More Malvern businesses set to benefit from superfast fibre broadband in run-up to Christmas

Superfast Worcestershire – the fibre broadband partnership spearheaded by Worcestershire County Council and BT – today brought some early Christmas cheer to Malvern businesses.

Harriett Baldwin, MP for West Worcestershire, joined local businesses and representatives from Superfast Worcestershire to unwrap the latest fibre broadband cabinet to ‘go live’, enabling even more parts of Enigma Business Park and the neighbouring Malvern Retail Park to access the new technology.

Harriett Baldwin said: “I have been quizzed for some time by local businesses about the delivery of superfast broadband to parts of Enigma Business Park, so this latest cabinet connection will make a huge difference.

“Fast broadband is increasingly seen as an essential service and small and medium businesses will now be able to access the internet faster than ever before.

“There is still much work to do in rural areas to make sure every home and business is able to get superfast up and download speeds, and I will continue to push for solutions to deliver this aspiration as quickly as possible.”

Engineers from Openreach, BT’s local network business, had to overcome a series of challenges before completing work in this part of the town because the new fibre broadband road-side cabinet had to be installed in a sensitive area.

Special arrangements were made with the Malvern Hills Conservators and the council’s highways department to enable the installation work to go ahead.

Resolve Information Technology - which provides a full range of IT services to small and medium sized firms across the county from its Enigma Business Park offices – is looking forward to upgrading to high-speed broadband as soon as possible.

Tim Winstanley, managing director, said: “It’s hard to overstate the positive benefits fibre broadband will bring to our business. Because our customers have outsourced their IT to us, we need to be able to manage their services remotely and superfast fibre is going to make that so much easier.

“It will also open up new opportunities for us to grow our business and take on new customers – something we wouldn’t have been able to do before because our broadband connection just wouldn’t have coped with the extra demands. High-speed fibre broadband will also enable us to offer our services nationally – without having to leave Malvern!”

Councillor Simon Geraghty, Worcestershire County Council cabinet member for economy, skills and infrastructure, said: "This is fantastic timing for Malvern businesses and residents. A huge amount of business activity relies on being able to access the internet for research, advertising, selling and communication. Signing up to faster broadband will mean businesses can stay competitive and make the most of this busy time of year.”

Steve Henderson, BT’s regional director for broadband partnerships, said: “It’s great to see another important part of Malvern benefitting from the Superfast Worcestershire roll-out, especially in the run-up to Christmas when business deadlines often get brought forward.

“The roll-out of Superfast Worcestershire is complex and is progressing well. Our teams are working hard to enable more businesses and residents to access faster fibre broadband as quickly as possible.”

Details of which communities will be upgraded during the second phase* of Superfast Worcestershire will be announced in the coming months. In the meantime, people can find out when faster broadband is coming to their area and how to get it by logging onto: www.superfastworcestershire.com.

Residents and businesses will need to sign up for a fibre broadband package to benefit from improved speeds, but because the network is being installed by Openreach it is ‘open’, so everyone can choose from a wide range of broadband service providers, with more than 140 now operating in the UK.

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Press contacts:

For more information please call Worcestershire County Council on 01905 766642 or 01905 766646 or email commsunit@worcestershire.gov.uk.

Alternatively you can contact Emma Tennant at the BT regional press office on 0800 085 0660 or email emma.tennant@bt.comAll BT news releases are available at http://www.btplc.com/News

Notes to Editors

About Superfast Worcestershire:

Superfast Worcestershire is a partnership between Worcestershire County Council, BT and the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) programme. In the phase scheduled to end in June 2016, which is due to reach 57,000 premises, Worcestershire County Council is contributing up to £8.5 million, with an additional £8.9 million from BT, and a further £4.45 million from the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) funds through the Superfast Britain initiative (please see below) to make a total of £21.85 million.

*A further contract to extend the programme was signed in March 2015 to increase the percentage of homes and businesses able to access fibre-based broadband in Worcestershire to more than 95 per cent when the private sector’s commercial roll-out of the technology is included. The total amount of funding available for the extension to the programme is £6.2 million, comprising £2.39 million grant funding each from the Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) fund and the Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership through the Government's Growth Deal, and £1.42 million from BT to make a total of £6.2 million.

About Superfast Britain

Superfast Britain is a Government programme of investment in broadband and communication infrastructure across the UK. Run by the Department for 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:

1. £790m to extend superfast broadband to 95% of the UK by 2017;
2. £150m to provide high speed broadband to businesses in 22 cities; and
3. £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.

   All BT news releases can be read at www.bt.com/newscentre