MP explores fibre broadband network in Elvington
More than 800 homes and businesses in the village can now benefit from fibre broadband on the BT network; local community encouraged to get connected
BT today demonstrated the technology behind the roll out of super-fast fibre broadband in Elvington to Julian Sturdy, MP for York Outer.
He visited the most recent fibre broadband street cabinet to ‘go live’ in the village, opposite Elvington Hall, to find out more about the roll-out and the benefits it will bring the local community.
Julian Sturdy said: “Having campaigned to improve access to broadband in rural areas and bridge the digital divide for several years, I am absolutely delighted to visit this brand new cabinet in Elvington, providing hundreds more homes with access to superfast speeds. Elvington is one of the most outlying villages in my constituency and it’s so important that it benefits from the same digital services that so many communities within the City of York take for granted.”
The new network now passes more than 800 premises in Elvington which includes more than 460 homes and business covered by the Superfast North Yorkshire programme1 and a further 350 covered by the Broadband East Riding2 roll-out. Both programmes are partnerships between BT and the local authority, utilising funding from the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) initiative and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
Tom Keeney, BT’s regional director for Yorkshire and the Humber, who hosted the visit, said: “I’m pleased that Julian and I have the opportunity today to mark this important milestone for Elvington not least because the village has been my home for the past seven years.
“Along with the rest of the community, I am feeling the benefit of the faster broadband speeds. I can work from home more effectively and have no concerns that large documents will fail to send or a video call will grind to a halt. My wife and children also use the internet for so many things, and on so many devices. With fibre even when we are all home, shopping, gaming, working or streaming, the whole family can use the internet, at the same time, as we wish.
“It’s great that in partnership with the public sector we are pushing the reach of broadband beyond our commercial roll-out and across the majority of North Yorkshire.”
Openreach, BT’s local network business, is primarily deploying fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) technology, where the fibre runs from the exchange to a local roadside cabinet. FTTC offers download speeds of up to 80 megabits per second (Mbps) and upload speeds of up to 20Mbps3 and could deliver even faster speeds in the future.
At home, fibre broadband enables a family to simultaneously download a movie, watch a TV replay service, surf the internet and play games online all at the same time. A whole album can be downloaded in less than 30 seconds and a feature length HD movie in less than 10 minutes, whilst high-resolution photos can be uploaded to Facebook in seconds.
BT’s network is available on an open, wholesale basis to all companies offering broadband services. For further information on the fibre broadband programme visit www.superfast-openreach.co.uk or www.superfastnorthyorkshire.com
ENDS
Notes to editors
1The Superfast North Yorkshire project was the first in the UK to deploy fibre broadband using Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) and European Union (ERDF) funds following the signing of a £36.4m contract led by North Yorkshire County Council and BT in July 2012.
The Superfast North Yorkshire 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.communities.gov.uk/erdf
2 Broadband East Riding will bring superfast fibre broadband - delivering speeds exceeding 24Mbps - to more than 42,000 homes and businesses in the East Riding of Yorkshire by December 2015. In addition the project aims to ensure the whole county will have access to broadband speeds of 2Mbps or more.
Broadband East Riding 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.communities.gov.uk/erdf
3These are the top wholesale speeds available from Openreach to all service providers; speeds offered by service providers may vary.
Due to the current network topography, and the economics of deployment, it is likely that some premises within selected exchange areas will not initially be able to access fibre-based broadband. Openreach is considering alternative solutions for these locations.
