Historic town of Arundel is set for a superfast fibre future
Work to bring the benefits of high speed fibre broadband to residents and businesses in Arundel is underway.
The complex challenge to connect the historic town to the latest fibre technology is being met by a major programme of engineering. The job of extending the existing underground fibre network from Rustington has recently been taking place along the A27 at night in order to minimise disruption to traffic. More than 11 kilometres of underground cable ducting is being laid to hold and protect the fibre as it makes its way north to Arundel. Traffic management is also in operation along the main routes into and out of Arundel and work is again being carried out overnight to try to minimise disruption in the town.
Within the town’s perimeter, eight new green fibre broadband cabinets are being built so that local households and businesses can connect to the exciting technology.
When completed, nearly 3,000 homes and businesses will have access to better, faster broadband.
The work is being carried out as part of the Better Connected project, jointly funded by West Sussex County Council, BT and central government. Twenty seven thousand more homes and businesses now have access to better, faster broadband as a result of the project, with many more thousands set to benefit.
West Sussex County Councillor David Barling, cabinet member for residents’ services, said: “The County Council is fully committed to its exciting programme of investment in high speed fibre broadband. Arundel is the latest community set to benefit and soon local people will be able to enjoy the good things that fibre can bring. High speed broadband means you can multi-stream news, information, music and films on several devices at the same time, communicate with friends and family around the world, save money online using banking and shopping services, access news and learning, apply for jobs and even buy a new home.”
So far, 175 new Better Connected fibre cabinets have been built and 152 are now live with connections to high speed broadband. The new cabinets are located county-wide in rural communities, business parks and town and village centres.
David Axam, regional director for BT in the South East, said:
“Today marks a giant step forward in the rollout of fibre broadband in West Sussex and Arundel. In West Sussex, already more than 333,000 homes and businesses now have access to high-speed fibre broadband thanks to our partnership with the West Sussex Better Connected programme and BT’s own commercial fibre broadband programme.
“Working in partnership with councils like West Sussex County Council, we have been able to get to the heart of hundreds of communities that have so far been beyond the reach of this vital technology. , It is bringing major benefits. The Government estimates that more than 56,000 jobs will be created nationally by 2024 as a result of this rollout and that rural economies will benefit by around £9 million every day due to the work being done now.”
Internet service providers should be able to offer connection packages to fibre broadband across Arundel by the autumn. Customers will contract to buy broadband services in the usual way.
News and information about the project, as well as a postcode checker and interactive map are available online at www.westsussex-betterconnected.org.uk
