Access to superfast broadband for more Wilmslow properties

by Lisa Reeves

Friday 31^st March 2017

Fri 31^st Mar 2017

An additional 90 properties in the Victoria Road and Albert Road area of Wilmslow are now able to upgrade to superfast broadband.

Andrew Arditti, Innovation & Growth Digital Engagement Manager at The Skills & Growth Company, said "This is great news for anyone running a business or anyone with multiple devices all requiring internet access. You can work or play - smarter, faster, better – whether from your smartphone, TV, tablet or computer."

To upgrade check the Connecting Cheshire website to see if your home or business can be switched and then contact your Internet Service Provider (ISP), or shop around for the best deal and order a fibre broadband service.

Andrew added "It doesn't happen automatically and you could make a saving compared with your current broadband contract.

"Speeds available will very depending on the distance from the cabinet, but your ISP will provide an estimated speed as part of the switching process."

Comments

Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.

Jonathan Follows

Friday 31^st March 2017 at 11:35 am

Lisa, thank you very much. I live on Victoria Road, my broadband service has been all of a tizzy this morning and yesterday morning, presumably explained by something related to this work. I also "signed up" to be notified of when I might be able to get this service, but heard nothing, however today I've been able to order an upgrade which is supposed to be activated on April 11. All with my existing service provider, BT Broadband.

Vince Chadwick

Saturday 1^st April 2017 at 11:03 am

Calling this 'Superfast Broadband' is a bit misleading. From the wording of the article, it is 'fibre to the cabinet', which means a superfast fibre optic link from the exchange to the roadside cabinet and then the ancient copper telephone wires from the cabinet into the home.

That last link in the chain, the old telephone wires, from cabinet to home, can and usually does impose a major limitation on broadband speed. The broadband speed at the cabinet is around 100Mbs with current technology, but by the time it has negotiated a couple of hundred metres of copper cable from the roadside cabinet to one's home it will be down to a quarter of that speed. If you are a couple of kilometers from the cabinet, speeds will be down to a snail's pace 10Mbs or lower by the time it reaches your home.

For true superfast broadband, one requires 'fibre to the premises', i.e. fibre optic cable for the entire distance from the exchange to the home, so there is no longer a 'throttling' of one's broadband speed by the old copper telephone wires.

Jonathan Follows

Saturday 1^st April 2017 at 3:58 pm

Vince is completely right, but the intermediate upgrade on offer now is still something of an improvement. I will report back after April 11 on what I actually find in the hope that this is of interest, but for now:
Current upload bandwidth to my house: 8.6Mbps -> becomes "guaranteed" 74Mbps with possibility of 79.80Mbps
Current download bandwidth from my house: 1.0 Mbps -> becomes 19/20Mbps
For someone who does email and occasional downloads this isn't worth paying for.
For someone who wants to do "streaming" video etc. this makes a difference. It's something I'm prepared to pay more for, anyway.

Jonathan Follows

Tuesday 11^th April 2017 at 9:08 am

If it's of interest to anyone, I'm now getting:
Upload to my home: was 8.6Mbps, is now 79.99Mbps, 9x improvement
Download from my home: was 1.0Mbps, is now 20.00Mbps, 20x improvement
Thanks again, Lisa, for bringing this to my attention.