20
March
2017
|
12:24
Europe/London

CSW Broadband superfast fibre broadband boost reaches more of Warwickshire's smallest communities

Summary
Burmington, Cathiron, Fulready, Maxstoke, Newnham Paddox, Preston Bagot, Willey, Wishaw and Woolscott will be among the next villages to get access to high-speed fibre technology as part of the multi-million pound CSW Broadband roll-out led by Warwickshire County Council and BT, as part of the Government's Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) programme.

CSW BROADBAND SUPERFAST FIBRE BROADBAND BOOST REACHES MORE OF WARWICKSHIRE’S SMALLEST COMMUNITIES

Burmington, Cathiron, Fulready, Maxstoke, Newnham Paddox, Preston Bagot, Willey, Wishaw and Woolscott among next villages to get access to high-speed technology

The pace of life in some of Warwickshire’s smallest villages is set to speed up thanks to the CSW Broadband partnership’s roll-out of superfast fibre broadband.

Burmington, Cathiron, Fulready, Maxstoke, Newnham Paddox, Preston Bagot, Willey, Wishaw and Woolscott will be among the next communities to get access to the new technology for the first time, lead partners Warwickshire County Council and BT announced today.

CSW Broadband is part of the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) programme.

John Parmiter, Project Executive on the CSW Broadband project said: “When you look at the latest map on our website you can see that those villages included in today’s announcement are in some of our most rural areas. Furthermore these communities often have no local services whatsoever, so it will be a real step-change when people can finally use online banking, online shopping, work from home, and all those other things that so many people take for granted these days.”

More than 57,500 premises now have access to faster fibre broadband as a result of the CSW Broadband roll-out. Updates on the roll-out are available from: www.cswbroadband.org.uk

When BT’s own commercial investment in fibre broadband is also included, it means that more than 229,000 households and businesses in the county can now get the technology. According to independent website, thinkbroadband, superfast speeds of 24 megabits (Mbps) and above are now available to more than 92 per cent of Warwickshire premises.

Colin Bannon, BT’s Regional Director for Warwickshire and the West Midlands, said: “Rolling out fibre broadband to some of the most rural parts of Warwickshire can be particularly complex because of the additional equipment needed and the extra distances involved. Work starts on this phase of the project next month, and if everything goes to plan we aim to finish this part of the roll-out early next year. Once an area has gone ‘live’, local households and businesses who opt for an upgrade will receive a much better, faster connection.”

Because the fibre broadband network is being installed by Openreach – BT’s local network business – households and businesses have a wide choice of fibre broadband providers. Upgrades do not happen automatically. Residents and businesses wanting to benefit need to place an order with their chosen fibre broadband provider.

Openreach uses its existing underground ducting wherever possible, minimising disruption and the need to dig up roads and pavements.

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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

Note to Editors

*This information was given in commercial confidence, so the CSW Broadband team won’t be able to disclose which providers are planning to deploy to each area.

About CSW Broadband

**The CSW Broadband roll-out is using a mixture of technologies. These include Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC), which provides download speeds of up to 80Mbps and upload speeds of up to 20Mbps, and Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP), which is capable of delivering download speeds up to 1 Gigabit per second (Gbps) and upload speeds of up to 220Mbps. 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.

The CSW Broadband programme is made up of different phases and contracts.

The £2 million expansion - highlighted in this press release - has been made available to the CSW Broadband programme as a result of the ‘gainshare’ mechanism in the original contract. It has been triggered by strong take-up of fibre broadband by local households and businesses. It is known as Contract 2, Part 2.

Contract 2, Part 1 of the CSW Broadband programme 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 which started connecting the first homes and businesses in April 2014. This £15.47 million deal was spearheaded by Warwickshire County Council, BT and the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) programme, to enable around 40,000 premises to access high-speed fibre broadband.

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.

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

    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: Consumer, EE, Business and Public Sector, Global Services, Wholesale and Ventures, and Openreach.

    For the year ended 31 March 20161, BT Group’s reported revenue was £19,012m with reported profit before taxation of £2,907m.

    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.

    1The results for the period have been revised to reflect the outcome of the investigation into our Italian business. Detail of which is set out in our third quarter results announcement published on 27 January 2017. This financial information is unaudited.

    For more information, visitwww.btplc.com.

    About Openreach

    Openreach is the UK’s leading digital infrastructure provider.

    Its 32,000 employees are responsible for building and maintaining millions of miles of fibre and copper cables that connect every home and business in the UK to local telephone exchanges. Openreach operates and maintains this network to deliver a range of wholesale services for more than 560 retail providers, who in-turn provide telephony, broadband, TV and data services to more than 30 million consumer and business customers throughout the country.

    Openreach is a highly regulated business, with more than 90 per cent of its revenues generated from services that are regulated by Ofcom. Any company can access its products under exactly the same prices, terms and conditions.

    Over the last decade, Openreach has invested more than £10bn into its network and is currently building the UK’s largest fibre broadband footprint. This technology is available to more than 26 million homes and businesses, with tens of thousands more gaining access each week.

    Openreach is a wholly owned and independently governed division of the BT Group. For the year ended 31 March 2016, it reported revenues of £5.1bn.

    For more information, visitopenreach.co.uk