I am delighted to say that the Phase 1 Normandy Gigabit Internet scheme has after 5 months been signed off by the Government!
This means that our scheme is now with the Openreach Fibre Partnership teams for them to review and approve to ensure they can move forward with everything so far.
This means that as a community all addresses covered in Phase 1 will be eligible to access their vouchers for the Internet upgrade scheme.
What happens next I hear you ask. Unfortunately, I don't expect the process to be quick, however, I would expect that in the next few weeks we will be able to collect our vouchers. Please read the snippet below from the Openreach website (in purple) which explains what we have achieved so far and what will happen next. I have added comments (in black):
How do I know if my community could get vouchers?
If you express an interest in a Fibre Community Partnership, we can get in touch when we resume Fibre Community Partnership registrations for your area. Once you’ve registered, we’ll review your community and let you know if the addresses you’ve listed meet the criteria for DCMS funding. We'll also let you know if your community is eligible for a fully voucher-funded scheme. This means that if all the listed addresses pledge and validate their vouchers and have Ultrafast Full Fibre broadband installed the value of the vouchers paid by the DCMS would cover the costs in full. Your community wouldn't have to pay a penny more.
Once we know your community is eligible, we’ll put in a funding application to the DCMS on your behalf.
Basically, we have completed the steps outlined above. We have DCMS approval.
When this is has been secured, we'll create an online portal for your community to pledge their vouchers and share the link with you at the right point in the process.
Once Openreach completes its own process, within weeks we will be ready to progress to the phase below...
What your community would need to do and when
Your community would then have three months to achieve the target number of pledged and validated vouchers required to cover the cost of the network build. This means it's important to involve as many people in the community as possible - the more people involved, the more funding is available towards the pledge target.
About a year ago I gathered a list of names of people that were interested in upgrading their internet. Based on the number of people that expressed interest we will more than achieve the number of vouchers needed for work to begin. It is important to note that everyone in the Phase 1 area is eligible. There are new people that have moved into the area that I have not had a chance to speak to - you are eligible. There are people that perhaps did not understand the scheme or did not express interest originally - it is not too late to do so.
The Pledging Process
Pledging your vouchers couldn’t be easier. Just go to the online portal built for your community, type in your postcode, and complete a short form with your personal details.
By pledging your voucher you're agreeing to the Pledge terms and conditions.
Hitting the community target
After three months the pledges will be reviewed to see whether the target is likely to be reached. This means that if your community is eligible for vouchers it’s important to come together and pledge your vouchers as soon as possible.
I will manage this process ensuring that no one is missed out.
Keeping your voucher application on track
We'll only share your details with the DCMS as part of your voucher application, and they'll use them to communicate with you at key stages of the process. They will ask you to validate your pledge and to confirm when your service has been installed.
Once your service is installed, you will then be able to go to your internet service provider and access the faster speeds that they offer.
Communications from the DCMS will be sent from the following email address: gigabit.vouchers@notifications.service.gov.uk. Please respond to these to keep your voucher application on track.
On my next blog I intend to run a Q&A session - so please, if you have any questions please let me know and I will answer them for you.
I will keep on at Openreach, and with regards to the 4x parts of Phase 2 I am pushing Openreach for an update here too.
Have a great weekend!
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Comments (5)
Thanks for the update. Do you or your BT contacts have any idea what a realistic date for completion of this project is now?
Jules