Super-fast fibre broadband live in Grimsby, Healing and Scartho
Upgrade hailed by North East Lincolnshire Council as 31,500 local homes and businesses set to benefit from BT’s £2.5 billion roll-out
Super-fast broadband has arrived in Grimsby, Healing and Scartho, BT announced today.
Around 17,500 homes and businesses now have access to the high-speed technology – and this figure will increase to more than 31,500 as Openreach engineers complete the local upgrade in the weeks ahead.
Today, the BT investment was welcomed by Cllr Darren Billard, portfolio holder for Finance, Governance and Support Services at North East Lincolnshire Council, who described it as great news.
He said: “Super-fast fibre broadband will benefit both local residents and businesses in all of these locations. Broadband is an essential part of North East Lincolnshire’s present and future. It’s vital that we embrace this latest generation of technology in order for our local economy to remain competitive.
“Better, faster communications boost businesses, helping them grow, and create more jobs. What’s more, local residents can enjoy faster browsing and downloading at home. This is great news and I look forward to fibre being rolled out across the rest of North East Lincolnshire.”
Grimsby, Healing and Scartho are the first locations in North East Lincolnshire to benefit from fibre broadband as part of BT’s £2.5 billion fibre programme.
BT is also working with the public sector to reach more communities in North East Lincolnshire through the Northern Lincs Broadband project.
Northern Lincs Broadband plans to extend high-speed fibre broadband to 92 per cent of homes and businesses across North and North East Lincolnshire.
Tom Keeney, BT’s regional director for Yorkshire and the Humber, said: “Our roll-out of fibre broadband is advancing across North East Lincolnshire. More than 2.4 million homes and businesses across the UK are already using Openreach’s new fibre network via a range of retailers, bringing speed and choice to the UK. Many local residents in Grimsby, Healing and Scartho now have the opportunity to join them.
“Whatever you’re doing online, you can do it better and faster with fibre. Whether it’s shopping, downloading music and video, watching TV, social networking, studying or researching homework, once you’ve switched to fibre you’ll never look back. Outside the home, it also has huge potential for public services and local firms.
“Businesses tell us it’s helping them in a wealth of ways, from day to day activities like downloading software, collaborating with clients and moving large data files around to big business decisions like expanding the workforce or introducing better quality IT services at less cost.”
BT’s fibre footprint currently passes more than 18 million UK homes and businesses. It’s due to pass around two-thirds of UK premises by the end of Spring 2014, at least 18 months ahead of the original timetable.
BT recently announced plans to invest a further £50 million into its commercial fibre broadband programme over the next three years. The money will benefit more than 30 cities, helping to make high speed broadband available to more than 400,000 additional premises. Further details will be announced in due course.
In total, BT is spending more than £3 billion on deploying fibre broadband, including £2.5 billion on its commercial fibre footprint and further funds in rural fibre broadband projects.
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 delivers download speeds of up to 80Mbps and upload speeds of up to 20Mbps 1 — and could deliver even faster speeds in the future.
Openreach has also started to make fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) technology, where the fibre runs all the way to the home or business, commercially available on demand 2 in certain areas and plans to further expand access. FTTP-on-demand offers the top current download speed of 330Mbps. 1
Fibre broadband at home means everyone in the family can do their own thing online, all at the same time, whether it’s downloading music in minutes or watching catch-up TV; streaming HD or 3D movies in a few minutes; or posting photos and videos to social networking sites in seconds. Fibre improves the quality of online experiences and supports new developments in internet services.
Benefits for businesses include faster file and data transfers, better access to cloud computing services and software, more sophisticated web-based contact with customers and support for more flexible working.
Unlike other companies, Openreach offers fibre broadband access to all service providers on an open, wholesale basis, which underpins a competitive market and delivers real customer choice. For further information on Openreach’s fibre broadband programme visit www.superfast-openreach.co.uk
ENDS
Notes to editors
The Northernlincs Broadband Programme 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
1 These are the top wholesale speeds available from Openreach to all service providers; speeds offered by service providers may vary.
2 Openreach will levy an installation charge for FTTP on demand. It will be up to service providers to decide whether they pass that on to businesses or consumers wishing to use the product.
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, which may also benefit from the local partnership activity outlined above.
