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In January 2024 I wrote an article in our Storrington edition about the sporadic and random provision of fibre broadband in the village, specifically, and the county at large.
I asked Paul Marshall, leader of West Sussex County Council (WSCC) if he could help with three questions:
- Which public authority has oversight of the fibre project?
- Were the same streets being dug up twice by different contractors?
- Was there a guarantee that every premise in Storrington would get fibre?
He replied “To clarify whilst it is understandable that anyone may expect there is a single owner of a single plan to roll out gigabit-capable broadband to West Sussex, the reality is that this is not the case, nationwide.”
He then said that WSCC were working with the government’s Gigabit programme and also developing “our own funding and delivery schemes extending beyond the reach of this programme and will seek to ensure as many homes and business can access fast and reliable digital connectivity as possible.”
So in other words some roads will be dug up more than once and have a choice of fibre provider, whilst others will have no fibre at all. No-one is in control of how, where when or why the different providers lay their cables – and no-one can find out. The private companies will do as they please, and the council will try to plug the gaps. But not for everyone.
He promised to ask the three companies involved – Giganet, Trooli and Box Broadband – to put details of their local coverage on their websites. That didn’t happen.
Giganet have now merged into a company called Cuckoo, and we have reports of residents who are unable to get connected with Cuckoo living in the same road as others with a 150gb connection from Giganet. A Giganet spokesperson said “While we may build pockets of network where demand is high, we are not actively looking to expand our built network locally.”
Box are now Community Fibre who, whilst the promise on their website says “Everyone deserves access to better broadband” clearly their Senior PR Manager Josh Spiers hasn’t read this as he point blank ignores all my requests for information.
Trooli are connecting those houses which have fibre in the road but their spokesperson said “I am not aware of any more progress installation wise for the area.”
I asked broadband@westsussex.gov.uk and Paul Marshall for an update on their own efforts, and received the following reply from Greg Merrett, Project Manager for the Gigabit scheme.
“I fully appreciate your frustration with the lack of progress from commercial suppliers with regards to the pace of broadband rollout for your area and I share your concerns about the challenges surrounding the roll out of broadband infrastructure.” He went on “We recognise the critical role broadband plays and the understandable desire for enhanced services. WSCC has been proactive in addressing these issues and has invested heavily where mechanisms and space has been created by Government to enable us to do so. I sympathise with your broader point about the current lack of opportunities available to local authorities to compel more rapid action. We have consistently advocated for a stronger role to support local communities and secured necessary infrastructure via projects such as Better Connected and the West Sussex Top Up to the UK Gigabit Voucher Scheme.”
Openreach say they are extending their networks, search for “Openreach Fibre”.
Other ways to get faster broadband include 4/5g services which are being rolled out by providers such as Three, which take away the need for any kind of cabling. Alternatively you can just buy yourself a 4g router and a sim card from the network of your choice.
