09
February
2014
|
23:00
Europe/London

From white wedding to underground cabling… BT engineering couple’s recipe for romantic success

New fibre broadband exchange announced in Puttenham. 
A husband and wife have discovered the secret to being happily married - by working together underground! 

BT engineers David and Laura Gainsford, who have two children, are both members of the same team. They work in all weathers to lay new fibre optic cabling as part of the multi-million pound Superfast Surrey broadband project. 

The sometimes wet and muddy conditions are a far cry from the sunny day 19 years ago when Laura walked up the aisle at Holy Trinity Church, Wallington, in a pure white dress to marry David. 
But Laura, said: “Moving from an office based job to working outside, was the best thing I ever did. It sounds corny but I love working with my husband.” 

As part of the partnership between BT, Surrey County Council and BDUK, David and Laura work on extending faster broadband throughout Surrey including the village of Puttenham where fibre broadband has just ‘gone live’. 

David has worked at BT for more than 28 years and has worked in business units such as exchange construction and logistics. He currently works in a cabling team, often working underground and in all weathers. 

David, said: “Every day is different and with this job I’m able to work on a project from start to finish. I enjoy the challenge, it’s very satisfying and working with Laura is an added bonus. 

Laura has worked at BT for more than 24 years and has previously worked in an office based job for BT’s street-work consultancy unit. She also works in the underground network including the footway boxes. 

The new fibre based broadband services have now started to become available in Puttenham and by the time the roll-out is complete around 1,300homes and businesses in the village will have access. 

Superfast Surrey builds on BT’s own commercial roll-out of fibre broadband in the county, which has already made the technology available to more than 380,000 Surrey homes and businesses. The partnership is working mainly in the more rural, difficult to reach areas, aiming to bring fibre broadband to more than 99 per cent of the county’s homes and businesses by the end of 2014. Superfast Surrey’s ‘programme area’ will provide fibre access to an additional 84,000 premises, which fall outside the private sector’s commercial plans. 

Peter Martin, Surrey county council deputy leader, said: “It’s great news that despite the severe weather we have remained on track to make Surrey the UK’s best connected county. The benefits are huge, with the county’s economy being boosted by around £30 million a year and all Surrey’s communities getting fast, reliable internet access. Now we’ll push on with the next stage of the project to ensure we achieve our target of almost 100% access by the end of this year.” 

Engineers for Openreach, BT’s local network business, are building the new fibre infrastructure. Fibre to the Cabinet will be the main technology deployed. This can deliver wholesale downstream speeds of up to 80Mbps, and upstream speeds of up to 20Mbps. Fibre to the Premises technology – delivering ultra-fast wholesale speeds of up to 330Mbps – will also be deployed in certain areas and will be available on demand throughout the whole of the fibre footprint over time, should local businesses want the ultra-fast speeds it offers. ** 

The new fibre-based network is open to all broadband service providers on an equal basis. Households and businesses in Surrey will therefore benefit from a highly competitive market, bringing greater choice and affordable prices from a wide range of internet service providers. 

Notes to editors: 
**80Mbps and 330Mbps are wholesale speeds. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) may use different speeds in their advertising. Individual line speeds will depend on network infrastructure and the service chosen by the ISP. 

Openreach has started to make FTTP on demand available in its fibre footprint. Openreach will levy an installation charge but it will be up to service providers to decide whether they pass that onto businesses or consumers wishing to take advantage of the product. 

About Superfast Surrey 
Superfast Surrey is a pioneering two year programme that will give consistant reliable broadband access to everyone outside of the commercially served areas within the county, making it one of the best connected places in the world. 

Funded by the Surrey County Council, BT and BDUK (Broadband Delivery UK), and managed by a joint Programme team, Superfast Surrey is building a brand new fibre broadband network; it is a ‘Big Build’ that promises big wins. 

Fibre broadband will change the way we use the internet, opening up new opportunities for businesses, communities and individuals. It will broaden horizons for everyone, unlocking the full potential of the internet so we can all achieve more. 

Whether you’re looking to work from home, get access for your business or get reliable consistent access to the internet to ensure you can access the wide range services on online; superfast broadband could be for you. 
www.superfastsurrey.org.uk 


About Superfast Britain 

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