Agenda Item 9B

West Better Connected Broadband - Progress report for JDAC

September 2015

Background

Better Connected is an exciting project to bring better, faster broadband to .

West Sussex County Council recognises the difficulty that slow, and in some cases no, access to broadband speeds causes residents and businesses. It has committed a significant investment of £6.26m which has been matched by central government to contract with BT to build fibre Broadband infrastructure in the county. BT is committing more than £7m investment in the project.

We aim for the majority of West Sussex premises to be able to access superfast fibre-based broadband speeds of 24Mbps in line with national targets and our available funding. By building on the continuing commercial deployment of broadband we will ensure that more than 90% of our county can access fibre- based broadband services by spring 2016.

By that time all of the county will have access to download speeds of at least 2Mbps.

The broadband infrastructure is being built in eight overlapping phases each requiring research, engineering surveys, network preparation and building.

Progress to date

Over 48,000 more homes and businesses are now able to enjoy all the benefits of a faster, more reliable fibre broadband connection.

This is our most ambitious year of network build with engineers at work in every district and borough in the county. So far 275 new fibre-holding cabinets and sixteen FTTP (fibre to the premise) sites are ready for service, with the majority now ‘live’ and accepting orders for broadband connection packages.

Work to upgrade the county’s three non-digitally enabled exchange areas at Sutton, Plaistow and East Marden is underway. Works are nearing completion in Sutton and East Marden and the implementation in Plaistow is progressing well. Due to the rural nature of the majority of the locations and the fact that properties are long distances from the exchange and in small clusters, homes are connected to the exchange on ‘exchange only’ lines and not via street cabinets. The technology we are using to upgrade these exchange areas is FTTP where fibre to the cabinet is not an option.

Engineering challenges being encountered include silting of the ducting which will carry the new fibre cable, wayleaves for the siting of infrastructure on private land and the provision of power to the new fibre cabinets. BT and Openreach teams are working through these.

It can take some weeks from a cabinet being built to it ‘going live’ so that providers can offer connection packages. When a cabinet is ‘live’ customers contract to buy broadband services from an internet service provider, in the usual way.

Further Funding

We have carried out a second Open Market Review to establish current and planned (up to three years) broadband services by telecommunications suppliers. We have checked back our understanding with suppliers of the information provided and have now mapped the county to show the area remaining eligible for the additional £2.5m funding provided by central government and the County Council.

Currently we do not have a full understanding of how the money may be able to be spent but expect to know more detail in the coming months now that the County Council has signed a new contract with BT for delivery.

JDAC exchange areas update

The plan continues to evolve as engineering challenges are encountered and overcome and work is completed.

Residents and businesses in the Houghton area now have access to better, faster broadband services as Bury 1 is now ‘live’.

The area is served mainly by cabinets called 1,2,4, 9 and 10 all which have been built successfully and are now live and accepting orders. Part of the Aldingbourne area is also covered by cabinet 2, which engineering works have recently been completed.

New services are now available in the , , , Slindon and Findon exchange areas. These cabinets serve the parishes of , , South Stoke, Poling, Findon, , Slindon, , and Ford as well as Arundel. Engineering works to provide services in and Wepham are underway.

Services are also now available in Barnham and . Works continue in the and exchange areas.

More information

Residents can find out whether broadband services are available to them by using the postcode checker at www.westsussex-betterconnected.org.uk/check- availability

Our website includes an interactive map to keep track of what is happening where. The map is updated to show where work is being carried out and when broadband services will become available. The website also has information about the benefits of better, faster broadband and helps to put users in touch with broadband suppliers.

Please do visit www.westsussex-betterconnected.org.uk for more information.