Clifton Hampden and Burcot are besieged by all sorts of nonsense at the moment; we’re having to man the barricades against the gravel extraction application for a start. The ones in the picture above are most welcome, however. They represent progress, you see, because BT fibre is coming to town. This means superfast broadband – well, faster than we’ve got anyway.
Two months ago, Openreach (BT’s wholesale operation) installed a new distribution point – for the technically minded, this is a grey slab covering a hole in the ground – next to the existing green BT cabinet outside the school. Now they are putting in the foundations for the new fibre cabinet; a visible sign that Clifton Hampden is set to have zippy broadband speeds by the end of the year, the promised deadline. The “ready for service” date also applies to Burcot, who will have their own cabinet.
When FTTC becomes operational, residents’ actual speeds will depend on the distance they live from their new cabinet since this part of the connection will still be copper wire. Even so, even at 1,000 metres, down- and upload rates (24 and 8 Mbps respectively) will be considerably faster than at present. Those less then 100 metres from the cabinet will be shooting for the moon.
The accelerated project has been funded by Oxfordshire County Council as we would normally be fry so small as to receive FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet) shortly before the end of the century or the second coming, whichever is sooner.