More than ten thousand more Lancashire homes and businesses get faster broadband

Three more communities now benefiting from roll-out programme 

BT announced today that faster broadband is now available to a further 10,700 homes and businesses in Lancashire.

Barnoldswick, Hest Bank and Knott End-on-Sea are among the latest communities in the county to benefit from upgrades as part of the roll-out of BT’s next generation broadband service delivered over copper lines.

The BT investment will make available download speeds of up to 20 megabits per second (Mbps) – more than double the fastest speed previously available from BT.

The faster broadband is already available to more than 90 per cent of North West premises – of which more than 526,000 are in Lancashire - and, by next Spring, more than 93 per cent of homes and businesses in the region will be served by an exchange which has been upgraded to deliver these higher speeds. The new service is available on an open, wholesale basis to all companies providing broadband*.

Mike Blackburn, BT’s North West regional director, said: “Faster broadband will deliver important benefits for people across the region, whether they are running a business, working or studying from home, doing the weekly shop online, downloading films and TV programmes or keeping in touch with friends and family around the world. It can all be done better using faster broadband.

“That’s why BT is determined to bring faster speeds to as many homes and businesses as possible.”

This investment in the copper network is as well as BT’s £2.5 billion roll-out of fibre-based broadband, which will bring even faster speeds to around two-thirds of UK premises by the end of 2014. BT has already announced that fibre broadband will come to Hesketh Bank, Longridge, Poulton and St Anne’s later this year, with the following communities to be upgraded during 2013: Aughton Green, Bacup, Bamber Bridge, Blackburn, Blackpool, Burnley, Burscough, Darwen, Garstang, Kirkham, Lytham, Nelson, Ribbleton and South Shore.

This is in addition to the investment planned by Lancashire County Council. The authority recently announced it had chosen BT as its preferred partner organisation to roll out fibre broadband to the more remote parts of the county where it is currently not commercially viable to do so.

Note to Editors
*Once an exchange area has been upgraded for next generation broadband, some service providers automatically upgrade their customers to the enhanced broadband service. People should contact their chosen service provider for more information about the products and services they offer.