Winners of Essex Superfast Broadband Competition Announced
Two lucky winners have been selected from more than 12,000 Essex residents who have taken part in a competition aimed at helping Essex County Council build up an accurate picture of the county’s broadband needs.
To encourage residents and businesses to respond to the Make the Connection survey, two Dell XPS 10 Tablets were offered as part of a prize draw. The winners of the tablets have this week been presented with their prize. Michael Shaw from Harwich received his prize from Michelle Gordon, Enterprise and Innovation Officer at Tendring District Council and Mary Cox from Ramsden Bellhouse was given her prize by Essex County Councillor Kevin Bentley.
Cllr Kevin Bentley, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Economic Growth and Infrastructure, said: “The information we have gleaned from the Make the Connection survey has allowed us to build up a better picture of the broadband needs and current connection speeds in Essex. This will help influence the roll-out of broadband in the area under the Superfast Essex project.”
Superfast Essex – a £24.6m project jointly funded by BT, Essex County Council, and the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) programme - will deliver high-speed fibre broadband to many business parks and around 65,000 premises in the county by Summer 2016. The project builds on BT’s commercial fibre roll out in the county, which has already bought fibre within reach of more than 580,000 Essex premises.
When combined with plans by the private sector, the project will result in around 87 per cent of premises in the county having access to fibre broadband by Summer 2016. The remainder will have access to speeds of at least 2Mbps via alternative technologies.
The Superfast Essex Broadband Project is now preparing to carry out detailed surveys prior to announcing the first locations to benefit from the roll-out. The council is currently working with central government to increase the coverage of superfast broadband as well as supporting the Mobile Infrastructure Project which will see an improvement in mobile signals across Essex.
The Make the Connection survey is still open to local residents who wish to participate. The survey is available online at www.superfastessex.org.
ENDS
Notes to Editors
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 the 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
