New £5.6 Million deal will deliver superfast broadband boost for thousands more Shropshire homes and Businesses

Additional parts of Montford Bridge, Prees and Munslow
exchange areas set to benefit

Around 4,000 more homes and businesses across Shropshire will be able to receive high-speed fibre broadband following an additional £5.6 million of funding announced today.

The latest funding will extend the Connecting Shropshire roll-out which began connecting the first homes and businesses to faster fibre broadband around 18 months ago.

The new deal injects further funding into the Connecting Shropshire partnership between Shropshire Council, Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) and BT, with £4.7 million coming from BDUK and £900,000 from BT. Additional funding already available from the Marches Local Enterprise Partnership and BDUK will be used to undertake a further procurement exercise by the end of 2015.

Parts of Montford Bridge, Prees and Munslow exchange areas not already enabled for faster fibre broadband will be among the places to benefit from this new funding. More details of the other areas to benefit will be announced before the end of the month. The upgrade work will take place during 2017 and 2018.

So far, more than 34,000 premises are able to upgrade to faster fibre broadband out of the 62,000 planned in the first phase of the Connecting Shropshire roll-out, which is expected to finish at the end of 2016.

People wanting to find out if fibre broadband is in their area should enter their phone number or postcode in the checker on the Connecting Shropshire website: http://connectingshropshire.co.uk/when-and-where/. Residents and businesses wanting to upgrade should contact their chosen broadband service provider, the broadband speeds don’t increase automatically.

Steve Charmley, Shropshire Council Cabinet member with responsibility for broadband, said: “This extension to the Connecting Shropshire programme will provide access to faster fibre broadband to more communities. Even with the extension covering more premises, we know that there is still work to be done which was expected due to the geographical and network challenges we have in Shropshire. We intend to use additional funding already available and the balance of BDUK funds to seek further procurement opportunities to enable more homes and businesses to get superfast broadband.”

Bill Murphy, BT’s managing director of next generation access, said: “Today marks another important milestone in the development of Shropshire. Every day the internet is impacting on lives in new and exciting ways, which is why we are working hard to connect as many communities as possible. Rolling out fibre broadband in a rural county like Shropshire has its engineering challenges, but our teams have the expertise to ensure the roll-out continues smoothly and quickly.”

ENDS

Note to Editors

For more information, please contact Adam Spreckley at the Shropshire Council press office on 01743 252826 or email adam.spreckley@ipande.co.uk

Or

Emma Tennant at the BT regional press office on 0800 085 0660 or email: emma.tennant@bt.com

About Connecting Shropshire

The Connecting Shropshire programme is bringing fibre based broadband to areas where it isn’t economically viable for commercial companies to provide do so. It’s a partnership between Shropshire Council, BT and Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) that will enable more than 62,000 homes and businesses in Shropshire (excluding Telford and Wrekin) to access faster broadband by the end of 2016.

Connecting Shropshire programme website: http://connectingshropshire.co.uk/

Photos showing the rollout of Connecting Shropshire can be downloaded for free from: https://flic.kr/s/aHsk1gij7M

All Shropshire Council news stories can be read at http://shropshire.gov.uk/news/

About BT

BT’s purpose is to use the power of communications to make a better world.It is one of the world’s leading providers of communications services and solutions, serving customers in more than 170 countries. Its principal activities include the provision of networked IT services globally; local, national and international telecommunications services to its customers for use at home, at work and on the move; broadband, TV and internet products and services; and converged fixed/mobile products and services. BT consists principally of five customer-facing lines of business: BT Global Services, BT Business, BT Consumer, BT Wholesale and Openreach.

For the year ended 31 March 2015, BT Group’s reported revenue was £17,979m with reported profit before taxation of £2,645m.

British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group plc and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group. BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York.

For more information, visit www.btplc.com.

All news releases can be accessed at our web site: http://www.btplc.com/News

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 per cent 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