Not everyone has to sign up but they haven’t told us what the minimum requirement is yet.

Questions?

Please drop us an email to contact@bellingdon.com and we will look to answer them. Some FAQs are provided below.

*****

FAQs

Q. What if we don’t want to take advantage of the current scheme?
A. There is no guarantee of future monies being available. If homes do not wish to take advantage they may have to pay directly in future if they (or future house owners) wish to take up the option. Currently Openreach are estimating a cost in excess of £1,000 per property for installation.

Q. Will this service add value to my property?
A. This cannot be guaranteed but bearing in mind the increase in internet demand (working from home, streaming music & films and other services) and that there is no guarantee of future government subsidy a Gigabit connection could be seen as positive selling point.

Q. How much will this commitment cost each property?
A. There is a requirement that each household will sign up for a 12-month minimum term to a service provider of their choosing. This might sound alarming, however the costs of gigabit fibre are comparable to the existing broadband they already have. For example, Vodafone are charging £21.50 a month for 35mb versus £25 a month for 100Mb, including line rental.

Q. Do I need to commit to more than 12 months?
A. No, each home is only asked to commit to a 12-month contract (with their chosen internet provider) After this time there is no need for further commitment.

Q. How many homes need to sign up to ensure the rollout?
A. We don’t know, Openreach don’t need 100% take up however they haven’t yet/won’t share what the minimum requirement is. We suspect that it would be in excess of 50% of the properties will be required to sign up before the rollout will commence.

Q. What about Asheridge?
A. Asheridge is covered by a separate project that will follow later.

*Q. Does this cover all homes in Bellingdon?
A. No, it only covers properties covered by the Rural Gigabit Voucher scheme i.e. those classified by Government / BT as rural. This covers properties from Savecroft Farm northwards to Bellingdon End Farm. Properties south of Savecroft Farm will have fibre provided by BT as part of the national roll out and will not have to apply for the rural scheme.

If you have any further questions please do let us know at contact@bellingdon.com and we’ll try to answer them.