Fibre broadband (FTTC - fibre to the cabinet) has been available in Sherington since September 2011. The map shows the approximate speed you can expect from this service.
The speeds shown were obtained from the BT Wholesale Broadband Availability Checker in February 2013 for known phone numbers at known addresses. All figures are 'up to' and are in Mb/s.
Note that the BT checker only works for BT phone lines. The figures given relate to the service advertised as 'up to 76Mb/s'. BT sell this service as 'Infinity 2', but several other companies provide a similar product (all of which are based on the same Open Reach FTTC service). Speeds for the lower cost 'up to 38Mb/s' product will be lower.
The fibre-optic cable runs from the telephone exchange in Newport Pagnell to the local cabinet, situated at the corner of Crofts End and the High Street, opposite the Manor House. From the cabinet it travels along the standard copper phone cables to your phone. Unfortunately, copper is not a good material for the transmission of broadband signals. Therefore, FTTC speed is determined by the distance from the Cabinet to your PC, although other factors can also affect it. The map shows this variation quite clearly. The distance is governed by the length of the phone cable, which will usually follow the road, rather than being 'as the crow flies'. This affects the part of Carters Close physically closest to the cabinet, for example. There is one 'odd' result, on the south side of Crofts End, which does not fit the trend.
The BT Wholesale speed estimate for 8 Gun Lane is shown below, together with a typical 'actual' speed measured using speedtest.net for the BT Infinity 2 FTTC service. The result for O2 ADSL (up to 8Mb/s) on a second phone line at the same address is also shown for comparison. The estimate and actual results are comparable. Note that speeds reported by third party speed testers depend on the speed of the rest of internet up to their server, not just on your own phone line. Speedtest offers a choice of servers.
Standard (ADSL) Broadband
Standard (ADSL) broadband uses the copper telephone cables all the way to the exchange. Sherington's location a couple of miles from Newport Pagnell inevitably means that standard broadband here has poor speeds. Speeds of around 1 to 3Mb/s have been reported in various parts of the village, the highest being one report of 7Mb/s in Carters Close. ADSL speeds are more prone to be affected by other factors.
Sherington is comparatively fortunate in being enabled for FTTC broadband relatively early in the roll out. Many other parts of the country are still waiting, and rural areas may never receive it, if it is not commercially viable. Olney has recently been added to BT's roll out plans, with a date of 2014.
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