Fixed line

Bosley is serviced either by the North Road BT exchange (most of the village) or by the Rushton Spencer BT exchange (mainly the southern end of the parish).

There is a fibre-enabled BT cabinet at the Cross-roads (connected to the North Road exchange). This should mean that any property within ½ mile or so should be able to get reasonably fast internet speeds. Much will also depend on the quality (and age) of the copper wire which connects your home to the cabinet and also to any wiring or other factors within your property.

You can check what theoretical internet speed you should be able to achieve at your property here.

Properties which are too far from the Crossroad cabinet or are not for whatever reason connected to the cabinet, or those on Rushton Spencer exchange may struggle to get decent internet speeds. There has recently been further work by Openreach to improve speeds for those further away from the crossroads box i.e. those on the southern side of the village (but not those that are connected to the Rushton SPencer exchange (phone numbers beginning 226XXX). The Parish Council are not aware of any current plans to extend the Superfast fixed line provision (i.e. add more cabinets or take fibre to individual premises) to other areas of the village (despite much campaining!)

There are also one or two areas or properties that do have fibre connections to their properties and as such should have very fast internet speeds.

There are many companies offering fixed line (non-fibre) broadband deals (e.g. BT, TalkTalk, Plusnet, EE, First Utility, Sky, Post Office and so on. Check prices and speeds at their websites or via comparison sites. Once you have chosen a provider, check whether there are any cashback deals via ‘TopCashback’ or ‘Quidco’.

Non-fixed Line Options

There are an increasing number of options for broadband connection that don’t rely on a fixed line (telephone line) connection. This is good news for those of us who cannot for whatever reason get fast speed via a fixed line.

Mobile 4G/5G connections

If you can get a good reliable 4G/5G mobile data signal at your property this may be a good option. 

Wireless

More recently we have got two new wireless facilities serving the area.

Both of these rely on having a line of sight connection to a transmitter which provides the superfast broadband connection (this will also involve having a dish transmitter/receiver mounted on your property). There may be possibilities of having 'relay' transmitters for those that do not have a direct line of sight (enquire with the providers on this).

The first company to get something up and running in the area was Internet Connections who are based in Leek. They have a transmitter at the shooting range on Cloudside – so if you have a line of sight to there this may be an option. They offer speeds of 25 or 50 Mbps (I can vouch for so far reliably receiving 25Mbps on their basic package of £30 per month).

More recently another company, Vispa (www.vispa.co.uk) have finally got their transmitter on Croker Hill (next to the BT tower) up and running. They offer a variety of packages of speed/usage (see their website). Again you will need a line of sight to the Croker Hill transmitter.

Both these options will have installation costs associated with them.

SpeedTest

You can check the speed of your current broadband connection at www.speedtest.net

Hope this helps

Ian Rawlinson

Bosley Parish Council