Thousands more Warwickshire homes and businesses to benefit from multi-million pound extension of superfast fibre broadband

Aston Cantlow, Avon Dassett, Edge Hill, Farnborough, Fenny Compton, Great Alne, Norton Lindsey, Oxhill, Radway, Ullenhall and Upper Tysoe are among communities to benefit from expansion programme

More than 43,000 homes and businesses now able to access faster fibre broadband thanks to CSW Broadband partnership

A multi-million pound expansion of the CSW Broadband programme will begin in the New Year when engineering work starts on giving another 14,600 homes and businesses access to fibre broadband, lead partners Warwickshire County Council and BT announced.

The high-speed technology will become available for the first time in areas of Aston Cantlow, Avon Dassett, Edge Hill, Farnborough, Fenny Compton, Great Alne, Little Kineton, Norton Lindsey, Oxhill, Radway, Ullenhall and Upper Tysoe*.

Engineers from Openreach – BT’s local network business – will begin installing the new network in January. The first premises will be able to access fibre broadband from Summer 2016, reaching 3,600 additional homes and businesses by the end of 2016 and the majority of the remainder by the end of 2017.

During this period, the CSW Broadband programme will also be extended in parts of Alcester, Bidford-on-Avon, Brailles, Claverdon, Coleshill, Curdworth, Furnace End, Harbury, Haseley Knob, Kineton, Pailton, Rugby, Snitterfield, Southam and Wellesbourne.

It’s around 18 months since the CSW Broadband partnership started connecting the first premises in Warwickshire, Solihull and Coventry to faster fibre broadband**. Since then, Openreach engineers have installed more than 220 new road-side cabinets, making fibre available to more than 43,000 homes and businesses.

Councillor Alan Cockburn, deputy leader of Warwickshire County Council, said: “It’s great news that the first communities to benefit from the additional roll-out of the fibre network can now see where they are in the pipeline. Further announcements regarding the roll-out will be made in April next year, and then quarterly thereafter.

“However, that’s not all. The CSW Broadband team has been working on new mapping which now goes right down to property level. This shows the results of the data we have collected, and we believe CSW Broadband is the first broadband project in the country to have mapping to this level of detail***.”

Bill Murphy, BT’s managing director of next generation access, said: “Our project teams are working hard to make fibre broadband available to as many communities as possible, as quickly as possible, especially in the harder to reach parts of Warwickshire.

“Every day we’re seeing how this technology is changing the way people communicate and do business for the better. Whether it’s families trying to connect different devices to the internet at the same time, or firms needing to share information with their customers or suppliers – everything is easier and quicker with fibre broadband. CSW Broadband builds on BT’s commercial roll-out which has already made high-speed broadband available to nearly 300,000 premises across Warwickshire and Coventry.”

Warwickshire County Councilllor Philip Johnson, Chair of Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee, said: "It is great news that so many of the communities receiving superfast broadband are in the remote and rural parts of Warwickshire. It is important that all corners of the county have access to services that keep them connected, enable business opportunities and enhance quality of life."

Local people can get more information and updates from the CSW Broadband website – www.cswbroadband.org.uk – and via Twitter and Facebook.

It’s an ‘opt in’ service, but because the network is being installed by Openreach it is ‘open’, so residents and businesses wanting to upgrade have a choice of fibre broadband service providers, with more than 140 now operating in the UK. Local people choosing to upgrade will be able to get download speeds of up to 80 megabits (Mbps) and uploads of up to 20Mbps****.

Note to Editors

*This expansion of the CSW Broadband roll-out is known as Contract 2, Part 1, and was announced in February. The deal was spearheaded by Warwickshire County Council and Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council, which are contributing an initial £3.68 million and £0.38 million respectively, with an additional £2.61m from BT and a further £4.06m from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s Superfast Extension Programme (SEP).

When complete, it will increase the percentage of homes and businesses able to access high-speed fibre broadband in Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire to nearly 94 per cent when combined with the first phase of the CSW Broadband roll-out already underway and the private sector investments of companies like BT.

**The first part of the CSW Broadband roll-out is known as Contract 1.

***As the property-level mapping is still in development, the CSW Broadband team is asking people to check the map at www.cswbroadband.org.uk and to report any discrepancies by using the simple online form.

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

---ends---

Issued by Warwickshire County Council and BT on behalf of the CSW Broadband partnership.

For more information please contact Leigh Hunt at the CSW Broadband project office on 01926 738339 or email: broadband@cswbroadband.org.uk

Or

Emma Tennant at the BT regional press office on 0800 085 0660 or email: emma.tennant@bt.comTwitter: @EmmaTennantBT

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) with BT and the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) programme.

In the first phase, which began connecting homes and businesses in April 2014, the CSW Broadband partnership is contributing £4.5 million, with £6.57m from BT and £4.5m from BDUK.

That phase of the CSW Broadband partnership will ensure around 40,000 premises in the project area have access to superfast broadband. When combined with private sector investments, 91 cent of the area’s homes and businesses will have access to superfast broadband by Spring 2016.

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@cswbroadband.org.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