VOTING FINISHED 31 DECEMBER 2010!!

What would this upgrade have meant for us? There are many potential benefits, but the most obvious and easy to put across are:

Faster broadband. The new exchanges can support up to 40Mb/s bandwidth. In Shelford we are lucky if we get 2Mb/s at the moment. This means faster and better quality internet, greater opportunities for working from home/remotely etc.
Lower line rental bills. This tends to be associated with unbundling of the local loop. This means that the wire between the exchange and your building can be operated by people other than BT. The result of this is greater competition between suppliers of telephone/broadband as any of them (not just BT) can bid to provide you with your service. We'd all like a reduction in the size of our bills!

This was our one chance in 5-10 years to make a difference!

BT organised a vote to decide which exchanges they upgrade first. We needed a minimum of 1000 votes to be even considered for this upgrade. We only got 577!

Caxton, Madingley Exchange (Postcode CB23 8AQ), and other exchanges that did well were a lot more proactive. They realised the importance of this vore, and almost everyone voted. There are places where over 80% of the population have made their opinions known. We managed just over 10%, because there was insufficient awareness of the significance of this particular issue.

12 Nov 10, 251 (5.18%) making us 250th/2495!
22 Nov 10, 279 (5.76%) making us 253rd/2495!
23 Nov 10, 290 (5.99%) making us 245th/2495
24 Nov 10, 300 (6.19%) making us 245th/2495
25 Nov 10, 305 (6.30%) making us 232nd/2495
26 Now 10, 332 (6.85%) = 204th/2495 - Thankyou Little Shelford coffee morning!
27 Nov 10, 343 (7.08%) = 198/2495 - Into the top 200!
28 Nov 10, 348 (7.18%) = 196/2495
29 Nov 10, 355 (7.33%) = 200/2495 - Slipping! We need more people voting!! Keep reminding people.
30 Nov 10, 361 (7.45%) = 199/2495
1 Dec 10, 366 (7.55%) = 200/2495
2 Dec 10, 370 (7.64%) = 200/2495 - We need more votes per day!
3 Dec 10, 377 (7.78%) = 203/2495
4 Dec 10, 377 (7.78%) = 205/2495 - Wot no votes!!!!!Last chance, and last few days of effort to get the votes we need. Go and find someone that hasn't voted and get them to vote!
5 Dec 10, 387 (7.99%) = 201/2495 - Thankyou to those that assisted with fliers in Great Shelford. Hopefully back in top 200 tomorrow?
6 Dec 10, 396 (8.18%) = 198/2495
7 Dec 10, 398 (8.22%) = 201/2495 - Time for another push tomorrow:)
8 Dec 10, 405 (8.46%) = 203/2495
10 Dec 10, 441 (9.10%) = 203/2495 - Thankyou to Mike for his efforts! We're actually higher than this due to a ranking fault.
12 Dec 10, 445 (9.19%) = 191/2495
13 Dec 10, 451 (9.31%) = 193/2495
14 Dec 10, 462 (9.54%) = 184/2495 - We're slowly moving up the rankings, but we still need more votes. More door to door fliers planned for the next few days.
15 Dec 10, 466 (9.62%) = 188/2495
16 Dec 10, 488 (10.07%) = 175/2495 - Almost half way to 1000, and only 15 days left to make a difference to the next 10 years in our area. Everyone that has voted needs to find one more voter. Keep asking everyone if they have voted. More telephone campaigning planned for tomorrow.
18 Dec 10, 518 (10.69%) = 161/2495 - Over half way and moving up the rankings. Thankyou to those voting. Another door to door info drop planned for tomorrow. Everyone can contribute to this by raising awareness and getting others to vote. We need everyone's support!
21 Dec 10, 541 (11.17%) = 154/2495 - Trumpington and Grantchester scheduled for targeting over the next few days.
Midnight 31 Dec 10, 577 (11.91%) = 144/2495 - Unfortunately not good enough to get us noticed and added to the Infinity rollout. However, this will hopefully put us above other areas if more finances/grants are made available to improve the UK communications network

Unfortunately, after delivering over 3000 fliers/cards, sending numerous emails, and making over 600 telephone calls, there has been a very subdued response compared with other areas that got close to 100% of their population to vote. The organisations that should have been proactive (schools, Parish councils, Local Authority representatives, residents associations) that have made other areas successful have failed to respond to this challenge for us. Regretably, this means that many of us in this area may now be stuck with a 'Third World' quality of service (as defined by the EU) for the next decade or so. This will inevitably result in a reduced amount of business investment in this area, and the associated knock on implications for the community, services, house prices etc.

Thankyou to all those that voted. Over 11% of you appreciated the need for this. Hopefully our top 200 placing out of the UK exchanges will result in prioritisation for our exchange when the Infinity rollout is finished in 2018->. A long time to wait, but better than for many other areas.

All information obtained as a result of this campaign such as email lists etc will now be removed from my computer systems.