General questions
Who owns and supports Garnett Wharfe Community Broadband?
The service will be supplied by a company owned by David Tindall who is also a resident of Garnett Wharfe. His company is called Talk Straight Ltd and is based in Ilkley. Talk Straight employ about 50 people, are an Internet Service Provider with their own network and service over 2,000 broadband connections in the UK. Once the network is paid for then Talk Straight will gift it to the community, and this should vastly reduce the ongoing costs.
What will it give me over and above other broadband providers?
Speed, speed and more speed. As well as ultra-low latency (great for gamers). Our Ultra-Fast wireless broadband can run at speeds of up to 1,000Mbit download. Most of the estate unfortunately only has copper-based broadband (works over your telephone line). The average speed residents receive is between 7 to 12Mbit download and under 1Mbit upload. To put this into perspective the UK Average is now about 65Mbit download and 17Mbit upload.
How much does it cost?
We have a range of different tariffs available dependent on your requirements. See www.gwbroadband.org.uk/pricing (please note this isn’t yet live but will be shortly!)
When can I order it?
I’m hopeful you can start to place orders in the next couple of weeks.
When will services be going by live?
All being well we are looking mid to end of September this year (2020).
How much does installation cost?
Installation costs £120. However, for all customers going live within the first 6 months then they will get the installation cost back once the network starts to turn a profit.
I can’t afford the installation cost. How can you help?
We are able to spread the cost of the installation over the 24-month term with a small premium. However, due to the large amount of money my company has to invest we can’t afford to do this for everyone.
Do I need to keep my BT Telephone line?
No, you don’t need to keep your BT Telephone line to use our wireless broadband service. This can be ceased if you have no use for it, so you don’t have to pay any line rental anymore! If you do wish to keep your telephone line, then we can migrate it, invoice and support you on this as well. We offer line rental only or line rental plus unlimited UK call packages if required. These options will be added to our price list. You can keep your current telephone line number as well. Migration of this service takes 2 weeks from point of order if you decide to keep it.
How long is a contract for?
All contracts are for a minimum of 24 months and payable monthly.
I live in an apartment; can I receive your broadband service?
Yes you can. Currently Garnett Mill, the Buttercross and Jubilee apartment blocks can receive the service. We are waiting for our first couple of orders for the Washburn and once received we will install our service here too.
What happens if I move to a new house before the end of my contract?
If you move to a new house somewhere outside of Garnett Wharfe then you do not have to pay for the remainder of your contract. You won’t receive a refund for your installation fee. You must return the router we’ve supplied you with (I can come and pick this up from your house) if you don’t you will be charged an additional £80. If you move from an apartment to a house and that house doesn’t already have one of our wireless devices installed to it’s exterior then you must pay another install fee. If the house does have a device then there’s no install charge.
Do you offer contracts for businesses and what’s the difference between residential packages?
Yes. Business contracts have different speed tiers including much higher upload speeds and come with prioritised data rates over general residential users.
I’ve got some more questions and need help / advice
We’re here to help and as a resident of the estate I personally want everyone as happy as possible. Please send me a message on Facebook messenger or email me at info@gwbroadband.org.uk. I’ll happily give you a call or pop round to talk things through.
Installation questions
How long will the install take?
Its highly likely that you can self-install yourself. Just plug in the new router and connect a cable to it or put in your new wireless password.
What is installed as part of the installation?
We install one of the routers earlier in this faq. This can be a wired or wireless version. All the other work to get the service live we’ll already have done in the TV comms room of the apartment.
Speed questions
What speed can the broadband solution deliver?
The solution can provide Gigabit capability (1Gbps or 1,000Mbps) both and receiving (download) and sending (upload). However, full speeds are a premium product and we will be releasing different speed tiers depending on your requirements and budgets.
Will the speeds slow down at peak times?
It is unlikely that this will be the case. We aim to put in a quality service with sufficient “backhaul” to support the requirements of all of you that have signed up to the service. We’ll constantly monitor or “backhaul” links to ensure there’s enough capacity to deliver a quality service. We believe you will get a better user experience than if you bought Ultrafast broadband from BT.
What speed will the wi-fi run at?
