Meeting Notes Present: Paul Coles Karen Bridgeford Steve Male Venue: Author: S. F. Male Version 1.0 (BT) (DCC/CDS) (HCG) Dan Piper James McInnes (BT) (DCC) Moorland Lodge, Burdon Lane, Highampton Meeting Date: 27 Feb 2014 12:00 Date Printed: 1 Mar 2014 10:58 1 The purpose of the meeting was to review the standing of Highampton Parish in the Connecting Devon & Somerset (CDS) project to improve rural broadband in the counties of Devon & Somerset. 2 For those not fully familiar with all the attendees: 2.1 Paul Coles is the BT South West Regional Manager. 2.2 Dan Piper is the BT manager liaising with Connecting Devon & Somerset. 2.3 Karen Bridgeford is a Principle Economic Development Officer, Devon County Council/Connecting Devon & Somerset Broadband Team. 2.4 James McInnes is the Devon County Councillor for Hatherleigh and Chagford which includes Highampton. 2.5 Steve Male is the Chairman of the Highampton Community Group. 3 Karen confirmed that on present plans it was unlikely that Highampton would receive any improvement to its broadband services under the existing funding arrangements due to its current circa 2Mb service and its location. 4 However this might change if: 4.1 The current plan yields more take up thus freeing further funds, 4.2 Or as central Government releases further funding (which it has but this has yet to be allocated), 4.3 Or Highampton might be upgraded in later parts of the plan. Filename: 140227 Broadband Meeting Notes v2.docx Page: 1 of 6 Meeting Notes Present: Paul Coles Karen Bridgeford Steve Male Venue: Author: S. F. Male Version 1.0 5 (BT) (DCC/CDS) (HCG) Dan Piper James McInnes (BT) (DCC) Moorland Lodge, Burdon Lane, Highampton Meeting Date: 27 Feb 2014 12:00 Date Printed: 1 Mar 2014 10:58 Paul then outlined the process to set up a community based scheme: 5.1 This would be a contract between a community body, often but not always the Parish Council, and BT to install the necessary fibre infrastructure. 5.2 This would be a one-off charge and then subsequent maintenance and any upgrades would be handled by BT and/or the Internet Service Providers (ISPs). 5.3 The first stage is for HCG to supply BT with representative telephone numbers of the area to be included in the plan. 5.4 BT would provide a Non-Disclosure Agreement for the community body to sign with BT. 5.5 BT would review the telephone numbers and then develop a quote to install the infrastructure. 5.6 Up until this point there would be no charges by BT, DCC or CDS. 5.7 However there would be no assistance in funding from CDS or DCC. 5.8 The installation would typically comprise of a cabinet in Highampton that would aggregate all the telephone cables to the premises and then it in turn would connect to the exchange. Along with a second, adjacent, cabinet to handle the fibre-optic broadband connections and linkage to the copper premises cables. 5.9 If the community body decided to proceed the price quoted would be due payable to BT 50% on signing a contract and 50% on completion. 5.10 The typical time taken from signature of contract to high-speed broadband being available locally is typically 6 to 9 months. 5.11 After completion then the actual speed available at each premises would depend on the distance to the new cabinets but in any event would be better than that obtaining now via the ADSL systems currently installed. 5.12 To obtain these faster speeds then each subscriber would have to contact their ISP and get a new service agreement that would typically involve an increase in cost for the higher speed connection. The actual prices charged would depend on the ISP the customer contracted with. Filename: 140227 Broadband Meeting Notes v2.docx Page: 2 of 6 Meeting Notes Present: Paul Coles Karen Bridgeford Steve Male Venue: Author: S. F. Male Version 1.0 6 (BT) (DCC/CDS) (HCG) Dan Piper James McInnes (BT) (DCC) Moorland Lodge, Burdon Lane, Highampton Meeting Date: 27 Feb 2014 12:00 Date Printed: 1 Mar 2014 10:58 It was later stressed by Karen in an e-mail (copy at end of minutes) subsequent to the meeting that to proceed down this route: 6.1 A direct relationship will be formed between a legal entity (e.g. Company Limited by Guarantee) within the Community and BT’s commercial operations and result in a legally-binding contract if the Community opts for a self-funded option. 6.2 The Community needs to recognise that no additional or matching contributions will be made by the Connecting Devon and Somerset project into this arrangement at any stage going forwards. 6.3 Once a formal quote has been provided to the Community and the Community indicates it wishes to proceed, 50% of the sum required from the Community is due before commencement of the works, with the remaining 50% being due post completion and sign-off. 6.4 The typical timescale from BT survey to ready for service is 6 – 9 months, assuming all runs smoothly. 7 It was stressed by Karen, James and Paul that the major benefits of going this route were: 7.1 The certainty of having high speed access irrespective of any potential changes to the CDS plans. 7.2 The ability of advancing the time when they are available over what could be achieved by CDS if they changed their plans. 