KCB Board Meeting, 28th February 2016

After a couple of weeks in which KCB has been trying to understand the implications of bombshell dropped by CBS at the meeting on the 12th, see here, our board meeting last Sunday provided us with an opportunity to work out a (relatively) coherent strategy for our next steps given the restricted area we are now working with (see above).

We will be offering a tender as soon as possible. However, this will be for the design of the network, rather than the full project. We hope that funding will allow us to cover the wider area we consulted on in January, ie. Bute and Tighnabruaich as well as Colintraive and Glendaruel. The idea is that this will cover all potential outcomes of the present CBS consultation, our ongoing contact with BT and our efforts to get as many properties in the BT-claim postcodes descoped.

Work is ongoing to identify as many properties as possible who we are sure BT won’t cover in the new-claimed postcodes – this will be a desktop survey – as well as two surveys. The first of these is to establish the quality of the existing BT copper network. And the second is to establish the effect of the woeful broadband provision in the area. Both of these are necessary precursors for (a) our business plan (b) exerting political pressure on the agencies we are dealing with.

Obviously, we will be contacting as many folk of influence over the next couple of months and any subscriber with influence or contacts should let us know … we want to make some noise about the lack of provision, our stymied efforts and the ongoing disadvantage this is causing our communities.

A draft minute of the last meeting is available here, and the approved minutes of the one before is available here.