Shropshire Council sent this bulletin at 10-07-2014 10:20 AM BST
A roundup of what has been going on in the programme during June.
Check out the new cabinet stickers
Wondering if fibre has arrived at a cabinet near you? Look out for these vinyl stickers that will be appearing around the county on fibre-enabled cabinets, signifying that our work is done, and fibre is ready and waiting to be ordered from your chosen ISP.
Bicton school competition
Artistic Shropshire pupil with designs on faster broadband is honoured by Connecting Shropshire
Earlier in the year, we set a Banksy-style art challenge to mark Bicton C of E Primary School becoming the first in the county to be served by the Connecting Shropshire fibre network. Paige Liversidge’s design was picked from scores of imaginative entries by fellow students, to adorn the high-speed broadband cabinet outside her school in Bicton Lane, Bicton, near Shrewsbury.
The competition winner, Paige said:
“I’m really excited to see my design go up on the cabinet. For my design I chose lots of bright colours so that people walking past would want to stop and read my sticker and learn what it means to have fast broadband.”
Commenting on the benefits of fibre broadband in the school, acting head teacher Natalie Johnson said:
“Use of the internet now touches every part of the curriculum. Our pupils use it every day for everything from interactive activities to doing online research for school projects and a variety of other schoolwork. Without fast connectivity and speeds there is the risk that children will miss out on what is now an essential learning tool, so having fibre in our area is great news. We were delighted when Connecting Shropshire asked us to take part and we’re all looking forward to seeing the winning sticker in pride of place.”
Or to listen to Paige and Natalie being interviewed, please click here to view the YouTube clip.
Superfast fibre in Pontesbury
Pontesbury Broadplace, in conjunction with the Public Hall is holding an open day on Saturday 12 July from 10am to 4pm to give everyone a chance to experience a fibre broadband connection with speeds of 30 Mbps upwards.
There will be laptops available for trials and broadplace facilitators on-hand to offer advice, as well as tea and coffee!
Superfast Extension Programme
Shropshire Council recently met with the Chief Executive of Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK), to discuss Phase 2 of the Superfast Extension Programme (SEP) picking up on the key issue of match funding the £11.38m SEP allocation for Shropshire.
Work continues to identify potential sources of match funding with the Broadband Partnership that was set up in April 2014, with discussions already taking place with the Marches Local Enterprise Partnership alongside exploring other sources of public and private sector investment. In the meantime, the council has asked that BDUK formally commits its continued financial support to Shropshire and that the £11.38m allocation is still earmarked for Shropshire.
Steve Charmley said:
“The existing programme continues to deliver at pace, with 55 roadside cabinets now live and accepting orders. Having said that, we always knew that we’d require additional funding to provide improved broadband access to more residents and businesses, especially those far away from the existing fibre network. We’re ambitious in identifying match funding, as we recognise how important fast broadband is for all our communities. We appreciate the continued support of BDUK and look forward to building on the excellent work of the programme to date.”
Please click here to view the latest update in full.
OBB: All You Need To Know
Optimising Business Broadband (OBB) is a project aimed at promoting the benefits of fibre broadband to SMEs across Shropshire and Staffordshire. The project is funded by the European Regional Development Fund, Shropshire Council and Staffordshire County Council and is complimentary to the Connecting Shropshire and Staffordshire fibre deployment programmes.
OBB offers information and advice and is totally free of charge. From August, there will be 12 free events across both counties to promote how internet-enabled technologies can vastly improve your business. Furthermore, OBB offers up to 12 hours of assistance to eligible businesses in subjects such as improving customer relations, increasing turnover and improving productivity – all in all, giving your business a chance of growing by up to 25%.
Optimising Business Broadband advisors will have a presence at a range of business events and further details of the upcoming free OBB events will be sent out via business alerts in the near future.
The first two Shropshire events are:
1.Friday, 29th August at Shropshire Conference Centre, Shrewsbury 8:30-11:30am
2.Thursday, 18th September at the Mascall Centre, Ludlow, 8:30-11:30am
