After a long campaign the final cabinets are now live in Corbridge, meaning the whole village now has access to high speed fibre broadband.
This is good news for businesses and local people.
Properties closest to the cabinets can benefit from download speeds of 80 Mbps and upload speeds of 20 Mbps and, as the technology uses the existing copper connections between the cabinet and the properties, these speeds will reduce over distance from the cabinet. This unfortunately means some of the communities outside the village cannot yet benefit from the improved services, but we are working to extend the coverage with additional funding.
NB: It is important to note however that the improved speeds do not happen automatically and if residents or businesses do not upgrade to a fibre based broadband service they will see no improvements. Services are available from a range of internet providers including BT, Plusnet, TalkTalk, O2, EE and others, and our feedback is that many people have been able to upgrade at no extra cost, or in some cases actually saved money on the monthly payments. We have a comparison tool on our website (www.inorthumberland.org.uk) which allows people to enter their postcode and phone number to see which deals are currently available – alternatively many people choose to just contact their existing provider to upgrade.
I am acutely conscious that some villages and isolated rural communities are yet to receive their broadband upgrade. This is a massive job, at high cost, but we are getting there: my latest blog in march gives you more details of when and how this is happening: