Boost for more Staffordshire homes and businesses as Superfast Staffordshire celebrates major 50,000 premises milestone
Denstone, Hopton and Rocester are among the latest communities to benefit
More than 50,000 homes and businesses across the county are now able to connect to faster fibre broadband thanks to Superfast Staffordshire, partners Staffordshire County Council and BT confirmed today.
It marks more than half-way through the first phase of the project, which is part of the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) programme.
Areas of Denstone, Hopton and Rocester are among the latest local communities to benefit.
County Councillor Mark Winnington, Cabinet Member for Economy, Environment and Transport, said: “More than 50,000 properties can now connect to high-speed broadband thanks to the roll-out of our programme. It is making a real difference to communities across the county, whether it’s for learning, business, leisure or to access other services.
“Superfast Staffordshire is another demonstration of the public sector working with business for effective delivery and is connecting communities in both rural and urban areas.”
Bill Murphy, managing director of BT’s next generation access, said: “Superfast Staffordshire is a huge engineering project, and the roll-out is progressing extremely well. So far engineers have installed nearly 400 kilometres of fibre optic cable and more than 270 new fibre road-side cabinets.
“Whether it’s families wanting to connect to the internet with different devices and tablets at the same time, homeworkers or people running a small business – everything is easier, better and faster with high-speed fibre broadband.”
People can follow the progress of the roll-out via the Superfast Staffordshire website: www.superfaststaffordshire.co.uk and via Twitter @superfaststaffs
Once an area has ‘gone live’, local people will be able to get download speeds of up to 80 megabits (Mbps) and upload speeds of up to 20Mbps*.
It’s an ‘opt in’ service, but because the Openreach network is ‘open’, residents and businesses wanting to upgrade have a choice of fibre broadband providers, with more than 140 companies now operating in the UK.
Note to Editors
* These are the top wholesale speeds available from Openreach to all service providers; speeds offered by service providers may vary.
Issued by Staffordshire County Council and BT.
Photos of the roll-out of Superfast Staffordshire can be downloaded for free from: https://flic.kr/s/aHsk1eZqD3
About Superfast Staffordshire
Superfast Staffordshire is a partnership between Staffordshire County Council, BDUK and BT. It builds on the commercial roll-outs in the county.
The first phase of the Superfast Staffordshire roll-out programme represents an investment of more than £27 million (£7.44 million from Staffordshire County Council, £7.44m from the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK and £12.47m from BT.)
In June, Superfast Staffordshire announced around 4,000 more homes and businesses across Staffordshire will be able to receive high-speed fibre broadband following an additional £2.31 million of funding announced today.
The project will extend the Superfast Staffordshire partnership roll-out which began connecting the first homes and businesses to faster fibre broadband in May 2014.
The new deal injects further funding into the County Council’s contract with BT, with a further £1.68m coming from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s Superfast Extension Programme (SEP) and £630,000 from BT.
For those premises not included in the fibre footprint, Superfast Staffordshire is aiming to improve broadband speeds using alternative technologies.
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:
1. £790m to extend superfast broadband to 95% of the UK by 2017;
2. £150m to provide high speed broadband to businesses in 22 cities; and
3. £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
