Gigabit Broadband Project

The Initial Proposal

At the beginning of September 2020 as part of a trial, the UK Government's Department of Culture Media and Sport launched its Broadband Upgrade Fund and invited areas in Cornwall, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire, Cumbria and Northumberland to express interest in funding for new improved broadband services offering speeds upto 1 gigabit (1000 megabits) per second. The terms of the scheme meant it was only available to areas where the current speeds are below 100mbps - The majority of Bellingham qualified for this but some areas around the parish, particularly around Redesmouth already have gigabit speeds available from other operators so would not qualify for the DCMS scheme. 

Local community co-ordinators promoted individual areas and made the initial contact following advertisments on the gov.uk website asking for areas to nominated themselves as part of the DCMS voucher scheme. The Parish Council was approached by a local co-ordinator and was asked to help promote the scheme in order to see if enough people were interested for a bid for Bellingham to be taken forward. Bellingham historically has been one of the last places to get new technology with the likes of mobile phone coverage from ALL networks only coming here in 2017! The opportunity to go gigabit seemed to good to miss.

The Parish Council began to promote the DCMS scheme on its website and social media channels with the aim of getting as many expressions of interest as possible.

Once the expression period had completed companies were invited by the DCMS to pitch for areas that had expressed an interest with a view to rolling out their network.

In late December we received notification from one of our co-ordinators that there had been expressions of interest in our area.

Two companies had put in a pitch - Rymote and Telcom Networks Ltd (WeFibre).

Rymote proposed a service with download/upload speeds of 30/10 Mbps for £25/month ex.VAT up to 900/200 Mbps for £99/month ex.VAT  for residential connections.

Telcom proposed a single package speed of 1Gbps. Residents - £20/month inc.VAT on a 12 month contract, £30/month inc.VAT on a 30 day rolling basis. 

Upon reviewing the proposals from both companies the area co-ordinator decided to move forward with Telcom as they offered faster speeds at a much lower price point. 

WeFibre - The Race to 100 Vouchers!

WeFibre made contact with the co-ordinators in February 2021 and they asked the Parish Council to continue the push for the new service. Telcom asked for people to volunteer to be "host" for the equipment cabinet that was the heart of the network. The Parish Council approached it's friends at The North Tyne & Redesdale Community Partnership who own the old Bellingham Station site to ask if they had space for the cabinet there. They agreed and this was accepted by Telcom.

Telcom then explained how the Government scheme worked and that we needed 100 voucher requests before the end of March in order to take the project forward. They supplied leaflets and posters for us to distribute but the Parish Council took this one step further by producing it's own flyer to distribute with the official flyer outlining the benefits the new service would bring to the area. 

It was explained that individual areas around the parish would be connected to the network if there was sufficient demand so it was vitial to get the word out and for people to encourage their neighbours to register their interest. Registration was no guarantee of service as the more outlying areas would need a number of sign-ups to ensure commercial viability if there was insufficient surplus from the more built up areas. 

The flyer and leaflet was posted through every door and passed to the majority of businesses in the parish area. It was also heavily promoted on our website and social media channels. The campaign was so effective that we exceeded our 100 sign up target in less than a week!

The Build

Work has now commenced on the build of the new network and our cabinet is in place in Station Yard. Customers in covered areas began to be connected to the new service during October 2022.

Phase 1 is focussing on the main built up area of Bellingham with Phase 2 provisionally scheduled for later in the year covering the more outlying qualifying parts of the parish. WeFibre may look to expand into other areas where voucher funding is not available but this in entirely at their discretion. 

Now that we have an operator building a new network in the area the Parish Council's involvement with promoting the DCMS scheme has come to an end.

If you would like further information on the timescales for connection or if you have questions on whether your address will be covered by the new network and qualifies for a DCMS voucher please contact WeFibre's regional engagement manager Linda at linda.jamieson@wefibre.com or by phone on 07868 636019.

Scheme Terms & Conditions

Full terms & conditions for WeFibre can be found on their website at wefibre.com.

Full terms & conditions for the DCMS Rural Gigabit Voucher Scheme can be found at gigabitvoucher.culture.gov.uk.