17
December
2015
|
14:21
Europe/London

Festive fibre broadband boost for more than 6,000 Black Country businesses and homes

Summary
The Black Country Broadband Project delivered some seasonal cheer with news that more than 6,000 businesses and households are now able to access high-speed fibre broadband thanks to the ambitious programme

The Black Country Broadband Project delivered some seasonal cheer with news that more than 6,000 businesses and households are now able to access high-speed fibre broadband thanks to the ambitious programme, lead partners Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and BT announced today.

Parts of Dudley, Walsall, Wednesbury, West Bromwich and Wolverhampton are among the latest areas to benefit.

They include: the St Matthew’s area of Walsall, East Park, south Darlaston, Friar Park, Charlemont with Grove Vale, Halesowen North, Hateley Heath, Heath Town, Blackheath, Langley, Rowley, Bristnall, St Paul’s, Tividale and parts of Oldbury.

As part of the roll-out, engineers have so far installed more than 90 fibre broadband road-side cabinets, which are needed to enable local premises to connect to the new network.

Because the network is being rolled out by engineers from Openreach – BT’s local network business – residents and businesses opting for an upgrade can choose from a wide range of broadband service providers, with more than 140 providers currently operating in the UK.

Work has already started on the second phase of the roll-out, which will extend the reach of the technology to parts of Brierley Hill, Dudley, James Bridge, Streetly, Tipton and Willenhall, from January 2016 onwards.

Ninder Johal, Chair of the Black Country Broadband Group and a Board Member of the Local Enterprise Partnership, said: “Small businesses across the Black Country identified slow broadband speeds as a barrier to growth so reaching the 6,000 milestone will bring a terrific boost to the local economy. The Black Country LEP aims to deliver a minimum 98 per cent high-speed fibre broadband by the end of June 2017 and in doing so support businesses and individuals to connect to and make the most out of the internet.”

Bill Murphy, BT’s Managing Director of next generation access, said: “Christmas is a great time to be making this exciting technology more widely available and to reach this important milestone. Whatever you do online you can do it better with fibre broadband. It helps firms to share information with their customers and suppliers more easily, which is especially important at this busy time of the year when deadlines can be more demanding than usual.

“Shopping online and browsing is so much easier using fibre broadband and for people wanting to combine use of increasingly popular services like ‘click and collect’ with trips to the high street. Fibre broadband enables several people in a household to be online at the same time, so children can play games or do their homework, without affecting mum and dad streaming videos, watching catch-up television or uploading photos.”

The Black Country Broadband project was launched to bring fibre broadband to areas of the region that are not already able to access faster fibre broadband as a result of any commercial roll-outs.

For more information on the Black Country Broadband Project visit www.blackcountrylep.co.uk/place/broadband-plan

ENDS

Note to Editors

The £12.2 million Black Country Broadband Project is a partnership between Black Country LEP, BT and the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) programme, supported by the four local authorities in Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton.

Combined investments by BT and other communications providers means high-speed fibre broadband is already available to around 92 per cent of the area – more than 468,000 homes and businesses.

The Black Country Broadband Project will extend the availability of high-speed fibre broadband to 98 per cent of homes and businesses across Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton by the end of 2017.

Funding for the programme is made up of £2.9 million from the Government’s Broadband Delivery (BDUK) programme, £6.4 million from BT and £2.9 million from the Black Country LEP’s Growing Places Fund.

The Growing Places Fund enables organisations to apply for funding to invest in Capital projects, including land, property and infrastructure, which unlock economic growth and create jobs.

Issued by Black Country LEP and the BT regional press office.

For more information please contact Helen Annetts, PR on behalf of the Black Country LEP on 07779026720 or email HelenLAnnetts@hotmail.co.uk

Or

Emma Tennant at BT on 0800 085 0660 or email: emma.tennant@bt.com

Twitter: @EmmaTennantBT

About the Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP)

  1. The Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) aligns activity across private and public sectors to create the right environment for businesses with a remit to tackle barriers to business growth and create a globally competitive local economy.
  2. Programmes to deliver our vision are structured around three areas of activity:
  • Business: supporting skills and competitiveness
  • People: raising skills and employability, for example through our City Deal and Skills Factory;
  • Place: including the provision of more high quality employment land through our Enterprise Zone and City Deal.
  1. The LEP Board has identified seven priority areas where action will have the most impact on the Black Country and its contribution to the national economy:
  • Exploiting the potential of the Black Country as a place to live, do business and invest; focusing on our housing offer, the quality of employment land, and the distinctive role of our four strategic centres.
  • Using supply chains to build business commitment to skills and growth
  • Supporting innovation at our major science and business parks

About the Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP)

  1. The Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) aligns activity across private and public sectors to create the right environment for businesses with a remit to tackle barriers to business growth and create a globally competitive local economy.
  2. Programmes to deliver our vision are structured around three areas of activity:
  • Business: supporting skills and competitiveness
  • People: raising skills and employability, for example through our City Deal and Skills Factory;
  • Place: including the provision of more high quality employment land through our Enterprise Zone and City Deal.
  1. The LEP Board has identified seven priority areas where action will have the most impact on the Black Country and its contribution to the national economy:
  • Exploiting the potential of the Black Country as a place to live, do business and invest; focusing on our housing offer, the quality of employment land, and the distinctive role of our four strategic centres.
  • Using supply chains to build business commitment to skills and growth
  • Supporting innovation at our major science and business parks
  • Building a close relationship with our top 600 companies
  • Raising our skills levels
  • Securing inward investment
  • Developing a more entrepreneurial culture
  1. The Black Country located at the heart of the national transport network, comprises the metropolitan boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall and the City of Wolverhampton. It covers 356 sq kilometres, is home to 1.14 million people, with 23 per cent ethnic minority residents and approximately half a million jobs in 31,000 companies.

    For more information on the Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership visit www.blackcountrylep.co.uk or follow on Twitter: @blackcountrylep