Upper Deverills Parish Council Broadband Action Group

Confidential - UDPC Broadband Survey 2013

Upper Deverills Parish Council

Broadband Action Group

IMPORTANT & URGENT – PLEASE HELP BY 15 NOVEMBER

Your opportunity to help to get Superfast Broadband for

Kingston and Monkton Deverill

As you may have read in this month’s Parish News we have been successful in submitting an Expression of Interest for the Rural Community Broadband Fund. This is a European Union grant fund (administered by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs - Defra) that is available to help communities that wouldn’t otherwise get Superfast Broadband provided by either commercial companies or the additional work being carried out by local authorities (Wiltshire Council in our case). We understand that we were successful in passing the first stage because the need for better broadband has been the subject of community concern for some years and was recently identified as the top priority for action in the Parish Plan consultation. We have also been advised that we are the only community in Wiltshire that has passed the first stage in the Defra grant process.

Under present plans all communities have to be provided with a minimum download speed of 2 mbps (megabits per second) by 2016. Currently typical broadband speeds in the two villages are about 0.5 to 1.5 mbps. So the new minimum requirement would provide speeds between a third and four times as fast as at present. However this would still be relatively slow in broadband terms so transmitting large files or streaming video (such as from BBC iPlayer) or similar services would still take a long time.

Superfast Broadband would give the villages speeds closer to that being provided in towns and cities with a minimum of 24mbps. We strongly believe that with the increasing use of the internet to provide services Superfast Broadband will soon become the minimum that will be needed to be able to use the internet satisfactorily. We also think that in the future people will be more likely to be interested in living or moving here if we have Superfast Broadband. As importantly, for the businesses located in the villages, Superfast Broadband will enable them to continue to develop into the future.

Under the proposals being developed by Wiltshire Council (in conjunction with BT) Brixton Deverill will be provided with Superfast Broadband. But Kingston and Monkton Deverill (which are served by a different telephone exchange) will not. If we can secure a grant from the Rural Community Broadband Fund and find some other sources of private funding we may well be able to get Superfast Broadband in Kingston and Monkton Deverill too. But to stand a chance of achieving that we need to provide more information about our needs and possible demand and for that we need your help. We need responses quickly as we have to supply some further information about potential demand by the end of November.

Continued overleaf/

All information supplied will be held by Upper Deverills Parish Council and will remain secure and confidential. Your data will only be used for research purposes and will not be passed to any third parties or used for marketing purposes in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998.

PLEASE COMPLETE ONE SURVEY PER HOUSEHOLD or BUSINESS PREMISE

PLEASE RETURN THE FORM AS SOON AS POSSIBLE

BUT BY NO LATER THAN 15 NOVEMBER

If you have any questions or would like any help in completing the form please contact Phil Davies in Kingston Deverill on 845335 or Richard Kitson at Monkton Deverill on 844803.

If you would like an electronic copy of the form please download from or email or

Please return the completed form to Phil Davies at 23 Kingston Deverill or Richard Kitson at Windrush House, 89a Monkton Deverill or by email as above.

You can also complete the form on line at Survey Monkey. Go to

THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP

WE WILL KEEP YOU BRIEFED ON PROGRESS THROUGH THE PARISH NEWS

Upper Deverills Parish Council Broadband Action Group

Broadband Questionnaire November 2013

ABOUT YOU & YOUR HOUSEHOLD

Please enter your address and contact information.

1 Postcode (very important as we have to collect some information by each postcode):

2 House or premises name, number and village:

3 In case we have any questions please provide the name of the person completing the questionnaire and your ‘phone number and email address:

An important factor in helping our case is to build a picture of our community.

People of different ages have different needs. So please tell us:

1 How many people live at your address (or consider it as their principal home)?

2 Of these how many are under 25?

3 And how many over 65?

4 How many of the people at this address are in full time education?

We need to know how you access broadband at the moment.

