Full fibre broadband – action needed today
Important: everyone who pledged their government (DCMS) voucher now needs to validate it if they have not already done so – otherwise the scheme is at risk of not going ahead. Read on for how to validate your voucher.
If you pledged your voucher to the scheme, you should have by now received an email from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) asking you to confirm some details.The emails that are now going out are going to everyone who hasn’t yet confirmed (validated) their voucher by following the link in the original email. This new email is saying that this is your last chance: your voucher will be cancelled if you don’t respond in 24 hours. The emails look like this.
If you have had the email and have already responded, you don’t need to do anything further.
If you have had the email and have not responded, please do so now.
If you haven’t seen the email, please check your email inbox and junk folders. The sender address will be gigabit.vouchers@notifications.service.gov.uk
If you pledged and haven’t received the above email, then please email highwealdsuperfastbroadband@gmail.com
If you have any problems or questions filling in the validation form, then please email highwealdsuperfastbroadband@gmail.com
If you pledged as a business, then the validation form will have extra questions. Follow this link for further information: Help with the extra questions for business and sole traders.
What happens next?
Providing that enough people validate their vouchers, the build will start and everyone who is in the scope of the scheme should be able to receive full fibre ultrafast broadband in about 12 months time, provided there are no problems along the way. If you are not sure whether you are within the scope of the scheme, then then please email highwealdsuperfastbroadband@gmail.com (if you have received the email requesting validation, then no need, you definitely are included in the scheme).
Missing properties
A very small number of properties have been omitted from the scheme. BT-Openreach says that this is for reason of cost, and that if they were included, none of the scheme would go ahead. We are in the process of disputing this, as Openreach’s numbers do not seem to make sense.