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Page Updated
06.01.2012. NB These web pages will not be regularly updated. News of progress and any queries will be posted on the Village Forum where you can have your say on ANYTHING! In addition any news of our proposed high speed wireless broadband will be sent by email to those who have indicated their interest in this.
STOP PRESS - you may wish to follow the sad story of another 'campaign' which may well have fallen foul to BT's predatory practices, with no apparent interest from HMG. Their website is Ewhurst and Surrey Hills Broadband and is regularly updated. News of this is GRADUALLY seeping into the national media although the BBC and major nationals seem surprisingly reluctant to cover it. Return of the 'D' notice?
We are now undertaking a survey to establish the feasibilty of and interest in a wireless high-speed broadband system. To take part, first please register with us HERE
FOR ANYONE ON THE 01798 81XXXX TELEPHONE CIRCUIT
I have made good progress in establishing contact with one of the 'Prime Movers' in West Sussex County Council and now have a clearer idea of the county's policy initiatives in this direction. The biggest question I keep getting back is 'How much interest is there?' and 'How many businesses in the parish are affected?'
With the help of all those who have indicated their interest in improving broadband here, we are in the fortunate position of being well ahead of other rural Sussex communities in looking at the problem. I hope that 2011 will see a resolution of our predicament for those interested.
AS THE COUNTRY GRINDS SLOWLY TOWARDS THE 21ST CENTURY IT IS BECOMING INCREASINGLY COMMON FOR HOUSE BUYERS TO LOOK AT BROADBAND SPEEDS WHEN CONSIDERING LOCATION. I RECKON WE COULD LOOK AT 2020 BEFORE WE SEE ANY IMPROVEMENT IF OUR PLIGHT IS LEFT TO BT. MEANWHILE PROPERTY PRICES WILL BE HELD BACK IN THE PARISH, LOCAL ENTERPRISE WILL SUFFER AND WE ALL WILL BE UNABLE TO UTILISE THE INCREASING NUMBER OF FACILITIES FASTER BROADBAND OFFERS.
OfCom published an interesting paper on the benefits of faster broadband for the elderly and disabled. Of particular interest are the developments in on-line health care, including monitoring and diagnosis, and the steady development of the Television set as an internet gateway, removing some of the 'black art' some older people associate with computers. The paper can be seen here.
It should be noticed that all of these benefits DO require a better broadband delivery.
So why not show your interest by signing up HERE?
Where we are
Your broadband is delivered to you by your ISP on a contract, the common one of which is 'Up to 8mb", which means that is the maximum speed they will allow you to receive. It now seems as if the 'standard' contract is becoming 'up to 20mb' In fact, as you all know, you get a lot less than this, but are possibly still paying for 8mb - or even 20mb. Current speeds range from nil (= the old 'dial-up') at the top of the parish (off Harbolets) to around 2 and a bit mb in the village, sometimes a bit more.
We live in a village where I sense it is considered 'non-u' to make a fuss. In general it is better to mutter and moan about something rather than do something about it. To a large extent that is why things are as they are. Why we have a bit of a mobile-phone 'black hole' and why we have such poor broadband.
The history of broadband in the village goes back to 2002 when we had none, and there was no sign on the horizon. Fortunately, Robin Bliss - who began this website - ran a campaign to acquire a list of those who would take the service if it were available, and I think we achieved the 'minimum number' of customers for BT (I cannot recall the figure), but it arrived in 2003. Without Robin's efforts we might still, like some villages in the UK, be without.
I have decided that spring-cleaning is needed here, so I have tidied up this page and put together some other pages which you will find here. I have started with the assumption that some of you will not know much about the technology, and those that are 'up-to-speed' (excuse the pun) can jump to later pages. I have had an amazing learning curve recently which is by no means complete, so if any of you know more about telecoms/broadband and wish to add or correct anything please use the contact form and I will establish telephone or email contact with you as you wish. I'm sure a lot of you will have questions - the easiest way to handle these is for you to read and then post your questions on the forum - you will get answers.
So - before we can move anywhere on this we need to establish the level of interest. Without sufficient interest the project will not proceed. To do this I would ask you to complete this BROADBAND INTEREST FORM for us - there are no obligations at this point - it is merely trying to gauge interest levels. 473 479 responses so far. NB. One form per broadband contract please!
Please note that we would love to see any local residents on this exchange join this campaign
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