Superfast Stocksfield!

Superfast broadband is here (mostly)

First the good news. In September and October six of the seven fibre optic broadband cabinets served by the Stocksfield telephone exchange went live and are now accepting orders from customers. These are:

Cabinet 6

Cabinet 6 on Painshawfield Road (opposite Snowdrop Cottage) went live today.

Superfast broadband expands

As of today, the following Stocksfield Exhange cabinets are now live and accepting orders for superfast broadband:

Cabinet 1 - junction of Painshawfield Road and Apperley Rd
Cabinet 3 - Station
Cabinet 4 - Mickley Square
Cabinet 5 - Main Rd opp Cadehill Road
Cabinet 7 - Main Rd, Branch End, outside Boots

That just leaves

Cabinet 6 - Painshawfield Rd opp Snowdrop Cottage: expected by end of October

Cabinet 2 - Meadowfield Rd: still looking at into next year before this one goes live.

Check which cabinet you're on by entering your phone number at: https://www.btwholesale.com/includes/adsl/main.html 

Stocksfield is going live: superfast broadband

Today I got some great news -- two of the Stocksfield telephone cabinets are now live and are acceptting orders for superfast broadband. To recap, there are seven telephone cabinets on the Stocksfield exchange:

Cabinet 1 - junction of Painshawfield Road and Apperley Rd
Cabinet 2 - Meadowfield Rd
Cabinet 3 - Station
Cabinet 4 - Mickley Square
Cabinet 5 - Main Rd opp Cadehill Road
Cabinet 6 - Painshawfield Rd opp Snowdrop Cottage
Cabinet 7 - Main Rd, Branch End, outside Boots

I got the following information from iNorthumberland today.

Cabinets 5 and 7 are now live
Cabinets 3 and 4 are expected any day now
Cabinets 1 and 6 should be live during October
Cabinet 2 is a bit further off - probably into 2015.

I’m on Cabinet 5, so in the interests of journalism (!) I’ve just ordered a superfast service.  (Remember, you can find out which cabinet you're connected to by visiting BT's broadband checker site.) You can buy your service from a number of providers but I guess that many people are with BT and may wish to stay with them. As I've been with Plusnet for a while I thought I'd go with their service. The maximum speed available on my cabinet is a whopping 80 Mb per second! However, I went with Plusnet's cheaper 40 Mb service to begin, with a view to upgrading in the future if I think I need the extra speed.

Here's what you need to know. Because this is a new technology, it is incompatible with standard ADSL broadband. So, I will soon be receiving a visit from a BT technician (as BT still handle the wires) who will replace my current master phone socket with a new fibre compatible one. The technician will also install a fibre broadband modem on that socket. All of this is free of charge. Next, Plusnet are sending me a new router as my current ADSL router is not compatible. This new router is also free (though they are charging me six quid for postage). I see from BT's web site that they will supply a free Home Hub 5 for use with their fibre service.

New Ridley: Decision on False Premises?

Recently I posted some thoughts on the council's complete reversal in its thinking when it chose to approve the planning application for the development at New Ridley. One of the reasons for the decision that I picked up was that the county is concerned that 80% of planning decisions are overturned on appeal. However, a quick look at the Planning Inspectorate's own figures (see page 77) reveals almost the exact opposite to be true: for the Northumberland County Council planning authority in 2013-14 68% of appeals were dismissed.

Was the decision made on a misunderstanding of the facts?

Northumberland's Teenager Tax: Post-16 transport and rural disadvantage

So, there is something of a storm brewing at the moment over the Northumberland County Council's (NCC) decision to axe free travel to post-16 students from this September. This comes in just at the time that the law is changing to make it compulsory for children to stay on at school until the age of 18.

New Ridley: End of the road...

I was deeply disappointed by the about turn of the council last week when it approved the development in New Ridley. I thought we had a really good case for the following reasons.