Broadband speeds set to soar as expansion of fibre roll-out reaches more remote Warwickshire villages
Thousands more households and businesses in some of the most rural parts of Warwickshire will be able to access faster fibre broadband for the first time in the coming weeks thanks to the £10 million expansion of the CSW Broadband roll-out.
Areas of Willoughby, Flecknoe, Meon Vale, Rowington and Stretton-Under-Fosse are among the latest communities to benefit, lead partners Warwickshire County Council and BT announced today.
Additional parts of Southam, Stratford-Upon-Avon and Wellesbourne will also be upgraded during the Summer, with more areas to follow.
More than 50,000 homes and businesses are now able to access faster fibre broadband as a result of the CSW Broadband project, which started connecting the first premises just over two years ago, as part of the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) programme.
The expansion of the CSW Broadband programme will make the technology available to an extra 14,600 premises, the majority of which will be able to access the technology by the end of next year.
Local people can get more information from the CSW Broadband website – www.cswbroadband.org.uk – and via Twitter and Facebook.
Councillor Alan Cockburn, Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Finance & Property at Warwickshire County Council, said: “Thanks to the CSW Broadband project we are bringing superfast services to areas that would never have been connected without our intervention.
“In order to reach these communities different technologies are coming into play, and this does bring challenges which make it a lot more difficult to let people know what is happening in their areas. As soon as the service is available the team will contact everyone for whom they have details on the system.”
Colin Bannon, BT’s Regional Director for the West Midlands, said: “CSW Broadband is a huge engineering programme which is progressing extremely well. Our project teams are working hard to enable more households and businesses to be able to get faster fibre broadband and its many benefits even in some of the county’s most remote communities. Whether it’s people working from home, and needing to share large files with colleagues and customers, or a family wanting to connect different devices to the internet at the same time – for leisure and education purposes - everything is better, easier and faster with fibre broadband.”
Warwickshire County Councillor Philip Johnson, Chair of Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee, said: “It really is important that people register to receive updates when their service has gone live. In order to reach the more challenging areas different technologies are being used, and the CSW Broadband team need people’s details so that they can let everyone know when they can benefit from the faster broadband services. It’s easy to register for updates atwww.cswbroadband.org.uk/register”.
Upgrading to fibre broadband does not happen automatically. 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.
The benefits of using fibre broadband are wide-ranging. It enables people to connect a number of devices to the internet at the same time, without experiencing buffering. Sharing and downloading large files and information is also much easier and faster.
Note to Editors
This part of the CSW Broadband roll-out is using a mixture of technologies. These include Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP), which provides speeds up to 330Mbps and upload speeds of up to 30Mbps; and Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC), which provides download speeds of up to 80Mbps and download speeds of up to 20Mbps. In addition there are some premises that are currently connected directly to the telephone exchange rather than via a green roadside cabinet, sometimes known as Exchange Only (EO) lines. In order to connect EO lines, further roadside cabinets have to be installed.
Speeds referred to are the top wholesale speeds available from BT’s local network business, Openreach, to all service providers; speeds offered by service providers may vary.
About CSW Broadband
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 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.BT consists of six customer-facing lines of business: Global Services, Business and Public Sector, Consumer, EE, Wholesale and Ventures, and Openreach.
For the year ended 31 March 2016, BT Group’s reported revenue was £19,042m with reported profit before taxation of £3,029m.
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
