Partnership approach brings high-speed broadband to Royal Earlswood Park, Surrey
High-speed broadband delivered by latest Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) technology
A partnership between local residents and BT is to make high-speed fibre broadband available to more than 170 houses in the Royal Earlswood Park community, in Surrey.
Openreach, the local network business, which is part of BT Group, will install new fibre optic cabling and green road-side cabinets equipped with the latest Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) technology.
High-speed fibre broadband speeds of more than 24Mbps will be available for the first time from a wide range of broadband service providers. The co-funded deal, involving investment by the local residents and Openreach, has just been signed and is expected to see the first residents get the high-speed service around the beginning of next year.
Richard Quin-Stanley, a local resident who initiated the community project in Earlswood, Surrey, said: “We are delighted that our development will soon be able to benefit from faster broadband speeds obtained by the installation of a new fibre-fed cabinet within our development. Nearly 200 homes will then be able to access high-speed fibre broadband. We still need to raise more funds to hit our target but we are confident that recent pledges will be confirmed in the next few weeks to complete the funding.”
Kim Mears, Openreach’s managing director for infrastructure delivery, said: “Partnerships like this help us to bring high-speed broadband to challenging areas that internet providers have difficulty upgrading alone. More than 92 per cent of the UK can access superfast speeds today, and we’re committed to making fibre broadband as widely available as possible. That’s why we’re investing in hundreds of similar projects across the UK, working in partnership with business and residential communities to make faster speeds available from a wide choice of competing internet service providers. It’s great to be able to work with communities like Royal Earlswood Park to find a broadband solution.”
Stacey King, BT’s regional partnership director for the South East, said: “By working closely with the residents of Royal Earlswood Park we have been able to agree this funding solution and it’s fantastic that the contract has now been signed. We’re keen to have conversations with other communities who might be able to benefit from this approach.”
Around 96 per cent[1] of households and businesses in Surrey now have access to superfast speeds. The UK superfast broadband coverage will rise to 95 per cent by the end of 2017. More than 200 communities across the country have already signed up to BT’s co-funded Community Fibre Partnerships scheme, with around 100 already enjoying the benefits of superfast broadband.
To find out how to help bring superfast broadband to your community visit www.communityfibre.bt.com
For more details on the roll-out of fibre broadband visit www.openreach.co.uk/whereandwhen
