I live in rural Cornwall, phone line runs 2km from serving cabinet. Currently got FTTC which is giving around 15mb.
I've been looking at possibility of getting something faster, i.e. FTTP.
Semi local ISP is making lots of noise on their website about the Gigabit Broadband Voucher scheme. Looks like it might be something that would help in my circumstances. I then found myself on the
https://gigabitvoucher.culture.gov.uk/#suppliers website, and searching my address on there returns:
This address is not eligible for a voucher
Vouchers in your area have been paused as your address may shortly be included in one of our Project Gigabit contracts. This could mean your home is in line for gigabit broadband without the need for a voucher. Please check back in a few weeks’ time for any further updates.Sounds promising - if we'll get FTTP provided here as part of Project Gigabit (first I've ever heard of it) rather than having to claim a 'voucher'. So then I start looking into Project Gigabit, and according to the 'Building Digital UK' govt website, my area does indeed fall in one of the planned 'intervention areas' - Lot 32.03 Central Cornwall.
Great. Then I see their 'classifications and methodology' the it gives each UPRN a subsidy classification - white, grey, black and under review. Project Gigabit only covers properties with a 'white' classification (no existing gigabit and none proposed within the next 3 years). Fair enough. Then they break down each postcode in the intervention area. If a postcode has any white class properties in it then the postcode is classified as white (even though only the white properties will be eligible).
Helpfully, they provide a spreadsheet of all the postcodes in the intervention area, showing each postcodes classification along with the no of properties of each class in the postcode. SO I duly download that an load it into excel.
Most of the postcodes around my area are white - they have at least one UPRN in them that is white, so they're considered eligible. My postcode area (geographically in the middle of the surrounding white ones, has all 16 properties classed as 'under review', and so the postcode itself is classed as under review. BDUK says this about under review class:
Under Review - indicates premises where suppliers have reported current or planned commercial broadband coverage, but where claimed current gigabit coverage has not been verified, or, in respect of planned build, where evaluators are confident that gigabit infrastructure will be delivered, but some risks to delivery remain, or there are some gaps in evidenceSo my understanding of all that is that I should be eligible for a gigabit voucher, except that I'm not because I'm in a 'project gigabit' area? Yet I'm not covered under project gigabit because suppliers have reported current or planned commercial coverage? Despite all the postcodes around me having no coverage and qualifying for project gigabit.
So does that leave me in some kind of no mans land, where I fall through the gaps of inclusion in either scheme? I'm not aware of any existing or planned commercial coverage in my area. Someone appears to have told BDUK that they have a service here or are putting one in. How do I find out which supplier(s)?
Better Internet Dashboard doesn't show anything at all in my area.
