02
February
2015
|
23:00
Europe/London

Welland Valley villages urged to find out more about high-speed fibre broadband

- Special fibre broadband events taking place in Ashley and Hallaton 

People living in the Welland Valley have the opportunity later this month to find out more about how they’re set to benefit from superfast broadband.

A day of local activity in the villages of Ashley and Hallaton is being planned by BT so that local residents, including those from neighbouring communities, can find out more about the benefits of fibre broadband.

A fibre broadband roadshow is taking place on Wednesday 11 February outside the farm shop on Main Street in Ashley between 10am and 5pm. A drop-in session is then taking place later that day at the Fox Inn Pub in North End, Hallaton between 6pm and 8pm.

Paul Bimson, BT’s regional partnership director in the East Midlands, said: “People living in Ashley and Hallaton will be able to place an order for fibre broadband within a matter of months. This is therefore the perfect opportunity for them, and neighbouring communities such as Dingley and Medbourne who will also benefit from the rollout of fibre broadband, to find out more about how it works and the many benefits it brings. No appointments are necessary and we’re hoping to see as many people as possible.

“The evening drop-in session in Hallaton is a chance to come and ask any questions. Once again you don’t need to reserve a place and everyone is welcome. Similar events have been extremely well received in other parts of the East Midlands.”

Residents of the Northamptonshire village of Ashley recently announced that they had raised £15,000 to sign a contract with BT to install a new fibre broadband cabinet and underground cable. This work is already underway and is expected to be completed during the Spring.

Hallaton is part of the Superfast Leicestershire project that has already made fibre broadband available to more than 20,000 homes and businesses across the county. The new technology is expected to be available within the next couple of months providing most villagers with access to superfast speeds from a wide range of internet service providers.

The network build and installation work in both villages is being carried out by Openreach, BT’s local network business.

The broadband network in both villages will be ‘open’ to all commercial providers ensuring that people living in Ashley and Hallaton will still be able to choose a fibre broadband product from a wide range of service providers.

BT’s fibre broadband roadshow is a high-tech, specially adapted vehicle that tells the story of how fibre optic broadband is installed - from the telephone exchange right through to a customer’s premises.

The cleverly adapted vehicle includes all of the equipment used in the roll-out of fibre broadband including what you normally see - like the new green street side cabinets - as well as what you don’t - like how fibre optic cables are ‘blown’ underground.
Benefits of fibre broadband include faster download and upload speeds; the ability to access the internet via multiple devices without experiencing a slow connection, faster downloads of films and music, a better online gaming experience, improved file sharing for businesses, solutions based on Cloud computing and being able to work more flexibly.

For more information on the Ashley broadband project visit the village website atwww.ashleyvillage.co.uk.

For more information about Superfast Leicestershire visit www.superfastleicestershire.org.uk

ENDS