1. Home
  2. FAQs

FAQs


The Better Broadband for Suffolk programme started in 2010. At that point there had been several commercial broadband upgrades in Suffolk; however, these services were generally constrained to Suffolk’s urban areas, and there wasn’t a commercial business case for upgrades for around a half of Suffolk - and this is where the programme started from.

The programme receives public funding to make fibre broadband available in areas that are not expected to be covered by commercial upgrades. The funding is from:

Suffolk County Council

Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)

New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership (NALEP)

and other local councils

 

Openreach are contracted to deliver the work.

Under the government’s "Superfast Extension Programme", we now have a contract in place for Openreach to extend fibre broadband coverage to 98% of all Suffolk premises during 2020. Beyond this, we are committed to reaching 100% superfast broadband coverage in Suffolk as quickly as possible. Following the Phase 3 procurement in early 2020, the Better Broadband for Suffolk programme announced that the work to provide connectivity to approximately 5,000 more premises in Suffolk will be carried out by Openreach. Openreach is the operator of the UK’s largest phone and broadband network, used by the likes of BT, Sky, Plusnet and TalkTalk. Work delivered through the Phase 3 contract is underway and will continue until September 2022.

The Better Broadband for Suffolk Programme is directed by a contract management board composed of Suffolk County Council’s Cabinet Member for Broadband, supported by senior officers, and senior executives from BT Openreach.

The Programme is informed and supported by a Stakeholder Board, bringing together key stakeholders from:

  • Suffolk County Council
  • the Federation of Small Businesses
  • Suffolk Chamber of Commerce
  • Community Action Suffolk (CAS)
  • the Suffolk Association of Local Councils (SALC)
  • Country Land and Business Association (CLA)
  • Fram Farmers
  • Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK)
  • Suffolk ACRE
  • and the district/borough councils within Suffolk

The Better Broadband for Suffolk scheme facilitates the availability of access to better broadband. It does not have any responsibility regarding the quality of service you receive from your broadband provider. In some cases, there are things that you can do in your home or business to improve your service. For more information about the steps you can take, please visit the Think Broadband website.

If you have concerns around the service quality, contact your provider in the first instance. If you consider your concerns are not being addressed by your service provider, there are agencies you can contact. For example, for information on consumer rights, visit the GOV.UK website. For independent advice on products and services, you could also go to the Which? website. For information relating to phones, telecoms and internet services, please visit the Ofcom website. 

Yes. Below is a list of the previous Better Broadband for Suffolk newsletters:

If you need any of these documents in a different format:

We’ll consider your request and get back to you as soon as possible. 

You can call the number above if you need to talk to us using an interpreter. Find out more about our interpreting and translating services. 

Yes. There are a number of official publications, these described some of the legal and procurement processes we have been through in order to deliver the programme, and are listed below:

Open Market Review, July 2018

Suffolk Reinvestment State Aid Consultation, April 2016

Suffolk Additional Procurement State Aid Consultation, April/May 2014

Suffolk Better Broadband Original Procurement documents, 2011/12

Suffolk State Aid Consultation, March 2012

Suffolk Intervention Area, March 2012

Suffolk Local Broadband Plan, 2011

If you need any of these documents in a different format:

We’ll consider your request and get back to you as soon as possible. 

You can call the number above if you need to talk to us using an interpreter. Find out more about our interpreting and translating services. 

We are continually updating this website so please check regularly. If you have any further general queries, please contact the Better Broadband team.

We post important programme updates on social media - please go to Suffolk County Council's Facebook account, or go to Suffolk County Council's Twitter account

The aim of the programme is to achieve the best long-term broadband coverage for the whole county.

Openreach are contracted to manage the roll-out of the fibre broadband, and the current contract - phase 3 - requires them to connect a set number of premises by September 2022, to extend coverage in Suffolk beyond 98%.

It's not possible with a programme of this size to reach all areas at the same time so some areas will be enabled before others. We fully understand people's frustration and the huge importance of fibre broadband and we will keep you regularly updated as our plans evolve. The project will tackle a range of areas at the same time, including geographically challenging and easier coverage areas across Suffolk.

Overall, we are focused on ensuring the roll-out is as efficient as possible, in order to meet coverage targets, and the eventual coverage of all Suffolk premises as soon as this is achievable.

If you want to check out the progress of the deployment across Suffolk, please visit the independent Think Broadband website.

Planning a roll-out of fibre broadband on this scale takes into account many factors including local demographics, geography, planning requirements and the existing engineering infrastructure. With a programme of this size, it’s not possible to plan everything at the same time so some areas will be enabled before others. Engineering plans and delivery timescales depend on factors such as planning applications, the provision of electricity to the new roadside cabinets and even local nature and the weather.

The aim of the Better Broadband for Suffolk programme is to achieve the best possible long-term broadband coverage for the county within the resources available.

The rollout takes into account many factors including local demographics and geography, planning requirements, the availability of suitable technologies to provide a service and the existing engineering infrastructure. Neighbouring communities may be served from different telephone exchanges which in turn can have different levels of existing fibre capacity. This may result in staggered deployment timescales even within a very localised area.

The deployment follows the most efficient path, giving the best value for money. No area has been scheduled in preference to any other.

Providing superfast broadband to an area requires a huge amount of engineering work, often with many miles of brand new underground fibre cable being installed. Building the new cabinet itself is often the first activity that takes place, as it also needs to be connected to the fibre network, electricity supply and copper connections to the existing cabinet. This can take between six to nine months due to the complexity of the work being undertaken, which often requires road works and permission to work on private land – all of which required additional time. Even once fully connected, it needs to be tested rigorously by Openreach engineers.

We work as hard and as quickly as we can to connect people, but given the amount of work that needs to be done, it often takes some months between the appearance of a new cabinet and residents and businesses being able to order a superfast broadband contract.

