Broadband in Gulworthy

Many Gulworthy residents will understand the frustration of poor broadband speeds, particularly if connected to the ‘Green Box’ at the junction where the road from Gulworthy Farm comes down to below Gulworthy Cottages and meets the A390. This is because this Green Box is connected to the exchange in Gunnislake and has not been upgraded to fibre. This means the service levels are very poor by today’s standards.

The good news for some residents is that Airband has been contracted by Connecting Devon and Somerset (CDS) to provide broadband via Fibre To The Premise (FTTP) to many areas within Gulworthy Parish.

This FTTP project for Gulworthy is now moving closer to implementation. It’s hoped to complete installation of the fibre network by end quarter 1 (March) 2022. We understand customer connections will begin once the network has been completed.

Gulworthy Parish Council has been working tirelessly over the last few months, with Airband, to generate a database showing all households in the Parish and understand which properties are included in the contract and which are outside it.

Households/properties have either been (subject to survey):

– identified for a fibre connection (Category 1)
– have the fibre network passing the property and should be connected (Category 2)
– or need an extension from the main fibre network or are not close to it (Category 3).

The Category 3 properties are of most concern to us. If they are not offered a connection in this round, we understand that it could be several years before an opportunity arises again, and this will be subject to demand.

In the coming weeks we will endeavour to contact all the Category 3 households and understand whether fibre is something you wish to consider. Airband’s decisions will be demand led i.e. if the demand isn’t there then the Category 3 connections will not happen. As the opportunity to connect to fibre may not happen again for a number of years, think carefully before you decide.

Your Parish Council is committed to working with Airband, CDS and West Devon Borough Council to try and enable all households within our parish to have the choice of a connection. However, there are no guarantees.

To help us understand the level of interest for the broadband service you can let us know by completing this survey.

As more information becomes available we’ll update this page; and as things become clearer we’ll arrange a community meeting.

In the meantime if you have questions you can email kate.gulworthyparishcouncil@gmail.com. It may take a few days to answer emails.