News
The Wessex Internet presentation given at the Briantspuddle Village Hall on Thursday 15 October evening was attended by some 50 Residents.
The evening began with a 20–25 minute presentation, followed by an opportunity for questions and answers. The presentation covered:
- Who Wessex Internet were and what they do
- The planned Government supported but Industry led decommissioning of the copper network and what this meant for residents. No date could be given, but see the Ofcom Statement below which gives a bracket date up to 2031.
- The available Project Gigabit voucher scheme to cater for the cost of installation, and why local demand and interest are important.
- What full fibre is and how fibre technology works – An optical fibre is a thin, flexible strand of high-purity glass (silica) or plastic that transmits data and light pulses over long distances using total internal reflection.
- The equipment required in the home
- The range of fibre broadband and telephone products available
- The different ways the fibre network can be delivered to properties
- The process from initial enquiry through to installation and connection with a likely build period of January to March 2027 subject to weather etc.
- The support available from our local customer service team. This includes advice on transfer from existing provider contracts.
There was a good Q&A session afterwards followed by the opportunity to pre-order an installation with an early bird connection discount.
The Network Builders
Openreach
On their website checker Openreach say the following for the centre of Briantspuddle served by the Bere Regis Telephone Exchange:
We’re planning to build in this area (use this link to check your own post code)
Which means that “while we’re planning on building to your area in the future, our plans to build to these properties aren’t confirmed yet. But they could be soon as we’re aiming to build Full Fibre [FTTP] to 25 million homes and businesses by December 2026 and we’re not stopping there. We intend to keep building after that too. However as with any national infrastructure programme, sometimes we come across issues we weren’t expecting that affect our plans. We’ve reviewed our build plans for your area and there will be a delay getting Full Fibre to Briantspuddle, Dorchester.” They don’t say a delay from any particular date!
Historically, alternative network builders have often focused on rural areas that were less attractive to larger commercial operators. However Openreach is also deploying FTTP in many rural areas through both commercial investment and publicly funded programmes such as Project Gigabit.
Wessex Internet
Wessex Internet builds its own fibre network also taking advantage of Project Gigabit to deliver FTTP services independently of the traditional telephone exchange-based copper network. Openreach deliver a solution utilizing existing Exchanges, ducts and poles, but Wessex Internet build their own network largely underground on land not used for buildings (farmland etc). Ofcom advise that they “have already levelled the playing field by making it significantly cheaper, quicker and easier for BT’s rivals to build their networks, by giving them better access to Openreach’s underground ducts and telegraph poles. This can halve the upfront costs of connecting a home in built up locations“. This means that using the voucher system offered by Project Gigabit the Wessex Internet network can reach into the centre of villages offering the same effectively free installation as before and subject only to a connection cost.
Current Situation
The Parish is served with both Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) by Openreach and Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) by Wessex Internet. There is only one Openreach Cabinet in the Parish, sited near the existing Telephone cabinet by the bridges at the northern entrance to Briantspuddle. Both cabinets are fed from the Bere Regis Telephone Exchange via underground fibre and copper cables across the fields. The cabinets are inter-connected so that the fibre from the Exchange transfers to the copper leading to households by duct and pole. Rogers Hill, Throop and Brockhill take their telephone service direct from the Bere Regis Exchange. Affpuddle takes its telephone service from the Exchange in Puddletown and Waddock and Pallington Heath take their telephone service from the Exchange in Wool.
The majority of households in Briantspuddle within easy reach of the Fibre Cabinet take their broadband service from it using existing copper cable. Households on the edges of the village get a reduced service due to distance from the Cabinet but have been able to take advantage of Wessex Internet or use 4G. Households in Affpuddle, Rogers Hill, Throop, Brockhill, Waddock and Pallington Heath are similarly poorly placed and have also been able to take advantage of Wessex Internet.
As legacy copper-based telephone services are retired and customers migrate to fibre-based services equipment such as personal safety devices and emergency call numbers linked to landlines that continue to operate during local power outages will gradually disappear. As things stand households must be aware that after the end of January 2027 these arrangements will only be available on a fibre based service, called Voice over Internet Provider (VoIP) using a broadband carrier. Households will then have to consider backup arrangements as unlike the traditional copper wire connected telephone fibre broadband generally requires mains power.
Ofcom Statement 27 September 2026:
“Retiring the copper network
Over time, customers currently using Openreach’s legacy copper-based network will migrate, either to Openreach’s fibre to the premises (FTTP) network or to rival networks.
Eventually, Openreach’s copper-based network can be decommissioned to avoid the costly running of two parallel networks. This is known as ‘copper retirement’. We want our regulation to support the retirement of Openreach’s copper-based network, while facilitating the wider objectives of the Telecoms Access Review 2026-31 to promote competition and investment in high quality gigabit-capable networks.
This statement relates to the second threshold of our copper retirement framework. It sets out our decision to allow Openreach to exclude premises where FTTP is available from the ultrafast coverage requirement that it must meet before the charge control on copper-based services is disapplied in an exchange area. If FTTP services are not available at a premises, then the charge control on copper-based services will remain in place“.
The more remote households with broadband speeds of less than 10 Mbps.
These households are entitled to help from Ofcom’s Universal Service Obligation (USO), run by BT. This is not a group option. It offers a solution to people who receive less than 10Mbps. However, where a suitable 4G service is available, a premises may not qualify for a USO-funded fixed network upgrade. In other cases, the USO can contribute up to £3,400 towards the cost of providing a compliant broadband connection. In such cases the USO guarantees a qualifying connection, but the technology used is not specified and could vary. Although many upgrades ultimately result in FTTP, that is not guaranteed.
For more information on the USO go to www.bt.com/broadband/USO