Agenda item

Question: Julian Baker (Farnborough Parish Council) asked how deep the fibre cables would be buried.

Answer: Joe Frost (Gigaclear) responded that on a public highway, the cables would be buried 30cm deep which was above other utilities but well protected from the road surface. On private land the cable would usually be run along a fence or wall or if necessary buried 15cm deep. Landowners often chose to cover the cable in plastic piping to make it easier to identify.

Question: Richard Smith (Sulhamstead Parish Council)asked if there was an installation fee in addition to the £100 connection fee.

Answer: Joe Frost (Gigaclear) confirmed that regarding installation a customer would have three options:

1.    Self-installation: A customer would be provided with an installation pack containing 50m of fibre-optic cable for no additional cost, or 100m of cable for £64.

2.    Gigaclear installation: A customer would be charged £95 in addition to the connection fee for professional Gigaclear installers. The cost might be slightly more if installers needed to dig up a tarmac drive.

3.    Nominated installation: Gigaclear would train a nominated village ‘handyperson’ to install the cables who could then charge residents whatever they deemed necessary.

Question: Marcus Aldridge (Frilsham Parish Council) asked if residents on a private road would be able to access the service.

Answer: Joe Frost (Gigaclear) advised that Gigaclear would require permission from private landowners to lay the cable so if there was a dispute, they would either find an alternative route for the cable to be laid or they might need to take court action, however they had not taken any court action so far as they had been able to negotiate.

Question: Ian Parsons (Basildon Parish Council) asked if there were any constraints to restrict the prices that Gigaclear could charge in two years time.

Answer: Joe Frost (Gigaclear) reminded the audience that Gigaclear had invested £16m into the project. The terms and conditions, which were provided to customers at the point of sale, included the pricing policy and stated that Gigaclear could increase their prices in January by the Retail Price Index plus 2%.

Question: Martin Crane (Hungerford Town Council) asked what remedial action would be taken if the cable was damaged, including what compensation customers might receive.

Answer: Joe Frost (Gigaclear) advised that preventative action was taken if a cable was lain under farmland by burying it 1m deep, rather than the normal 15cm. However in the event of a cable breaking, Gigaclear would be able to locate the point of the break within centimetres and they had a response team available 24/7 to respond.

Question: Nick Carter (Stratfield Mortimer Parish Council) asked whether Gigaclear had spoken to the providers of home entertainment packages to negotiate a discount for Gigaclear customers.

Answer: Matthew Hare (Gigaclear) advised that home entertainment packages, with the exception of BT Sport, could be provided over the Gigaclear network but Gigaclear were not able to install their network where customers were already receiving a ‘superfast’ service of 24mbs or better.

Question: Councillor Graham Pask (Ward Member for Bucklebury) asked how Gigaclear identified those who qualified for Superfast Broadband and explained that he was signed up to a package to receive superfast broadband but was receiving approximately 12Mbs whereas his neighbour was receiving 38Mbs, and would his neighbour be ignored.

Answer: Joe Frost (Gigaclear) replied that the Gigaclear website had a postcode checker for residents to identify if their property would be included in the roll-out. He added that they had to identify where the technology was not able to deliver superfast broadband even though residents had subscribed to that service. So on a road of ten houses where four houses were already receiving superfast broadband, the Gigaclear ‘pots’ would be installed but under private funding from Gigaclear rather than as part of the subsidy from West Berkshire Council.

Question: Councillor Alan Law enquired what the criteria was for deciding which parish areas would be included in each of the four roll-out phases.

Answer: Joe Frost (Gigaclear) advised that the schedule of works was determined in part by permissions from Highways regarding where they could work and when but also the availability of backhaul infrastructure from the national network carriers, Vodafone and Virgin Media.

Supplementary: Councillor Alan Law further asked if there were any commercial criteria.

Answer: Matthew Hare (Gigaclear) confirmed that they sought to roll out the phases in an order which kept costs down.