The maximum speed our wi-fi currently runs at is 300Mbit which is more than adequate for most people. If you require fast wi-fi you can install your own wi-fi access points which support faster speeds. All physical LAN connections (cable connection) run at 1Gbit (1,000Mbit).
What if my wi-fi is slow in other rooms?
This is not an issue with the broadband connection or the wi-fi router we install. Wi-fi degrades when beaming through physical objects e.g. doors and walls. There are things you can do to improve speeds such as more your wi-fi router, add wi-fi access points to boost and spread the wi-fi or use Powerline Ethernet adapters with wi-fi points in which uses your electric cables to work like network cables and thus get your broadband connection working in other rooms.
How can I test the speed I’m supposed to be getting?
Go to www.speedtest.net The Server you use should be ours (Talk Straights). Hit the big “GO” button and see the epic speed you can now get!
Billing and invoicing
When will I be billed?
You will be billed on the 14th of the month after installation. E.g. if your service goes live on the 13th then you’ll be billed on the 14th of that month, if you go live on the 15th then you’ll receive your bill on the 14th of the next month.
Billing is pro-rated plus month in advance so if you receive a bill for our services in the same month as it goes live then it will be from that day to the end of the month + 1 month. If it goes live after the 15th then the month after you’ll be billed from the 15th to the end of the month + 2 months for the service rental. In both cases after this you’ll receive a bill for one month only.
You'll also receive a bill for the £120 setup charge on your first invoice.
We will not take any money until your service is live and working.
How will I be billed?
We will email you your bill on or around the 14th of each month. Historic bills can all be found on our billing portal.
How do I pay?
Billing is by direct debit, bank transfer or cheque. We charge a £3pm premium for non-direct debit payment as this saves on administration time.
How will you bill me for calls if I take a telephone line too?
We can bill you for all of the calls you make and you can view your usage on our online billing portal.
Technical Questions
Can I use my own router?
Yes, although this will make support more complicated for us as we don’t know how to configure every router type of router on the planet, but we will support this as most routers are reasonably generic. Please let us know if you’d prefer to do this so we don’t install one of our own routers at point of installation.
Does my connection come with a static IP address?
No, normal connections come with a dynamic IP address. I.e. If you reboot your router or if we make a network configuration alteration it will change. You can purchase a static IP address or block of IP addresses if required. See the pricelist for more info.
Do you offer home content filtering to protect what children can access online?
We won’t be offering this at launch but as we already deliver this service to thousands of schools in the UK it’s likely we will add this to our portfolio later.
Who do I call for technical support or updates on my install?
During normal working hours please call Talk Straight on 0 11 33 222 333 or email
support@gwbroadband.org.uk. For our or hours support (best efforts) please email
support@gwbroadband.org.uk. We will make a new support portal which should be live for January where you can raise support issues online.
Will your wireless broadband fry my brain and that of my kids?
No. We use the 60Ghz wireless spectrum which has been passed for use by Ofcom for exactly the situation we are deploying.
Complaints and your rights
In the unlikely event you’re unhappy with our service please email us on
complaints@talk-straight.com. Should you still not be happy with our response then you can use an alternative dispute resolution scheme. Talk Straight is a member of the “Communication & Internet Services Adjudication Scheme” (CISAS) see
https://www.cedr.com/consumer/cisas/ where you can raise a raise a formal complaint.
Questions from residents
Please could you explain in very basic layman's terms what the numbers mean? The Mbit download and upload?
An Mbit (stands for Megabits Per Second) is a way of measuring speed of an Internet connection. The higher the speed the faster the connection. Think of it like being in a car where miles per hour (mph) is how fast you go in your car.
Download speeds are when you receive data e.g. a file or youtube stream is “downloaded” from somewhere on the Internet from your phone or your computer.
Upload speeds are when you send data e.g. a file, email or whatsapp photo to your friend and is “uploaded” to somewhere on the Internet from your phone or computer.
My pc does not have wifi. It is connected to router by cable. Would I be able to use your service with no wifi to my pc?
Yes. The router we install allows you to connect up to 4 computers to it by cable as well as being able to use wi-fi.
What will be the data costs be and can this be done via BT using the infrastructure you roll out?
There will be no costs for any data over the network. The usage is unlimited although subject to a fair use policy in line with other Internet Service Providers. Data runs over our network and not BT’s.
