Quote:Desk surveys have been completed and site surveys are underway to secure the locations for phase 1 cabinets. Due to unconfirmed locations we are unable to be specific about phase 1 at this point in time; however, we can confirm cabinets will go live within the following exchange areas:
Barnsley
Cudworth
Dinnington
Doncaster
Rotherham
Sheffield Cutler

The cabinets in phase 1 are due to go live and ready for customer orders between October and December 2015 (subject to testing).
Cabinets in the exchange areas listed above are those due for deployment in 2015.

Superfast South Yorkshire aim to have a post code checker ready as soon as possible to enable residents and businesses across South Yorkshire to check the deployment for post codes.

Quote:Hello David,

I have been reading about the proposed Broadband Provision ideas following the collapse of Digital Region. I note the proposals do not include funding for the City Centre, which seems to put people even far outside of the centre at a disadvantage, just because they are connected to the main Sheffield exchange in the centre.

I note from the meetings in July that one of the points was noted as below;

(h) to request City Council Officers to develop as a separate initiative and bring forward for consideration a Sheffield city centre superfast broadband strategy.

I do not seem to be able to find any more information on what is happening with point (h), despite finding news items celebrating the signing of a deal (which again, will exclude the majority of people but at a disadvantage broadband wise) with BT.

Would you be able to give me any kind of update or idea of what the council has planned or even if any meetings are scheduled to discuss this further?

Quote:Re: City Centre Area

The Sheffield city centre had to be excluded from the project due to the way in which the government set up the BDUK Framework. Essentially, the scheme was set up as a rural programme and excluded urban areas. BDUK defined urban areas as the city centres of the “core” cities (Birmingham, Leeds, Nottingham etc). We pushed back very hard with BDUK on the size of the geographic area to be excluded, but ultimately they would not move on their definition. I understand that the area excluded in Sheffield is one of the smaller city centre areas excluded in this programme, so we did do better than some other cities.

Please note that “city centre” is defined in geographic terms, not by the exchange that you are connected to.

Re: City Centre Broadband Strategy

You may know that earlier this year BT announced a £50m scheme to implement superfast broadband in city centres, and we are meeting them soon to try and find out what their plans are for Sheffield. So far BT have not made any public announcements about what they will do, where or when.

The city centre strategy work hasn’t started in earnest yet. This is for 2 reasons. Firstly because we want to understand what BT’s plans are for Sheffield city centre so that we know what the size and scale of the problem is re: superfast broadband connectivity. Secondly, because it has taken a lot of work to get the BDUK Programme completed, and we have had to concentrate resources on getting that work completed first.

The BDUK contracts will be signed very soon, the meeting with BT is scheduled for September, so we will start to develop a city centre broadband strategy very soon. I hope that helps answer your question. The publicity and communications activity will start to ramp up once the BDUK contracts have been signed and more information will then become available. Please get in touch in the new year for a progress update on the city centre strategy if you havent heard anything publicly before then.

BT regularly update their website with details about what exchanges/cabinets will be fibre enabled and when so its worth checking there every so often (http://www.superfast-openreach.co.uk/where-and-when/). Please also be aware that you can lobby BT directly and the methods of doing this are described on their website. I know of a housing estate in Barnsley that recently lobbied BT to replace an “exchange only” copper service with a “fibre to the cabinet” service – this was part funded by the residents.

Quote:Exchange Name: ATTERCLIFFE

Status: Exploring Solutions
We’re keen to bring Superfast Fibre to your area and are exploring how best to achieve that. We may deliver it as part of our commercial programme, or by working in partnership with your local authority. At the moment you can’t order Superfast Fibre. For more information visit the FAQ section.