8 In the event that after any contract being agreed CDS should widen its current plan to include Highampton there would be no reimbursement of the cost to the residents of Highampton. 9 The situation about the loss of the BT LearningStream service at the school was discussed and James, Karen and Paul said they would investigate what is going on because they were unaware of these parallel developments with SWGfL. 10 Steve queried the current CDS status of the 01837 numbers in the parish as being currently “live” for high-speed broadband. Karen said that did not mean that every ISP would offer a service or indeed whether any service was indeed available. The Filename: 140227 Broadband Meeting Notes v2.docx Page: 3 of 6 Meeting Notes Present: Paul Coles Karen Bridgeford Steve Male Venue: Author: S. F. Male Version 1.0 (BT) (DCC/CDS) (HCG) Dan Piper James McInnes (BT) (DCC) Moorland Lodge, Burdon Lane, Highampton Meeting Date: 27 Feb 2014 12:00 Date Printed: 1 Mar 2014 10:58 only way to check this would be for those residents with a 01837 number to ask their ISP if a service was available and at what cost. 11 Actions outstanding: 11.1 HCG to supply to Paul Coles the local telephone numbers Steve Male 11.2 HCG to forward a copy of the SWGfL letter Steve Male 11.3 BT to review the telephone numbers, provide the non-disclosure agreement, and determine the quote. Paul Coles 11.4 BT to provide the upstream and downstream bandwidth available from the BT LearningStream Paul Coles 11.5 James and Karen to investigate the position for Highampton School as a result of the e-mail and its relationship/impact on the CDS project JamesMcinnes & Karen Bridgeford 12 Karen Bridgeford’s subsequent e-mail: Dear Steve, It was good to meet you again and discuss the option of a self-funded scheme for Highampton. CDS is pleased that it is able to use its relationship with BT to broker this option for Highampton/the Parish Council to consider. As stressed at the meeting, the selffunded option allows communities to 1) get an uplift in speed quicker than the CDS roll-out may provide and 2) gives more certainty that they will be covered – the Community must therefore weigh up these advantages in the context that CDS is continuing to lobby hard for additional funding to reach more communities but would not be able to retrospectively fund a self-funded scheme, if Highampton decides to contract for this option. This must be clearly communicated to all residents/businesses in the Parish and we will work with you to do this, should you decide to proceed. I have set out some further key points which need to be fully understood by the Parish Council: Filename: 140227 Broadband Meeting Notes v2.docx Page: 4 of 6 Meeting Notes Present: Paul Coles Karen Bridgeford Steve Male Venue: Author: S. F. Male Version 1.0 (BT) (DCC/CDS) (HCG) Dan Piper James McInnes (BT) (DCC) Moorland Lodge, Burdon Lane, Highampton Meeting Date: 27 Feb 2014 12:00 Date Printed: 1 Mar 2014 10:58 1. A direct relationship will be formed between a legal entity (e.g. Company Limited by Guarantee) within the Community and BT’s commercial operations and result in a legally-binding contract if the Community opts for a self-funded option. 2. The Community needs to recognise that no additional or matching contributions will be made by the Connecting Devon and Somerset project into this arrangement at any stage going forwards. 3. Once a formal quote has been provided to the Community and the Community indicates it wishes to proceed, 50% of the sum required from the Community is due before commencement of the works, with the remaining 50% being due post completion and sign-off. 4. The typical timescale from BT survey to ready for service is 6 – 9 months, assuming all runs smoothly. The next steps are: 1. Steve Male (acting on behalf of the Parish Council/Highampton) to provide 20-30 telephone numbers from the area to Paul Coles. 2. On receipt of the telephone number Paul Coles will ask Openreach to check existing infrastructure and how people in Highampton are currently served by the core network and report back to Steve Male on scheme feasibility. 3. In order to receive the gap funded quote a Non-Disclosure Agreement would need to be signed. Once that is signed, and after a period of design work, Openreach will provide the gap funded quote. The Non-Disclosure agreement is not a commitment to proceed and can be sorted whilst steps 1 and 2 are happening. 4. Parish Council to consider whether to proceed with a self-funded option. I hope this helps your decision-making process on this but please get in touch if there is anything further we can help with. I have also made enquiries re the email you received via the school and just checking a couple of details that were fed back to me before I send you something on this. Will be in touch in due course, Regards, Karen. Filename: 140227 Broadband Meeting Notes v2.docx Page: 5 of 6 Meeting Notes Present: Paul Coles Karen Bridgeford Steve Male Venue: Author: S. F. Male Version 1.0 (BT) (DCC/CDS) (HCG) Dan Piper James McInnes (BT) (DCC) Moorland Lodge, Burdon Lane, Highampton Meeting Date: 27 Feb 2014 12:00 Date Printed: 1 Mar 2014 10:58 Karen Bridgford Economic Development Officer, Devon County Council/Connecting Devon & Somerset Broadband Team Filename: 140227 Broadband Meeting Notes v2.docx Page: 6 of 6