Faster Broadband for Knockholt Exchange! - and £5000 from BT for a local community project.

BT's Knockholt Exchange supplies phone services to a total of 1737 lines/properties.
1,614 residential premises and 123 non-residential premises.

Many people in our area on Broadband/ADSL are a long way from Knockholt Exchange which means that their broadband connections will run quite slowly. The closer you are to the exchange the higher your connection speed will be.

So those in Knockholt will get the best speeds followed by Halstead and then Badgers Mount and Well Hill.

The Badgers Mount website was part of the previous campaign back in 2003 to help get Knockholt exchange upgraded for ADSL. Along with representatives from Knockholt and Halstead leaflets were delivered to all properties in the area encouraging people to 'register an interest' with BT. When the trigger level set by BT of 300 people was reached the exchange was given a date for it's upgrade.

FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet) 40Mb download connection speeds with 10Mb upload

BT Openreach have started to upgrade the infrastructure by replacing the old copper wires connecting the green street cabinets to the exchange with fibre optics. This new service is known as FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet). It's effectively bringing the exchange closer to peoples homes. The connection from the green street cabinet to the house still uses the normal copper phone line.

At the moment the fastest broadband you can get while connected to the Knockholt exchange is an 'up to' 8Mb product. FTTC offers 'up to' 40Mb download and 10Mb upload. The benefit of using fibre is that there is minimal signal loss over long distances unlike the current copper/aluminium phone lines.

With over 5500 exchanges in the country this work will take years to complete. As with most things, the upgrades are being rolled out where BT think it makes commercial sense. Sevenoaks Exchange is scheduled for 2011 with no planned date for Knockholt.

BT Retail's fibre product is called BT Infinity - other providers also offer FTTC Broadband.
But all the products are dependant on BT upgrading the copper to fibre between the street cabinets and the exchange.

FTTC - The Race to Infinity (4th October 2010)

Today (4/10/2010) BT have announced a competition where a handful of exchanges will be upgraded if enough interest is shown. It looks to be mostly a marketing stunt as the odds on getting Knockholt chosen are pretty slim - BUT perhaps if there is still a fair bit of interest it will register with BT and move us up the list of eventual upgrades!

To be accepted the exchanges have to have over 1000 lines (Knockholt is 1737) and have a least 1000 'votes'. Back in 2003 we managed to get 300 which was then the requirement for normal broadband so achieving over 1000 could be asking a bit much.

But perhaps as a close knit community Badgers Mount, Halstead, Knockholt and Well Hill do stand a chance against some of the larger exchanges as it might be easier to get the message out to residents and businesses and the competition is based on a percentage of votes.

BT have created a website where people can vote or register an interest in FTTC and have the chance of getting their local exchange upgraded.

 Note: Please include a link to
www.bmra.info/broadband
if reproducing the above content.
 

BT flyer:

Do you want faster broadband where you live?

BT is rolling out superfast fibre optic broadband across the UK. Whether you’re big on social networking, gaming or streaming video, with download speeds of up to 40Mb* your life will be transformed.

The Race to Infinity is giving people the chance to vote online for their area to become one of the first to enjoy fibre optic broadband. The five areas which have the largest percentage of votes by December 31st 2010 will win the chance to bring fibre optic broadband to their area and BT will give a donation of computer equipment worth £5,000 to a local community project.**

To vote for your area and help spread the word, visit www.bt.com/racetoinfinity
Winning exchanges will be enabled by early 2012 subject to availability, survey, terms and conditions.
Exchanges need 1,000 premises to be eligible to be one of the winning exchanges. One vote per address.
Race ends midnight 31st December 2010.

*Top speeds affected by various factors including distance from the cabinet and internal wiring.
**£5000 of computer equipment will be given to a community project of BT’s choice.
Once winning exchanges are announced submissions from the local community will be called for and judged by BT.

NB. I happened to be the first person on Knockholt Exchange to vote!

For reference: Original successful BMRA Broadband Campaign notes from 2003.