Secretary of state hails Superfast Worcestershire fibre broadband milestone
Bromsgrove is latest community to benefit from fibre broadband partnership
More than 20,000 homes and businesses across the county will be able to access faster fibre broadband by the end of the month as a result of the Superfast Worcestershire roll-out.
The milestone was welcomed by Sajid Javid - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and MP for Bromsgrove.
He was in Stoke Heath with representatives from partners Worcestershire County Council and BT to switch on the project’s 100th fibre cabinet, which will provide around 130 local households and businesses with the option to sign up to faster fibre broadband.
This is the first area of Bromsgrove to benefit from the Superfast Worcestershire partnership. Unlike other parts of the town, this area has not been covered previously by the private sector’s commercial roll-out of the high-speed technology
Superfast Worcestershire is part of the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) programme, which last Monday announced it had made superfast fibre broadband available to two million homes and businesses around the country.
The partnership’s 100th fibre cabinet in Steel Close is the first of around 14 that are due to be installed in Bromsgrove in the coming months as part of Superfast Worcestershire. When all the cabinets have gone ‘live’, around 1,400 additional homes and businesses in Bromsgrove will be able to access faster fibre broadband.
The Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport said: “This is an excellent milestone and great news for people and businesses in Stoke Heath today who will benefit from superfast broadband.
“I know from speaking to many local, small businesses and to constituents working from home, superfast broadband will make a real difference.
“I’m delighted that 82 per cent of Bromsgrove District already has access to fibre broadband and I am determined it will reach everyone.”
Councillor Simon Geraghty, Worcestershire County Council Cabinet Member for Economy, Skills and Infrastructure, said: "This is another key milestone for the Superfast Worcestershire programme and sets us well on our way to enabling at least 90 per cent of the county's residents and businesses to access faster fibre broadband by June 2016. It's also great news for those who are able to connect to this particular cabinet, which is the first community in Bromsgrove to go live as a result of this programme."
Mike Cook, BT’s regional director for Worcestershire and the West Midlands, said: “Today marks another step forward in the roll-out of fibre broadband in Worcestershire and across the UK. Here, more than 200,000 homes and businesses now have access to high-speed fibre broadband thanks to Superfast Worcestershire and BT’s own commercial fibre broadband programme.
“There can be few areas of modern life which are not influenced in some way by broadband – whether it’s supporting how we work, how we learn, how we communicate with friends and family, or how we entertain ourselves. Now’s the time to embrace high-speed broadband and switch to the superfast lane.”
Anyone wanting to follow the progress of the Superfast Worcestershire roll-out should log onto: www.superfastworcestershire.com or look out for updates on Facebook.
It’s an ‘opt in’ service, but because the network is being installed by Openreach – BT’s local network business - it is ‘open’, so residents and businesses wanting to upgrade have a choice from whom they take their fibre broadband, with more than 140 fibre broadband providers now operating in the UK.
Once an area has been upgraded, local people will have access to superfast broadband with download speeds of up to 80 megabits per second (Mbps) and uploads of up to 20Mbps*.
During the Superfast Worcestershire roll-out, more than 720 kilometres of fibre optic cable and around 350 new street-side cabinets will be installed to connect people to the new network across the partnership area.
Ends
Notes to Editors:
*These are the top wholesale speeds available from Openreach to all service providers; speeds offered by service providers may vary.
Press Office Contacts:
For more information please contact Worcestershire County Council please email:
commsunit@worcestershire.gov.uk or telephone: 01905 766646.
Or
For information about BT please contact the regional press office on 0800 085 0660 or email: emma.tennant@bt.com
For more photography see: https://flic.kr/s/aHsjZ16EQi
About Superfast Worcestershire
Superfast Worcestershire is a partnership between Worcestershire County Council, BT and the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) programme. Worcestershire County Council is contributing up to £8.5 million, with an additional £8.9 million from BT and a further £3.35 million from the from the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) funds through the Superfast Britain initiative (please see below).
The combined investments of the private sector and Superfast Worcestershire will enable at least 90 per cent of the county's residents and businesses to access faster fibre broadband by June 2016.
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
