More Ceredigion properties get access to superfast broadband

More and more homes and businesses are gaining access to superfast broadband in Ceredigion every day as the rollout of Superfast Cymru continues.

The latest area to benefit is Rhydlewis.The rollout is only just beginning here with the high-speed technology now available to the first local households and businesses and work will continue over the coming weeks and months to further expand coverage.

Residents who would like to find out if they can access it already – or when they’re likely to be able to do so – should visit www.superfast-cymru.com

The rollout is further advanced in some other local exchange areas, such as Tregaron and Cardigan where coverage has reached 73 per cent and Llanilar, which has reached more than 50 per cent.

Across the county more than 50 per cent of premises can now access superfast broadband.

No exchange area in Ceredigion was due to receive superfast broadband from the rollout by private sector companies as it was not deemed commercially viable for them alone to provide it.

Superfast Cymru is a partnership between the Welsh Government and BT, with additional funding from Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

It is bringing superfast broadband speeds to areas which would otherwise not receive it.

Deputy Minister for Skills and Technology, Julie James, said: “Rhydlewis is the latest place in Ceredigion where the rollout of superfast broadband is taking place.Without Superfast Cymru there would be no access at all to superfast broadband in Ceredigion.

“I know that the wait for faster broadband can be frustrating but the programme is making good progress and it’s good to see that areas of Ceredigion where rollout is established are benefiting.

“More and more premises will be able to receive superfast broadband should they wish to receive it.”

Ed Hunt, BT programme director for Supefast Cymru, said: “Superfast broadband is havinga huge impact on the way we live our lives in Wales.

“While there’s still a considerable amount of work to do in Ceredigion, we’ve come an extremely long way in a very short pace of time.

“Our engineers are out every day in all weathers giving more and more homes and businesses access to superfast broadband across the county. Our plans include communities such as Aeron, Aberaeron, Borth, Bow Street, Crosswood, Glandyfi, Llechryd to name but a few.”

“When combined with BT’s commercial roll-out, we’ve already provided more than 1.24 million Welsh homes and businesses with access to high-speed fibre broadband and we look forward to working with our partners to extend this even further across the country.”

The Superfast Cymru programme is a huge undertaking that involves Openreach engineers laying 17,500kms of optical fibre cable, installing around 3,000 new green roadside cabinets and sees, on average, more than 100 premises getting access to superfast broadband across Wales every hour.

If households and businesses are able to receive superfast broadband, the upgrade will not happen automatically and they should contact their Internet Service Provide (ISP) to order the service.

Those people who cannot receive superfast broadband through Superfast Cymru can receive grants to have faster broadband in other ways, such as satellite.

Further details on these schemes are available on: gov.wales/broadband