Brent Knoll and East Brent are on course to see a new all-fibre broadband network introduced in the area covered by the Brent Knoll telephone exchange.
Like many rural exchanges, the Brent Knoll exchange is too small to be commercially viable for an upgrade to fibre, but if there is sufficient demand then funding can be made available through the government’s Gigabit Voucher Scheme.
In July, Openreach set villagers the challenge of getting 125 households and businesses in Brent Knoll and East Brent to commit to taking a full-fibre broadband connection if it became available.
The target was reached with the support of a Burnham-On-Sea.com news story and Openreach have now applied to the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport for Gigabit Vouchers to fund the work.
To validate the vouchers, DCMS have emailed each of the people who have registered a pledge on the Openreach site, asking them to confirm their commitment.
As soon as enough replies have been received the vouchers will be released, and the network build can start.
Steve Baggs, a Brent Knoll resident who is running the campaign to bring fibre to the villages, says: “It is brilliant that so many people responded so quickly by registering on the Openreach site.”
“Now we need them to confirm their pledges with DCMS by replying to the government email.”
“It’s easy to do and only takes a minute, but it is essential that DCMS validates every pledge before they commit taxpayers’ money to this project.”
People who have not yet registered a pledge with Openreach can still do so by visiting https://www.openreach.com/connectmycommunity and entering their postcode.
Even though the target has been reached, additional pledges will help to ensure the scheme goes ahead.
