I am delighted to report that Holwell is due to get fibre broadband in Summer 2015!  This means that everyone on Main Street and Nursery Lane should enjoy at least SuperFast Broadband speeds i.e. 24Mbs, which is a big, big improvement over the current situation.

The news came at my recent meeting at County Hall with the BT Project Manager for the Leicestershire Superfast project and one of the County Superfast team.  BT always add the rider that it’s subject to detailed survey work and successful delivery of the engineering project.  I think it’s very unlikely that the plan will change, perhaps a delay or two if some unforeseen problems are encountered.

So between now and Summer next year, two new cabinets will be installed in the village and our existing copper connections will be hooked up to one of them.  When it all goes live, you’ll have to buy from BT – or a competitor ISP – a fibre broadband product to benefit; if you do nothing, your speed will not improve.

To give you an idea of costs, BT for example currently has two packages: Infinity 1 offers up to 38Mbs down/9.5Mbs up and Infinity 2 up to 76/19Mbs,

http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/products/upgrade-your-broadband/

These prices may increase slightly but I think represent good value for the big step-up in service.  The actual speed you’ll get will depend on a number of factors, principally the length of copper from the cabinet to your home.

Personally, I am absolutely delighted with the news.  Working closely on the project, I was starting to get downhearted at the prospect of us getting fibre.  I know most of you are pleased, too; at the village residents’ meeting we held to share the news, 95% of you indicated you’d take up a fibre broadband product.  I strongly encourage you to do so when it becomes available, because a high take-up of fibre in Holwell not only keeps us ‘on grid’ for future developments but also encourages the deployment of fibre in other villages which currently aren’t as lucky as us.

Please stay tuned for developments – although we may not see much in the short term, I’ll stay in touch with the Leicestershire Superfast team and post up here any news on our fibre work as soon as I hear anything.