31
August
2014
|
23:00
Europe/London

Take-up of superfast broadband in pioneering Warwickshire village is superfast!

First broadband cabinet to be switched on as part of CSW Broadband project is expanded to meet high demand 

Residents in the picturesque Warwickshire village of Snitterfield, which recently became the first rural community in the county to benefit from the multi-million pound CSW Broadband partnership, have generated such ‘superfast’, high demand for faster fibre optic broadband that the capacity of the street-side cabinet serving them has had to be increased.

So many villagers signed up to enjoy download speeds of up to 80 megabits per second and upload speeds of up to 20Mbps* in the first three months since it was switched on, that the original capacity of the cabinet was used up faster than expected.

The metal cabinet outside Snitterfield Primary School is one of three needed to connect more than 840 homes and businesses in Snitterfield to the new fibre optic network.

Engineers from Openreach – BT’s local network business - acted quickly to put additional connections into the cabinet, so even more villagers can choose to upgrade to faster fibre broadband and benefit from sharing large files of information, uploading photographs, downloading music and surfing the internet faster than ever before.

CSW Broadband is a partnership between eight local councils, led by Warwickshire County Council, BT and the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) programme.

Councillor Alan Cockburn, Deputy Leader of Warwickshire County Council, said: “It is fantastic that so many people in Snitterfield have signed up to the new superfast services, and that BT has been able to respond to that demand so quickly by upgrading the new cabinet. The advent of superfast broadband is making a real difference to the residents and businesses of Snitterfield.”

Steve Henderson, BT’s regional director for broadband partnerships, said: “It’s great that so many villagers have recognised the benefits of upgrading to fibre optic broadband and have responded so positively. The CSW Broadband rollout is a huge engineering project with engineers working hard to ensure the benefits now being taken up by people in Snitterfield can be similarly enjoyed in more and more communities across the project area in the coming weeks and months.”

The Openreach network is ‘open’ to other service providers so local people can choose from around 100 providers of fibre broadband services in the UK, ensuring competitive prices.

Councillor Cockburn added: “The project as a whole is going extremely well with 63 cabinets now live and offering superfast broadband services. The next update of the rolling 12-month plan is due in early October and at that time we will be announcing the next tranche of cabinets to be upgraded. Additionally, the project is preparing to go out to tender through the BDUK framework for the second block of funding and we expect to announce the successful bidder early in the New Year.”

The CSW Broadband partnership will ensure around 40,000 premises in the project area gain access to super-fast broadband. When combined with private sector investments, 91 per cent of the area’s homes and businesses will have access to super-fast broadband by spring 2016.

Updates on the roll-out of CSW Broadband are available on the project website: http://www.cswbroadband.org.uk
Notes to Editors

*These are the top wholesale speeds available from Openreach to all service providers; speeds offered by service providers may vary.

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About CSW Broadband - http://www.cswbroadband.org.uk
CSW Broadband is a partnership of eight Local Authorities (Coventry, Solihull, Warwickshire and the Boroughs and Districts of North Warwickshire, Nuneaton and Bedworth, Rugby, Warwick and Stratford on Avon).

The project office is hosted by Warwickshire County Council and is based in Warwick. The project team can be contacted on 01926 738339 or broadband@warwickshire.gov.uk

The CSW Superfast Broadband Programme is in addition to, and separate from, Coventry City Council’s ‘Super Connected Cities’ Programme.
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% 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