1 If you do not use broadband at this property at the moment please tick here:

2 If you do use broadband please tick below how you connect (tick as many as apply):

Fixed telephone line with a router
Fixed telephone line using dial up
Mobile ‘phone
Satellite (this requires the use of a special dedicated dish)
Wireless (this means a special arrangement connecting to a local wireless receiver outside your home. This does not include wireless systems solely within your own home and which use the fixed telephone line)

ABOUT YOUR FUTURE USE OF BROADBAND

We also need to know whether you would access Superfast Broadband if it was provided, through your fixed telephone line.

There may be an extra cost for Superfast Broadband. Based on present arrangements the extra monthly cost would reflect the extra services that you might access rather than just the faster speed. You can see what extra costs are currently quoted by looking at adverts in newspapers or on the website of your current provider.

1 If you would not use Superfast Broadband in the future at this property please tick here:

2 If Superfast Broadband was provided through the fixed telephone line would you be likely to take it up with any extra cost there may be? Yes/No

(To be absolutely clear this does not commit you in any way to taking up the service):

We also need to know whether the provision of Superfast Broadband would enable you to use more services.

These might include the following (tick all that your household might use):

Telehealth care (for example to enable remote monitoring of an individual’s health by a GP or hospital)
Streaming films, video etc (such as through BBC iPlayer)
Research and investigation for education purposes
Cloud computing (access to the remote storage of electronic records)
HD (High Definition) teleconferencing (for meetings)
Other – please explain

USING BROADBAND FOR BUSINESS NOW AND IN FUTURE

If there is no business use at this address now and you don’t think that there will be any in the future at these premises then you do not need to answer any more questions.

If there is no business use at the moment but the provision of Superfast Broadband might mean that a business could be operated from these premises please go to Q8.

A very important factor for the success of our application is looking at the amount of business use now and in the future in the villages.

1 If there is business use at the moment please say if this property is one that is only used for business? (Yes/No)

2 Is a business operated from this address? This is defined as “used as a primary place of work or registered address for a business”. (Yes/No and please advise if more than one business or person)

3 Does anyone at this address work from home at any time for a business that is registered elsewhere? (Yes/No and please advise if more than one person or business)

We need to know the type of business involved.

So if you have indicated any sort of business use in Q6 please say which of the following categories the business falls into. If more than one business then indicate for each business:

Agriculture/agricultural equipment
Manufacturing
Mining and quarrying
Energy
Construction
Wholesale and retail trade
Motor vehicles
Transportation and storage
Accommodation and food service
ICT
Financial and Insurance
Professional services
Public administration
Health and social work
Education
Arts, entertainment
Other

We also need to know whether the provision of Superfast Broadband would enable existing businesses to develop; or new businesses to be operated.

1 Would an existing business based at this address be likely to expand? (Yes/No and please advise if more than one business)

2 Would a new business be likely to be operated from this address? This is defined as “used as a primary place of work or registered address for a business”. Do not include any business already mentioned under Q6. (Yes/No and please advise if more than one business or person)

3 Would anyone at this address be likely to work from home for a business that is registered elsewhere? Again do not include any business already mentioned under Q6. (Yes/No and please advise if more than one person or business).

Continued/

If you have answered “yes” to 1 or 2 at Q8 by saying that there would be a new business operated locally or an existing business expanding please say how many new jobs may be involved (obviously this will be an estimate):

1 In Kingston or Monkton Deverill

2 Elsewhere

3 Using the list in Q7 which industry category would the jobs fall into?

Finally we also need to know whether any existing jobs in Kingston and Monkton Deverill are at risk of being lost at the moment but would be saved if Superfast Broadband is provided.

The definition provided to us is that the jobs “need to be under threat of redundancy” so we recognise that this is unlikely. However if there are any jobs that fall within this category please provide a brief explanation and numbers below.

THANK YOU AGAIN FOR YOUR HELP