Hello everyone! I have recently been given some updated information on the build and will share this with you below.
I've not updated the blog in a little while and that's not because things have stopped, far from it. The build continues to move forward. I felt that one liners or covering old ground on house installations were not enough to justify a blog post. New information is key.
Many of my readers will be anxious to know when will they be finally connecting and live. I hope to give some clarity as to why it has not happened yet.
Since the last update an additional 8 kilometres of duct installed, most of which is in the centre of the villages.
There has been an agreement reached with a large landowner in the area which will open up access to approx. one third of the properties in Ashton Hayes & Horton-cum-Peel.
All permissions have now been received relating to the master cabinet in Manley, the back-haul supply has been ordered and Sky have scheduled the connection to be completed. We are just waiting for a confirmation date for this to happen.
In the mean time, the cabinet build can now begin, and has been scheduled to week commencing 13th September. The confirmation of the back-haul is an important step, because without this, they would be unable to continue installing fibre to properties within the Cheshire build.
Setbacks
Its not all been positive unfortunately. As some people may be aware, there are several large and important gas and fuel pipelines that run underground throughout Manley. The rules concerning working in their proximity are extremely stringent in what we are able to do. Exolium who own the main pipeline have very specific rules and procedures in place for anyone needing to work near or around their assets. Breach of these are enforceable with nearly unlimited fines as well as possible imprisonment in the worst case scenario. You may even have seen the pipelines enforcement helicopter flying around the area on a regular basis.
Gigaloch are working with Exolium to ensure their network is installed safely. A site survey is conducted with a pipeline engineer and a job pack formulated. Exolium have to sign off on the job and/or make amends before they can agree the work can take place. Once they have the relevant permissions to work, they then still cannot proceed until a pipeline engineer has been allocated to supervise the work. It is only then that Gigaloch can proceed with the installations that they need to complete. We now know that this process can take up to 6 weeks dependant on how quickly the pipeline respond to their requests.
What this means is that everyone are beholden to Exolium's time frame as to when THEY are available to work with Gigaloch. I don't include these comments as an excuse, but i hope that you can appreciate why it is so important for safe working practices as well as cautionary business practice to make sure every i is dotted and every t is crossed.
I've purposefully not written a go live date here due to the above. We all hope that things will move quickly and the switch on happens very soon, but it would be unfair to you and to Gigaloch to confirm a go live date which then comes and goes.
This not only makes Gigaloch look bad and full of false promises like many of the other providers. Which I must add is NOT the case. The Cheshire Team, whilst small are working very hard to get this completed. It also means that the community lose faith and doubt your choice to follow me on this journey this is not something I wish for you to feel.
I hope that this offers some explanation as to where we are and what is going on.
If you wish to get in touch, please drop me an email anthony@f4amm.co.uk