A resident has alerted the Residents' Association to the above map which shows the planned provision of Ultrafast Broadband to houses in the immediate area. The map shows Ashtead sitting in a greyed out area with the logo narrative saying "This Exchange isn't in our major build yet."

We questioned why Ashtead which is the largest connurbation in Mole Valley is such a second-class 'citizen' when it comes to Ultrafast Broadband?  Epsom all finished. Leatherhead building soon. Ashtead - no plans!

We contacted Open Reach who are the main providers of the infrastructure and this is their reply:-

"How things stand right now

As you are aware, we are currently in the process of installing FTTP all over the UK, with an aim to provide 25 million homes with full fibre by 2026. Having checked our immediate plans for Ashtead, sadly, we cannot confirm an immediate timescale as to when the technology will reach your address. We are making excellent progress with our roll outs and whilst we wish we could do everywhere at once, unfortunately, it just isn’t possible.

Satellite Broadband

An alternative you may wish to consider is satellite broadband which is available nationally. However, I am unable to comment on its performance or the costs involved to have the service.

In addition to this, some mobile operators now offer a 4G home broadband solution where they install a 4G receiver at your home which connects to an internal router. Again, I am unable to comment on which companies can offer this, prices or performance.

FTTP On Demand / Leased Line

Another alternative you may want to consider is a leased line, until such time that fibre broadband becomes readily available to the property and area. A leased line is a dedicated data circuit that runs all the way from the exchange directly to the property. They deliver guaranteed speeds and have proved popular with a lot of homes and businesses. I can’t offer any further insight in to costing etc. as these are managed by the providers who offer the service.

To confirm, there are no upcoming plans, commercial or government funded, to provide your home with FTTP. That being said, our plans can and do change quite often so my advice would be to stay close to the Openreach website as if there are any changes to the situation, this will be updated to reflect our progress. You can do this by visiting where and when we're building Ultrafast Full Fibre broadband | Openreach. You can also sign up to receive a notification for when the service is readily available by filling in the online form here: Fibre broadband | Openreach. I would also advise getting back in touch with me further down the line and I will check if our situation has changed.

Once again, I’m so sorry I haven’t been able to provide you with an immediate solution but I trust this answers your query. Please feel free to let me know if there is anything else I can help with; of course I’ll be happy to help."

Many properties in Ashtead have access to Virgin Media cable but there are also a large number of streets where cabling was not installed, and Virgin have no plans to increase their cable infrastructure.

The concerns expressed to the ARA is for when in April 2025 existing of home landline phones are discontinued and there is a  need to have a VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) phones where extra demand will diminish the current speeds. If you have a view or are in the industry do let us know.