Connecting Devon and Somerset update

You may have noticed engineers working in the area. Cllr Rachel Hayes has been in contact with Devon County Council for an update. The project is called Connecting Devon and Somerset and the aim is to improve broadband speeds by installing fibre and replacing some copper wires (the latter reduces broadband speed). The DCC project aims to reduce the copper length between the exchange and premises being served by the exchange, allowing a higher frequency analogue signal to be sent down the original copper wires, in turn allowing for a faster internet service to the premises. This project is on course to be completed by the end of March. 

Separate to this Openreach are working on removing all copper wire in some areas and Knowstone appears to be in an area where it is planned to get some fibre to the premises' connections, although not all of the premises in our area may stand to be upgraded using this technology and some may be connected before others. This is the big caveat! 

Openreach are really the only people who can advise when it comes to this fine level of detail of who and who will not be connected to fibre, and the best source of such information is their own fibre rollout map found here: 

On this you can click your postcode and your premises and if it returns the following message, “Your area is currently in our plans to be upgraded with Fibre to the Premises (FTTP), however we follow a different design and build process for FTTP so you won't see updates at each stage. When you are able to place orders you will see the Accepting Orders message. In some instances our FTTP plans change. If this happens you will move though the journey stages normally.”. These premises will likely be the ones which Openreach are able to upgrade to FTTP. Please note that these plans could stand to change as the rollout progresses.

We will try to keep you updated on progress and fingers crossed for faster broadband speeds in our area soon.