First communities to benefit from £18.6m fibre broadband roll-out are announced

An £18.6m project to bring superfast fibre broadband to rural Leicestershire today announced the first communities to benefit from the scheme.

In the first phase, around 10,000 homes and businesses across the county will have access to high speed fibre broadband from summer 2014 onwards.

Pam Posnett, cabinet member for rural broadband, said: “It gives me great pleasure to announce the first rural communities to benefit from the Superfast Leicestershire project.

“The county and district councils, BT and the European Regional Development Fund have all made a significant investment to make sure that the rural areas of Leicestershire are on the same footing as towns and cities.

“Extending high speed fibre into more rural areas will enable households to better access online movies and TV, communicate with family and friends and work more effectively from home.”

For the first time, superfast fibre broadband will be available in the following communities, where the majority of homes and businesses will be able to connect to the new network:

Charnwood
• Cossington and parts of Burton on the Wolds, Woodhouse, Woodhouse Eaves and Wymeswold
Coverage will also be extended in: Barrow upon Soar, Loughborough, Rothley and Sileby

Harborough
• Church Langton, Foxton, Smeeton Westerby, South Kilworth and parts of Kibworth Beauchamp and Kibworth Harcourt
Coverage will also be extended in Market Harborough

Hinckley and Bosworth
• Fenny Drayton

Melton
• Ab Kettleby, Old Dalby Village and parts of Asfordby
Coverage will also be extended in Melton Mowbray

North West Leicestershire
• Parts of Long Whatton

The £18.6m Superfast Leicestershire project will be delivered by Openreach, BT’s local network business, and will bring fibre broadband to more than 62,000 homes and businesses in the county.

This high-speed network is available on an open, wholesale basis to all communication providers, therefore offering Leicestershire households and businesses the benefit of real choice from a highly competitive market.

This will build on the existing fibre networks already provided by commercial operators to enable 96 per cent of Leicestershire homes and businesses to access high speed broadband.

Kasam Hussain, BT’s project manager for Superfast Leicestershire, said: “After months of behind the scenes planning and survey work we’re delighted to be able to reveal the first locations we expect to benefit from this fantastic project. Look out for our engineers as they hit the streets to lay the brand new fibre infrastructure that will extend faster broadband far and wide across Leicestershire.”

For more information visit: www.superfastleicestershire.org.uk

ENDS

Notes for Editors:
Superfast Leicestershire is a project that seeks to extend high-speed fibre broadband coverage beyond the existing commercial fibre broadband rollout of companies such as Openreach (a BT Group company) and Virgin Media to 96% of premises. We anticipate that 62,000 premises will be able to access fibre broadband.

The county council is investing £4m in this project. £1.1m has been allocated by the district and borough councils, with an additional £3.3m coming from the Government and £1.2m from the European Union. BT is also contributing £8.9m towards the overall cost of the Superfast Leicestershire project.

The county council is keen to ensure that everyone within Leicestershire can benefit from this project as it helps to grow the economy over the coming years. The county council anticipates that this investment in superfast broadband could generate £92m of economic growth by 2021, and will work with local communities as well as help small businesses to adopt technologies and grow.

Superfast Britain is a Government programme of investment in broadband and communication infrastructure across the UK. Run by the Department of 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:

• £780m to extend superfast broadband to 95% of the UK by 2017
  • £150m to provide high speed broadband to businesses in 22 cities
  • £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

ERDF
The Superfast Leicestershire project is part financed by the European Regional Development Fund Programme 2007 to 2013. The Department for Communities and Local Government is the managing authority for the European Regional Development Fund Programme, which is one of the funds established by the European Commission to help local areas stimulate their economic development by investing in projects which will support local businesses and create jobs. For more information visit
www.gov.uk/browse/business/funding-debt/european-regional-development-funding