Ultrafast broadband arrives in Culcheth and Croft

ULTRAFAST broadband has arrived in Culcheth and Croft – assisted by the government’s Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme.

Residents will soon be able to obtain the new service through Talk Talk, BT or other providers – the final link being when fibre cable is laid to individual houses
Back in March, residents were being exhorted by both BT Openreach and TalkTalk to sign up for the scheme, which provided £1500 per household towards the installation of the local fibre cabling and infrastructure needed.

‘Ultrafast’ is the name given to broadband with speeds up to 1000 megabits/sec – or ‘gigabit’ -produced by bringing optical fibre to the premises (FTTP) as opposed to the local distribution cabinet (FTTC). Up to now, only the latter has been available locally, which meant much slower broadband speeds because the signal from the cabinet to individual houses had to come via copper wire, degrading the speed.
It wasn’t clear exactly which parts of the area would benefit, and how far the fibre
infrastructure would go. So a group of Kenyon residents got together to try and ensure that their houses would be served.
They contacted Freedom Fibre, a new Manchester company working with TalkTalk, to put pressure on them to install the cabling up Kenyon Lane and Main Lane, where the coverage was in doubt because of their outlying position. Towards the end of March they got the great news that Freedom Fibre had agreed to extend the coverage to their houses.
At the end of July this bore fruit with the installation of the fibre cabling on the telegraph poles, some newly installed, up Kenyon Lane.
One of the group of Kenyon residents, Norman Partington, is a member of Croft Parish Council.
He said: “With more residents working from home post-Covid, Ultrafast broadband will be a huge benefit”.