Dear Town/Parish Council,

I would just like to formally introduce myself as the Airband Community Liaison Executive for your area.

In December 2020, CDS (Connecting Devon and Somerset), with support from the Government, signed contracts with Airband to deliver full fibre broadband to 40,154 homes and businesses in earmarked areas of Devon and Somerset which requires the construction of an estimated 2,419 miles of fibre network. Delivery will be in phases between 2021 and 2024.

My role is to purely liaise with the Parish Council and parishioners alike, to ensure we provide a continual communication flow from start to finish of the fibre broadband project within your area. You also have a direct point of contact should you have any questions or issues arise throughout this period and beyond.

Please feel free to contact me at any time or to arrange for me to visit and address any questions or concerns you have.

If your parishioners have not done so already, I would recommend that they register their interest in fibre broadband on our website www.airband.co.uk.

May I wish you a very pleasant day ahead.

Kind Regards

Sarah Beverley
Community Liaison Executive


Email received from Devon County Council

I am pleased to inform you that properties within your parish have been selected to benefit from Connecting Devon and Somerset’s (CDS) Gainshare initiative with Openreach.

Gainshare is a product of our Phase One contracts whereby take-up over a certain threshold triggered repayment of Government subsidy by Openreach to the CDS programme, to be spent on further roll-out of superfast connections. As a result of significantly exceeding this threshold, we have been able to claw back funds in order to continue our mission of connecting some of the most hard to reach rural areas across the county.

I am specifically contacting you now, since your community will be one of the first to benefit from this £6 million investment, allowing us to begin to roll out Fibre to the Premise (FttP) broadband to difficult to reach parishes such as yours.

What this means for you?

We are working towards connecting properties in your area to superfast broadband by the end of next year with Openreach installing Fibre to the Premise which will give your residents speeds of up to 300mbps (depending on the package they choose).

This will enable your residents to rely on a connection at home which can offer them the ability to stay connected with family and friends, run businesses or work from home and greatly improve productivity with enhanced upload/download speeds.

What happens next?

Over the coming weeks and months you will see survey teams employed by Openreach having a presence in and around your community. Usually easily identifiable by their “high vis” jackets, they will be out surveying the existing telegraph poles and ducts prior to finalising the design and eventual installation of the local network. This means you may see them removing manhole covers, working alongside roads or close to existing infrastructure such as telegraph poles.

Following the initial surveying phase, they will then begin to install new lines in existing infrastructure that has been deemed safe and that has the capacity to accommodate new fibre lines.

We understand that during the current Covid19 pandemic residents may be nervous about the presence of a workforce in your area. We have been assured by Openreach that they understand the importance of maintaining social distancing rules, caring for our communities and respecting the area they are working in.

If you would like to contact me with any questions regarding the rollout or Openreach’s impending presence in your area. Please do not hesitate to contact me.