Surrey is best connected county
First public/private fibre broadband project to complete main phase of deployment
82,000 homes and businesses covered through programme
Superfast Surrey, a partnership between Surrey County Council and BT, today announced the completion of the main phase of its programme to bring fibre broadband to those areas in the county not included in commercial roll outs.
The partnership has extended the high-speed fibre broadband coverage to more than 82,000 homes and businesses across Surrey, making it currently the best connected county in Great Britain.
The news comes shortly after the Government announced the nationwide rollout has now reached more than 2 million homes and businesses.
Digital Economy Minister Ed Vaizey, said: "The Government's nationwide rollout of superfast broadband is already transforming lives across the UK and this is particularly the case in Surrey, Great Britain's best connected county. We're now focusing on taking coverage even further, ensuring even more of Surrey's homes and businesses will be enjoying access to superfast speeds."
Surrey County Council Deputy Leader Peter Martin said: “This roll out has been delivered at an amazing rate of nearly 200 homes and businesses per working day, transforming lives across the county, and making Surrey the best connected county in Britain.
"Whilst celebrating this achievement, I recognise that there is still work to do to reach those remaining premises located in the more technically challenging and harder to reach places of the county. This is not, therefore, the end of the story and as a council we would like to do more.
"To understand the full scope of the remaining challenge, we intend to run a further investigation known as an Open Market Review (OMR). The results will enable us to identify how to prioritise the use of any remaining funds to address issues of broadband coverage and speed across the county."
Bill Murphy, managing director next generation access at BT, said: “We have been working hard to get to this tremendous milestone achievement, which has seen the communications landscape completely transformed, on time and on budget, and we are keen to do even more.
“This project is boosting the local economy and helping to create and protect local jobs. Thanks to high-speed fibre broadband, companies like Yubico, can run its international operations from a 400 year-old house in one of Surrey’s oldest villages as easily as if in a high tech business park.”
In delivering the fibre broadband infrastructure the Superfast Surrey project has:
• Laid around 250 miles of fibre optic cable, the distance between London and Middlesbrough.
• Upgraded more than 30 rural telephone exchanges across the county to high speed fibre broadband.
• Installed more than 600 green road-side cabinets and fibre structures.
• Helped Surrey record the second highest take-up of fibre broadband in the country.
Notes to editors:
Openreach 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* — and could deliver even faster speeds in the future.
*These are the top wholesale speeds available from Openreach to all service providers; speeds offered by service providers may vary.
To find out more about the programme and access the post code checker visitwww.superfastsurrey.org.uk
@superfastsurrey has more than 71,000 Twitter followers
https://www.flickr.com/photos/107803477@N08/sets/
For more details about BT’s commercial fibre broadband roll-out plans go towww.bt.com/furtherwithfibre
For further information
Enquiries about this news release should be made to the BT Regional Press Office on 0800 085 0660. All news releases can be accessed at our web site: http://www.btplc.com/News
About Superfast Surrey
Superfast Surrey is a programme that aims to give consistent reliable broadband access to communities outside of the commercially served areas within the county.
Funded by Surrey County Council, BT and BDUK (Broadband Delivery UK), and managed by a joint programme team, Superfast Surrey is building a brand new fibre broadband network; it is a ‘Big Build’ that promises big wins.
Fibre broadband will change the way we use the internet, opening up new opportunities for businesses, communities and individuals. It will broaden horizons for everyone, unlocking the full potential of the internet so we can all achieve more.
Whether you’re looking to work from home, get access for your business or get reliable consistent access to the internet to ensure you can access the wide range services on online; superfast broadband could be for you.
www.superfastsurrey.org.uk
About Openreach
Openreach is responsible for the last mile of the UK access network – the copper wires and fibre connecting homes and businesses to their local telephone exchanges. Openreach provides communications providers with services and products associated with that network.
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
