BT celebrates major 100,000 milestone in Coventry
Warwickshire small business counts on benefits of faster fibre broadband;
Roll-out of high-speed fibre broadband across Coventry and Warwickshire has now reached more than 400,000 premises
More than 100,000 businesses and households in Coventry now have access to high-speed fibre broadband, BT confirmed today.
The milestone has been achieved as part of a £2.5 billion roll-out programme by Openreach – BT’s local network company – which is making fibre optic broadband available to two-thirds of the UK’s homes and businesses.
The technology is now available in all of Coventry’s 12 main telephone exchange areas: Allesley, Binley, Cheylesmore, Earlsdon, Foleshill, Greyfriars, Highway, Keresley, Radford, Tile Hill, Toll Bar and Walsgrave-on-Sowe.
The national roll-out includes more than 1.7 million homes and businesses across the counties of the West Midlands – including more than 400,000 premises in Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire.
Paul King is one of the local businessmen enjoying the benefits of faster fibre broadband.
Paul, who runs KPB Monarch Ltd book keeping and accountancy services from his home in Rugby, started using fibre optic broadband around two years ago and since then has never looked back.
He said: “We noticed the difference straight away. Everything is so much faster and as a result we get so much more work done. Gone are the days of waiting for files to download or email attachments to send. Things that used to take minutes
are now done in seconds, so we’re much more productive.”
Paul was so impressed that he arranged for a fibre upgrade for his daughter, who lives nearby, to enable her to work from home too.
Bill Murphy, BT’s managing director of next generation access, said: “Every week we’re bringing faster fibre broadband within reach of 60,000 more UK premises. And every day we’re seeing more examples how it’s transforming the way
we communicate and do business for the better.
“Increasingly the internet is touching our lives in new and exciting ways, which is why the roll-out of faster fibre broadband across Coventry and Warwickshire is so important.
“Whether it’s homeworkers and small businesses wanting to share large amounts of information with colleagues, suppliers and customers, or families needing to connect lots of different devices to the internet at the same time, the
improvements people are experiencing are immediate and dramatic.”
The new network is available on an open, wholesale basis to all broadband service providers, so local households and businesses can benefit from competitive pricing and products from a wide range of suppliers. More than 140 fibre broadband
providers are currently operating in the UK.
It enables residents and businesses to access download broadband speeds of up to 80 megabits per second (Mbps) and uploads speeds of up to 20Mbps*.
As well as its commercial roll-out programme, BT is a lead partner in the CSW Broadband** programme with Warwickshire County Council, which is making fibre broadband available in more challenging areas that fall outside the private
sector’s plans.
Notes to Editors
* These are the top wholesale speeds available from Openreach to all service
providers; speeds offered by service providers may vary.
**About CSW Broadband - http://www.cswbroadband.org.uk
CSW Broadband is a partnership of eight Local Authorities (Coventry, Solihull, Warwickshire and the Boroughs and Districts of North Warwickshire, Nuneaton and Bedworth, Rugby, Warwick and Stratford on Avon).
The CSW Broadband partnership will ensure around 40,000 premises in the project area have access to faster fibre broadband. When combined with private sector investments, 91 per cent of the area’s homes and businesses will have access to faster broadband by Spring 2016.
The CSW Superfast Broadband Programme is in addition to, and separate from, Coventry City Council’s ‘Super Connected Cities’ Programme.
