Press release -

Boost for Staffordshire homes and businesses as superfast staffordshire celebrates another major milestone with 300 fibre cabinets now live across the county

Cabinet serving Draycott in the Clay now live

Superfast Staffordshire today marked a major milestone in its roll-out of superfast broadband by announcing it had now installed 300 road-side cabinets and made the high-speed fibre technology available to more than 53,000 homes and businesses across the county.

One of the latest road-side cabinets to ‘go live’ serves the community of Draycott in the Clay where local residents and businesses can now upgrade their broadband to get download speeds of up to 80 megabits (Mbps) and upload speeds of up to 20Mbps*.

The news from Superfast Staffordshire partners Staffordshire County Council and BT comes on the same day that the Government announced the nationwide roll-out of superfast broadband has now passed more than three million UK homes and businesses. The rollout is on track to reach 95 per cent of the UK by 2017 and is now reaching around 5,000 additional premises every day.

Digital Economy Minister Ed Vaizey said: “Our nationwide rollout of superfast broadband has now reached an additional three million UK homes and businesses and is transforming lives up and down the country. I'm delighted that the people and businesses of Draycott in the Clay are now able to enjoy all the benefits that superfast speeds have to offer."

County Councillor Mark Winnington, Cabinet Member for Economy, Environment and Transport, said: “The Superfast Staffordshire rollout continues to benefit residents and local business across the county, especially those in more rural locations.

“It means more than 53,000 properties with previously no access to superfast broadband can now connect. This project is vital to people and businesses in Staffordshire as it increases opportunities, accessibility and economic growth.

“Superfast Staffordshire is another demonstration of the public sector working with business for effective delivery and is connecting communities in both rural and urban areas.”

Steve Henderson, BT’s regional director for broadband partnerships, added: “Today marks another very important stage in the rollout of an exciting technology, which is transforming the lives of communities across Staffordshire and the UK as a whole.

“BT’s multi billion pound investment in superfast broadband through its involvement in partnerships, such as Superfast Staffordshire, and its own commercial programme has already made fibre broadband available to many hundreds of thousands of households and businesses in the West Midlands – and the number is continuing to grow rapidly. Our Openreach engineers are rolling out the technology at a world class pace, reaching thousands more premises every week.

“Successful broadband partnerships are creating a lasting legacy, which will play a key role in the future prosperity of communities for many years to come.”

During the Superfast Staffordshire rollout, more than one million metres of fibre optic cable and more than 600 new street-side cabinets are being installed to connect people to the new network across the county. As soon as a fibre cabinet is ready for customers to order an upgrade to their broadband service, the cabinet will have a Superfast Staffordshire sticker indicating it is now live.

People can follow the progress of the roll-out via the Superfast Staffordshire website: www.superfaststaffordshire.co.uk and via Twitter @superfaststaffs

It’s an ‘opt in’ service and because the Openreach network is ‘open’, residents and businesses wanting to upgrade have a choice of fibre broadband providers, with more than 140 companies now operating in the UK.

Note to Editors

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

Issued by Staffordshire County Council and BT.

For further information about this news release Tom Hobbins at the Staffordshire County Council press office on 01785 276832 or email: tom.hobbins@staffordshire.gov.uk

OrPaul Hayward at the BT Regional press office on 0800 085 0660 or email:paul.hayward@bt.com

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

Photos of the roll-out of Superfast Staffordshire can be downloaded for free from: https://flic.kr/s/aHsk1eZqD3

About Superfast Staffordshire

Superfast Staffordshire is a partnership between Staffordshire County Council, BDUK and BT. It builds on the commercial roll-outs in the county.

The first phase of the Superfast Staffordshire roll-out programme represents an investment of more than £27 million (£7.44 million from Staffordshire County Council, £7.44m from the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK and £12.47m from BT.)

In June, Superfast Staffordshire announced around 4,000 more homes and businesses across Staffordshire will be able to receive high-speed fibre broadband following an additional £2.31 million of funding.

The project will extend the Superfast Staffordshire partnership roll-out which began connecting the first homes and businesses to faster fibre broadband in May 2014.

The new deal injects further funding into the County Council’s contract with BT, with a further £1.68m coming from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s Superfast Extension Programme (SEP) and £630,000 from BT.

For those premises not included in the fibre footprint, Superfast Staffordshire is aiming to improve broadband speeds using alternative technologies.

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

Topics

  • Telecommunication, mobile telephony

Categories

  • west midlands

Contacts

BT Press office

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