The Voneus team is hard at work on the final stages of its FTTP rollout in Talaton, bringing gigabit

Quest for fibre broadband close to an end as Devon villages celebrate rollout

A collection of communities in East Devon are seeing light at the end of the tunnel for their campaigns to bring fibre broadband to the area, as a rural broadband specialist finalises its rollout of Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) connections.

Voneus Broadband is hosting drop-in sessions in Whimple, Talaton, and Clyst Hydon from 13 to 16 June as part of its programme to install gigabit-capable broadband across the area, with the first connections to go live in the coming weeks.

Residents will have the chance to ask any questions about what the process will be for connecting their homes and businesses to ultrafast broadband, as well as look at equipment which will be used in the home upon completion.

More than 1300 homes across villages such as Payhembury, Whimple, Talaton, and Clyst Hydon will benefit from the installation, which will see residents gain access to matching upload and download speeds of up to 1Gbps as well as Voice over Internet Protocol capabilities.

The builds form part of Voneus’ investment in bringing future-proof, gigabit-capable broadband to the South West, with plans to connect a further 1300 homes across the region during the remainder of this year.

For the residents of Talaton and Clyst Hydon, the rollout marks the end of a multi-year campaign to bring strong, reliable broadband to the area, with the villages seeing several knockbacks on their journey.

Talaton has been pushing for better broadband since 2016, with the community initially leaping from under 2Mbps to more than 30Mbps as part of an interim wireless solution which saw infrastructure installed at the Exeter Science Park to allow for the connection to reach the village.

The wireless solution came after the village was quoted by another provider upwards of £200,000 to make a FTTP rollout commercially viable, however Voneus came in to further upgrade the connection into a full fibre rollout.

Talaton residents will now see their speeds more than double what the interim wireless solution provided, and community broadband champion Graham Rooms said: “We are thrilled that Voneus has helped deliver this vital service to all of us.

“Many other providers had us too far down their rollout lists or told us a new build was not commercially viable without each home contributing thousands of pounds, but we as a village could simply not wait around anymore.

“This rollout will ensure daily tasks, which were previously painful for many before Voneus arrived, become effortlessly quick, as well as help transform our village into a modern rural community.”

Clyst Hydon is another village which will benefit from the FTTP rollout, with the pandemic reinforcing the desire to secure more stable speeds as some residents were forced to drive for hours each day just to have a sufficient connection for work.

The village had been reaching out to other providers for the last eight years, but no organisation deemed the community commercially viable to develop a full fibre connection before Voneus extended their wireless build in Talaton to the community.

Clyst Hydon Parish Councillor Chris Jones said: “It has been a long and frustrating journey to bring strong broadband to the village, but we are grateful there is finally light at the end of the tunnel.

“It is almost immeasurable how much of a boost this will be to the community, as it enables businesses and parishioners working from home to finally have acceptable high speeds and it will help engage and keep local the next generation in the village.”

The builds will mark a further boost to the region’s connection, with 43.8 per cent of all households across East Devon currently having access to ultrafast broadband with speeds of more than 100Mbps, according to the most recent Ofcom data.

Heather Thompson, team leader for Voneus’ South West community engagement team, said: “No one should be penalised with a poor connection just because of where they live, and working with these villages it is clear that many hard-to-reach communities are crying out for someone to help bring this service to them.

“That is the reason why we are so committed to investing in communities like Whimple, Payhembury, Talaton, and Clyst Hydon with FTTP rollouts as it will help bring about a better-connected tomorrow for all of us and future-proof these villages which are the fabric of our rural areas.

“These drop-in sessions are an important part of that process, as they aim to give local people a chance to learn all about the final stages of the rollout, as well as address any questions or concerns they may have about bringing fibre broadband into their homes and businesses.”

The events will be held at: