Background
The community of Brockton Lydbury North in south Shropshire have been suffering with poor broadband provision for some time now despite ‘FTTP’ being built to part of the village by Voneus.
Parts of the village can get ‘FTTP’ broadband provided by Voneus which acquired/merged with SWS back in 2023.
The ‘full fibre’ broadband was built in part using BDUK gigabit voucher scheme from the government.
Despite it being called a FTTP/Full Fibre broadband service it is in fact only fibre round the village which feeds into a green cabinet and in turn is connected to a wireless mast which provides the backhaul to the village from Bishops Castle (shown below).
Since the service went live it has been plagued with issues and suffered from multiple lengthy outages.
I have been monitoring the connection at my relatives house in the village and since May 2024 and to date 6/4/2025 there has been 108 days where the connection has suffered issues the latest being just last week.
I have also posted on ISPreview forum about the ongoing issues and would like to again thank Mark Jackson of ISPreview for his help when we were not getting anywhere with voneus.
Its worth noting its not just Brockton where Voneus customers have been suffering issues many other areas where they operate in England and Wales have been impacted just a google search will show many people complaining.
If you have been impacted by the Voneus issues do ensure you get compensation I got my relatives three months credit.
Below is a graph showing the amount of issues on the Voneus FTTP line:
There are some parts off the village that can not even get this FTTP from Voneus and currently no other gigabit capable service available.
This is compounded by poor mobile phone signal in the area which means when the internet goes down so does bbeing able to use your phone in the house.
Openreach to the rescue
The good news is I have been speaking with Openreach who have been very helpful and they have informed me they are planning to build FTTP in the whole of Lydbury North Exchange area which includes Brockton.
They have asked for as many residents in the area as possible to sign up on their community fibre page and pledge a voucher.
I have been told all residents can pledge for a voucher even if you pledged one for the SWS/Voneus build as this is a different scheme and they may not need to use the vouchers pledging means you will be letting Openreach know you are interested and will be kept up to date.
Currently I have been told they are aiming to be built and live by the end of this year (2025) however that is an estimate and things can change.
To sign up to Openreach community Fibre program follow this link enter your postcode and if your address is listed sign up.
If your address is not listed you can still register your interest on the main Openreach page .
I would encourage as many residents as possible to do this.
Openreach unlike SWS/Voneus will build a proper FTTP service with fibre running from the headend exchange right to your property.
No wireless backhaul involved which as been the source of the majority of the issues plaguing the Voneus FTTP service.
Openreach are as well much bigger and better resourced than Voneus which means if there are issues with the service they should be sorted quicker.
There are also a large choice of ISP (Internet Service Provider) to choose from on the Openreach network you are not limited to Voneus.
In the meantime
In terms of what residents can do in the short term until Openreach FTTP goes live there are a few options.
If you still have access to the old SWS Fixed Wireless Access network this appears to be more stable than the Voneus FTTP.
At my relatives house I have now configured my own router running PfSense and have both the Voneus FTTP and the SWS FWA internet configured on the router in multi WAN mode.
This essentially means if when the Voneus FTTP goes down the SWS Wireless one takes over automatically and its very seamless.
You can do the same with any internet connection you have speak to me if your interested in this.
There is Starlink a satellite based service by Elon Musk its a rolling month contract and pretty reliable.
downside is cost with it being £75 per month with £400 ish upfront cost for the equipment and currently an additional £75 congestion charge.
You can also get a copper ADSL line with Openreach which will only be around 2-5mbps down but that would be enough to run phones etc as a basic service and most providers allow you to upgrade mid contract to FTTP when its live.
I will be keeping this page updated with any further developments.
