Forest of Dean residents and businesses enjoy faster fibre broadband as Fastershire roll-out passes 20,000 milestone

More than 20,000 homes and businesses in the Forest of Dean are now able to access faster fibre broadband as a result of the Fastershire project.

Gloucestershire County Council and BT said the roll-out of high-speed technology was progressing well in the area and more local communities would be able to access faster broadband before the end of the year, including Bromsberrow, Dymock and Lydney.

Areas already benefiting include Cinderford, Coleford and Whitecroft. The news has been welcomed by the Forest of Dean District Council.

Councillor Patrick Molyneux, leader of the Forest of Dean District Council, said: “We welcome the news that more than 20,000 Forest of Dean premises now have access to faster broadband thanks to the Fastershire project. It will be a huge boost for local businesses and our economy.

“Faster broadband has the potential to transform the lives of everyone living and working in our district. Our business community should be able to acquire a new level of connectivity that is essential for modern-day commerce. It should enable them to work in new ways, more effectively, sharing information with customers and suppliers more easily from all over the globe.

“Families will also benefit from an improvement in services and access, meaning they will be able to use several devices at the same time, for homework, research, on-demand television, social media, video calling, internet banking and online shopping without losing their connection.”

Councillor Mark Hawthorne, leader of Gloucestershire County Council, said: “Today marks another important milestone for Fastershire, and with BT, we look forward to making fibre broadband more widely available in the Forest of Dean over the next few weeks.”

Paul Coles, BT’s regional manager for Gloucestershire and the South-West, said: “Fastershire is a huge engineering programme and I’m pleased to say it is progressing strongly. Our teams are working hard to ensure as many homes and businesses can access fibre as quickly as possible. Coming in the run-up to Christmas, we hope it will be a welcome boost for local people wanting to do some of their shopping online, or take advantage of ‘click and collect’ services.”

Councillor Molyneux added: “We will continue to work with our partners to improve access and digital connectivity across our district for the benefit of homes and businesses.”

Residents and businesses can follow the progress of the roll-out via the Fastershire website: www.fastershire.com, Fastershire’s Facebook page: facebook.com/Fastershire or on twitter: @Fastershire.

Upgrades do not happen automatically. Once an area has ‘gone live’ with fibre, local people are able to place an order with an internet service provider of their choice to get download speeds of up to 80 megabits (Mbps) and upload speeds of up to 20Mbps*. More than 140 companies offering fibre broadband services are now operating in the UK.

Notes to Editors

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

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Issued by Gloucestershire County Council and BT on behalf of Fastershire.

For more information please contact Gloucestershire County Council’s Media Team on 01452 425226 or email pressoff@gloucestershire.gov.uk

Or

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

About Fastershire

Fastershire is the project established by a partnership between Gloucestershire County Council, Herefordshire Council and the private sector to provide faster broadband in hard to reach areas of both counties. It uses funding from a range of European, central and local government funding sources to match private sector funds and deliver the infrastructure required to increase the availability of faster broadband.

The first phase of Fastershire, delivered in partnership with BT, is a £56.6m project to increase the availability of faster fibre broadband to around 90 per cent of Gloucestershire homes and businesses by the end of 2016.

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

About BT

BT’s purpose is to use the power of communications to make a better world. It is one of the world’s leading providers of communications services and solutions, serving customers in more than 170 countries. Its principal activities include the provision of networked IT services globally; local, national and international telecommunications services to its customers for use at home, at work and on the move; broadband, TV and internet products and services; and converged fixed/mobile products and services. BT consists principally of five customer-facing lines of business: BT Global Services, BT Business, BT Consumer, BT Wholesale and Openreach.

For the year ended 31 March 2015, BT Group’s reported revenue was £17,979mwith reported profit before taxation of £2,645m.

British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group plc and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group. BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York.

For more information, visit www.btplc.com

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