Major Projects - Birchills

WRC’s drive to create a thriving Office Corridor together with the development of a fibre optic network offers a significant opportunity to spread the benefits by engaging with the Birchills community in developing and using the new types of services that ‘next generation’ broadband can deliver.

Parts of Birchills are among the most deprived in the country and the potential exists to take a wider strategic perspective to overcoming the obstacles it faces, one that encompasses fibre-to-the-home.

Such an approach would deliver more than just the traditional trio of phone, video and internet services. It could include direct community involvement in local TV production, health and social care including video-conferencing with GPs, and also home security and monitoring systems; services developed elsewhere under the banner of ‘e-Wellbeing’.

WRC has commissioned an initial consultancy study to establish the broad parameters of the business case for the creation and activation of a lit fibre network in Birchills, which currently lies outside the planned fibre-to-the-premises / business development zone.

The opportunity to explore community and social enterprise models of network management as part of the Birchills initiative is in line with emerging Government agendas. Key deliverables would focus on addressing the issues of digital divide, skills and enterprise development, better and more responsive health services for local diverse communities, along with community and social cohesion.

Under the WRC model a ‘pilot area for a fibre optic platform in a deprived community’ would be developed that would lead to the establishment of a public / private / community partnership to pioneer truly next generation services. This would be achieved having developed a further understanding of local needs and how these can be met with digital services.