Twenty-first century broadband speeds reach more of Dawlish
Twenty-first century broadband speeds reach more of Dawlish
Connecting Devon and Somerset (CDS) has brought superfast broadband to more households and businesses in the Dawlish.
Dawlish has seen a major boost with 1,750 more households and businesses now able to order and connect to superfast broadband following the completion of eight fibre broadband cabinets in the area. When added to BT’s commercial deployment the total number of households and businesses in the town able to connect to fibre broadband rises to well over 8,000.
CDS is working hard to make high-speed fibre broadband as widely available as possible and is on track to meet its target of delivering superfast broadband to around 90 per cent of households and businesses in Devon and Somerset by the end of 2016.
To date, more than 225,000 households and businesses in Devon and Somerset are able to access fibre broadband as a result of the multi million pound CDS programme. This has been made possible through the construction of almost 1000 fibre broadband cabinets and the laying of many thousands of kilometres of fibre optic cables by engineers from BT’s local network business, Openreach.
Councillor Andrew Leadbetter, Cabinet Member for Economy and Growth for Devon County Council, commented: “I’m delighted for everybody in Dawlish who now has the opportunity to access superfast broadband as a result of the Connecting Devon and Somerset programme. Superfast broadband has become even more essential to ensure that our businesses remain competitive and our economy continues to grow. Superfast broadband can dramatically alter how we work – opening up home working and other measures to improve efficiency and enable communities to access services so long taken for granted by many in more urban areas.”
Paul Coles, BT South West regional manager, said: “This extension of high-speed fibre broadband represents a major investment in Dawlish and the surrounding areas. It will provide a vital boost for local households and businesses because whatever you do online you can do it better with fibre broadband.”
Residents and businesses can keep up to date with the latest cabinets going live via Twitter @DCCSCCBroadband or via www.connectingdevonandsomerset.co.uk. If your area is covered by fibre broadband you will need to contact your Internet Service Provider to order a fibre broadband service.
Notes to Editors
About Connecting Devon and Somerset
Councils across Devon and Somerset are working together to bring faster broadband to the area and deliver improved broadband for rural Devon and Somerset – the “final third” – rural areas that are unlikely to benefit from commercial investment in broadband.
The Connecting Devon and Somerset Programme covers Devon County Council, Somerset County Council, Bath and North East Somerset Council, Plymouth City Council, Torbay Council, and North Somerset Council areas.
In 2011 the programme secured £32 million of funding from the government agency Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) and both Somerset and Devon County Councils put in £10 million each. Further funding from Bath and North East Somerset Council brought the public sector total close to £53 million. With the £41 million additional investment from BT the Programme is investing £94 million to improve broadband connectivity.
In 2014 BDUK announced a further £22.75m allocated to the CDS programme to support the extension of superfast broadband coverage to 95 per cent of premises nationally. This has been matched locally, which means the programme has over £45 million further to invest in bringing superfast broadband to the area.
