Mardler October 2018 JS

Village Information
B4RN is back!
Better Broadband for Brockdish and Thorpe Abbotts
In my last update in May, I reported there was a pause in
progressing the superfast 1000MB optical fibre service from B4RN
to our villages. It was because the parent company in the north of
England had decided to take stock of how fast realistically they were
able to support local community projects like ours. I am delighted to
announce that they have now appointed a local person, employed
by B4RN, to progress the project locally. Getting started still
requires 50% sign-up from households in our civil parish of the
two villages before we can get a routing plan and get
commitment on investment funding. (Syleham is now over 50%
signed up. We aren’t going to let those Suffolk folk beat us are we?)
Charles Errington, our new contact at B4RN, is a local man living
in the Heywood, Diss and has great experience in communications,
finance and running businesses. He has already progressed the
project from the live Scole hub and there is funding in place to take
the fibre routes to Billingford and soon to Burston and Shimpling and
Tivetshall.
To remind you, the B4RN ‘hub’ is now installed at Scole Village Hall,
Ransome Ave, Scole and there are now 50 properties connected,
getting phenomenal speeds of 950-1000MB. Anyone who wishes
can see it in action at Scole Community Centre on Friday evenings.
7.30-9.00pm. Just go along and test it out.
Why bother with B4RN? We’ve got increased speeds from BT’s
new cabinets, although not providing what was promised and with
BT’s usual customer service. ItsWisp is another possibility for some.
Here are the reasons we need B4RN:
Ultrafast broadband adds £20,000 to the value of
your house.
B4RN service is not diminished in the evenings and
at weekends by contention rates (when everyone
else is online with you).
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