Boost for more rural communities as superfast fibre broadband roll-out gathers pace across Warwickshire
BOOST FOR MORE RURAL COMMUNITIES AS SUPERFAST FIBRE BROADBAND ROLL-OUT GATHERS PACE ACROSS WARWICKSHIRE
Thousands more households and businesses across Warwickshire are now able to connect to faster fibre broadband for the first time thanks to the multi-million pound CSW Broadband roll-out, lead partners Warwickshire County Council and BT announced today.
Barton, Harborough Magna, Marcliff, Norton Lindsey and The Green area of Long Lawford are among the latest communities to benefit, as well as additional areas of Coleshill.
And many more areas will get access to the high-speed technology in the months ahead. Warwickshire County Council and BT have confirmed the next phase of the CSW Broadband roll-out is already underway as part of a £10 million expansion programme.
As a result, areas of Blackwell, Deppers Bridge, Model Village, Monks Kirby, Shawbury, Shustoke, Sutton-under-Brailes and Water Orton will start to be able to access faster fibre broadband from the Summer.
It’s just over two years since the CSW Broadband partnership started connecting the first premises to faster fibre as part of the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) programme. Since then, engineers from Openreach – BT’s local network business - have installed more than 270 new road-side cabinets, making fibre available to more than 47,000 homes and businesses.
Tonino Ciuffini, Head of Information assets at Warwickshire County Council, said: “This is fantastic news for all of these communities. The CSW Broadband project now has more than 270 live cabinets, and more are coming on stream each week. As the project progresses we are enabling more and more communities to enter the high-speed digital age, which is exactly what we set out to do when we embarked on this journey nearly five years ago.”
Colin Bannon, BT’s Regional Director for the West Midlands, said: “We know from the high take-up rates of fibre broadband in Warwickshire that local households and businesses are keen to upgrade to this new technology - and our project teams are working hard to reach even more rural parts of the county as quickly as possible.
“Whether a person is running a small business or working from home, or a busy family is wanting to connect a number of devices to the web at the same time – everything is easier, faster and better with fibre broadband.”
Local people can get more information and updates from the CSW Broadband website – www.cswbroadband.org.uk – and via Twitter and Facebook.
It’s an ‘opt in’ service, but because the network is being installed by Openreach it is ‘open’, so residents and businesses wanting to upgrade have a choice of fibre broadband service providers, with more than 140 now operating in the UK. Local people choosing to upgrade will be able to get download speeds of up to 80 megabits (Mbps) and uploads of up to 20Mbps*.
Note to Editors
The expansion of the CSW Broadband roll-out is known as Contract 2, Part 1, and was announced in February 2015. The deal was spearheaded by Warwickshire County Council and Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council, which are contributing an initial £3.68 million and £0.38 million respectively, with an additional £2.61m from BT and a further £4.06m from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s Superfast Extension Programme (SEP).
When complete, it will increase the percentage of homes and businesses able to access high-speed fibre broadband in Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire to nearly 94 per cent when combined with the first phase of the CSW Broadband roll-out already underway and the private sector investments of companies like BT.
The first part of the CSW Broadband roll-out is known as Contract 1.
As the property-level mapping is still in development, the CSW Broadband team is asking people to check the map at www.cswbroadband.org.uk and to report any discrepancies by using the simple online form.
*These are the top wholesale speeds available from Openreach to all service providers; speeds offered by service providers may vary.
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Issued by Warwickshire County Council and BT on behalf of the CSW Broadband partnership.
For more information please contact Leigh Hunt at the CSW Broadband project office on 01926 738339 or email: broadband@cswbroadband.org.uk
Or
Emma Tennant at the BT regional press office on 0800 085 0660 or email: emma.tennant@bt.com Twitter: @EmmaTennantBT
About Superfast Britain
Superfast Britain is a Government programme of investment in broadband and communication infrastructure across the UK. Run by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, this investment helps businesses to grow, creates jobs and will make Britain more competitive in the global race.
The portfolio is comprised of three elements:
- £790m to extend superfast broadband to 95% of the UK by 2017;
- £150m to provide high-speed broadband to businesses in 22 cities; and
- £150m to improve quality and coverage of mobile phone and basic data network services.
Administered on behalf of Government by Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK), Superfast Britain is transforming Britain by promoting growth, enabling skills and learning, and improving quality of life.
For further information: https://www.gov.uk/broadband-delivery-uk
About BT
BT’s purpose is to use the power of communications to make a better world. It is one of the world’s leading providers of communications services and solutions, serving customers in more than 180 countries. Its principal activities include the provision of networked IT services globally; local, national and international telecommunications services to its customers for use at home, at work and on the move; broadband, TV and internet products and services; and converged fixed-mobile products and services.As at 31 March 2016, BT consisted principally of six customer-facing lines of business: BT Global Services, BT Business, BT Consumer, EE, BT Wholesale and Openreach.With effect from 1 April 2016, the group has been reorganised and the customer-facing lines of business are now: Global Services, Business and Public Sector, Consumer, EE, Wholesale and Ventures, and Openreach.
British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group plc and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group. BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York.For more information, visit www.btplc.com.
