Superfast Northamptonshire project expands to 3,000 extra homes and businesses
The Superfast Northamptonshire project today announced that it will be making high-speed fibre broadband available to more than 3,000 extra homes and businesses, at no additional cost to the initiative.
This will allow the project to now bring the technology to parts of Woodford Halse, Brackley and Yarwell for the first time, as well as expanding coverage in Kettering, Daventry, Towcester, Kingsthorpe, Desborough, Northampton town centre, Rushden and Roade.
The vast majority of these areas will be able to access superfast broadband speeds of 24Mbps and above by Summer 2015.
The opportunity has arisen during the extensive planning and surveying to deliver the project. Engineers have managed to work out ways to further extend the new network and install an extra thirteen green fibre broadband cabinets.
Cllr Andre Gonzalez De Savage, Northamptonshire County Council cabinet member for strategic infrastructure, economic growth and public protection said “This is excellent news for the people of Northamptonshire and particularly for those in the areas which will benefit from this latest development.
“Having fast broadband speeds is becoming increasingly important for households and essential for businesses that want to compete in the global economy”
Owen Moody, BT’s East Midlands regional director said: “The Superfast Northamptonshire partnership is going from strength to strength. By working closely with the council, we have been able to reach even more Northamptonshire homes and businesses, at no additional cost to the project.
Fibre broadband boosts the competitiveness of local businesses, helping them to find new customers and operate more efficiently, whilst opening up a host of new learning and development opportunities for local people as well as providing easier access to local authority and health services.”
This project is part of a £11.4m capital investment in the county by the county council, BT and the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) to deploy fibre-based broadband to more than 56,000 premises by the end of 2015.
The project builds on BT’s commercial roll-out in the county, which has already made fibre broadband available to more than 175,000 homes and businesses in the county, and establishes the foundation for Northamptonshire County Council’s plans to secure access to superfast broadband for all businesses and homes in the county by the end of 2017.
The new fibre based network will be open to all internet service providers on an equivalent basis. Households and businesses in Northamptonshire will therefore benefit from a highly competitive market, bringing greater choice and affordable prices.
Fibre broadband will enable people to run multiple bandwidth-hungry applications at the same time and send and receive large amounts of data much more quickly and efficiently. This will make things like gaming, watching BBC i-Player, using
Skype to keep in touch with friends and family anywhere in the world, or downloading films and music much quicker and without annoying ‘buffering’ or screen freeze.
It can also boost the competitiveness of local businesses, which are able to quickly and easily download and upload large documents and data to customers and suppliers and make greater use of video conferencing and remote working.
Ask your internet provider about how to upgrade to a superfast broadband service or go to www.superfast-openreach.co.uk/buy-it-now/ to find out more about what is available to you.
ENDS
About Superfast Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire County Council aims to secure access to superfast broadband for all homes and businesses in the county by end 2017. Through the Northamptonshire Next Generation Strategy, the county council is investing with telecoms suppliers to deploy fibre based broadband to those parts of the county which would otherwise not be served commercially. This affects around 85,000 premises across Northamptonshire.
The first stage of the project is being taken forward in partnership with BT, delivering fibre based broadband to over 56,000 premises by the end of 2015. This is made possible through a capital investment of £4.08m each by the county council and DCMS plus £3.2m from BT. When combined with BT’s revenue contribution, the total commitment to the broadband roll out is over £16m.
County council plans to progress the next stage of the project to extend coverage further will come forward in 2014.
For more information about the project, including the ability to see when services may be rolled out in your area by using the ‘When and Where’ interactive deployment map, please go to:
www.superfastnorthamptonshire.net
About BDUK
Superfast Britain is a UK 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% 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
