Full speed ahead for historic Herefordshire community – broadband speeds set to rocket as rural parish becomes one of the fastest in the UK
MP welcomes superfast fibre broadband boost for local community;
Llangarron prepares for life in the fast lane as Fastershire broadband partnership delivers potential 100-fold increase in speeds
An historic, rural parish in south-west Herefordshire is looking forward to taking a giant leap onto the information superhighway this Spring.
Residents of Llangarron will be able to lay claim to living in one of the fastest rural parishes with some of the fastest broadband in the UK when there is a potential 100-fold increase in their broadband speeds during the next few months.
Around 450 homes and businesses in Llangarron and the nearby villages of Llancloudy and Llangrove will be able to get high-speed fibre broadband – with many having access to potential speeds of up to 330Mbps*. The current average in the village is around 3Mbps.
The superfast fibre broadband boost is being delivered by Fastershire, the partnership between Herefordshire Council, BT and Gloucestershire County Council, as part of the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) programme.
A mixture of technologies is being used to roll-out superfast broadband to Llangarron**. It involves engineers from Openreach – BT’s local network business – laying around 14 miles of fibre optic cable between now and the end of March. The average potential download speed will be 156Mbps.
Jesse Norman MP said: “Fast, reliable broadband is a lifeline for rural communities. By providing access to superfast speeds for so many homes and businesses in Llangarron, I hope Fastershire will enable the village and the surrounding area to take full advantage of online services for education, entertainment and business, and avoid some of the possible isolation of rural life. I greatly look forward to seeing how this community makes use of it.”
Herefordshire County Councillor Graham Powell said: “What we’re doing in Llangarron illustrates the strides we’re making in the county to deliver a fibre network that will make a massive difference to the whole of Herefordshire.”
Ian Binks, BT’s regional manager for Herefordshire and the West Midlands, said: “It’s fitting that this historic parish, with links to the Anglo Saxon times of Edward the Confessor, is now making its own bit of digital history a thousand years on.
“Fastershire is a huge engineering operation and our project teams are working hard to bring faster fibre broadband to more communities as quickly as possible. Whether you’re running a business from home or a family needing to connect lots of different devices to the internet at the same time, everything is easier and better with fibre broadband.”
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Notes to Editors
*Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) superfast broadband can provide speeds up to 330Mbps. These are the top wholesale speeds available from BT’s local network business Openreach to all service providers; speeds offered by service providers may vary.
**Both FTTP and Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) technologies will be used in Llangarron.
FTTP is an essential part of Fastershire’s roll-out to homes, farms and other businesses in the rural countryside of Herefordshire, a county with the fourth lowest overall population density in England.
Fastershire has already made FTTP available to more than 3,000 premises in the project area, with this figure due to rise to around 9,000 by the end of the roll-out in 2016.
The Fastershire project will provide satellite solutions to those premises in the Llangarron parish not eligible for FTTC nor FTTP.
Homes and businesses that fall outside the current Fastershire roll-out programme can apply to take part in the Herefordshire Passport to Fastershire scheme – www.passport2fastershire.com
There may be some exchanges or properties that will not be upgraded to fibre broadband, however all homes and businesses in the project area are expected to receive a minimum of 2Mbps by the end of 2016.
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