When a cabinet is installed Openreach knows how many properties will be connected to it and makes an assumption about how many available connections will be taken up. If the take-up is higher than anticipated then Openreach will look to increase capacity by installing new connections cards into the cabinet.

Openreach actively monitor each cabinet and will automatically order the new cards, so that in many cases the upgrade will happen before the cabinet reaches capacity. On occasion, however, take-up is not only higher than expected but also happens very quickly, so that the cabinet reaches capacity and there is a short delay before more orders can be taken.

There are many factors that influence a cabinet’s location. These include, for example, access to mains power, the proximity of the fibre spine that will need to be extended to support the connectivity of the cabinet and making sure all existing distribution points are included.

The delivery of fibre broadband is a complex engineering task, which is why there are different solutions for different areas. Some areas are served by more than one cabinet and /or exchange, which may be upgraded at different times.

Each area may have different types of fibre (such as FTTC and FTTP) and some will take longer than others to plan and deliver.

It is the responsibility of the developer to contact Openreach (or other infrastructure providers) before the development has begun to contract for the provision of fibre broadband into the new housing or business development.

Your first step should be to contact the developer – if you need further advice, please contact Openreach via their online form to find out more. 

 

Suffolk County Council is committed to getting superfast broadband to all premises in Suffolk. For some homes and businesses this may take a few more years - however, there are some other options for getting better broadband.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is responsible for a voucher scheme to increase gigabit-capable connectivity in rural areas - read more about the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme. Please note: as of January 2022, the Gigabit Broadband Voucher scheme is currently paused for Suffolk during the Suffolk Project Gigabit tender process. We will update this page as soon as the scheme is available again for Suffolk.

With a community self-help option, such as a community self-dig, you may be able to bring the broadband upgrade to your community forward - read more about broadband self-dig schemes.

Through Openreach’s Fibre Community Partnerships, areas that are not included in any fibre roll-out plans can get advice and support to bring fibre broadband to their area - read more about Fibre Community Partnership schemes. (Update: January 2022 - due to high demand, Openreach have paused new registrations for the Fibre Community Partnership scheme - however, you can still register an interest and Openreach will contact you as soon as the scheme resumes).

There are also a number of interim broadband solutions available, such as satellite broadband, mobile broadband or wireless broadband - read more about interim broadband solutions. 

The broadband universal service obligation (USO) gives people in the UK the right to request a decent and affordable broadband connection. Under the USO, eligible homes and businesses will be able to request a connection where the cost of building it is no more than £3,400. Please visit our USO page to find out more - the Ofcom website also has more information about the USO.

If your premise has access to fibre broadband, you will need to order a fibre broadband service from a broadband provider.

There are a number of providers to choose from; most of these also offer bundles where you get phone, broadband and TV all for a fixed monthly fee. There are various comparison sites available to help you choose the best provider for you: Ofcom (Office of Communications) accredits a number of comparison sites to ensure they are accurate, accessible, transparent and up-to-date. Ofcom also offers price advice on broadband services, as well as providing a checklist of things you need to check before signing up to a new broadband deal.

Once you have signed up, your retail service provider will arrange for an installation of your connection, and probably provide you with a wireless router, so you can access your internet via an Ethernet cable, or via roaming wirelessly around your house.

If you have ordered a Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) broadband service, watch the following video to find out what you can do to get ready to be connected:

 

No - to get fibre broadband, you'll need to place an order with an Internet Service Provider (ISP). This is because fibre broadband uses a different technology (e.g. fibre optic) and an engineer will need to visit your premises to install the necessary equipment.

There are several ISPs offering fibre broadband packages, so you can shop around and choose the package that's best for you. If you decide not to upgrade to fibre broadband, you'll be able to continue using your existing broadband service as normal.

Fibre broadband is the second generation of broadband and is much faster, more reliable and uses a different technology than standard first-generation broadband.

Whilst traditional broadband is delivered via copper telephone lines, fibre broadband uses fibre optic cables. The speed and extent of the transformation enabled by better broadband has been remarkable, and much has been achieved over recent years, both nationally and in Suffolk.

Fibre broadband can be delivered in two ways from the exchange: Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) and Fibre to the Premises (FTTP).

Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC)

FTTC uses fibre-optic cables throughout the network right up to the street cabinet. It then uses existing copper wires to connect the cabinet to homes and businesses. FTTC provides download speeds up to 80mbps and upload speeds up to 20mbps, which are then offered as different service packages by retail Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Most of the fibre broadband in Suffolk will be of this type.

The speed delivered to your home is dependent on its distance from the cabinet. The further your home is from the cabinet, the lower the speed you can get. This is because the last part of the Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) service uses the copper telephone line into your home. The copper line needs to be less than 1.2km long to deliver “superfast” speeds (24Mbps or more).

Fibre to the Premises (FTTP)

FTTP means fibre-optic cables run from the exchange right to the door of each house or business. It provides download speeds up to 330mbps and upload speeds up to 30mbps, again offered as different service packages by ISPs.

For more broadband terms, please check out Ofcom's Jargon Buster.

 

 

 

Mbps means Megabits per second – it’s the way that internet speeds are measured. One bit means one piece of basic information and one megabit is a million bits of information. The higher the number of Mbps you are able to download each second, the faster your connection.

For more information about broadband speeds, and what can affect them, please visit the Think Broadband website. 

For more broadband terms, please check out Ofcom's Jargon Buster.

There are various online checkers available for you to use, for example the uSwitch.com broadband speed test, the broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk Broadband Speed Test and speedtest.net's speed checker.

To find out more information about internet speeds, please visit the independent Think Broadband website 

To find out how to get more for less from your broadband, please visit Ofcom's website. 

Better Broadband for Suffolk partners