11,000 more Hampshire residents getting better connected in superfast broadband programme

Rural parts of Romsey, New Forest, East Hampshire and Basingstoke will be next to benefit from high-speed fibre broadband speeds, as phase three of Hampshire’s Superfast Broadband Programmeprovides access to an additional 11,000 homes and businesses between July and December this year.

Hampshire’s Superfast Broadband programme is helping to fill the gap in rural areas, which fall outside the private sector’s commercial plans.. Phase three of the multi-million pound project will see cabinets switched on in the rural areas of: Lockerley, Lymington, Milford-on-Sea, Brockenhurst, Sway, Liphook, Headley Down, Alton, Tisted, Selbourne and Herriard. To view a detailed map of which areas will be covered in this phase, visit: www.hants.gov.uk/broadband.

The Hampshire Superfast Broadband programme aims to provide at least 90 per cent of all premises with access to super-fast broadband by the end of 2015, and ensure that everyone else in the intervention area will have access to at least 2Mbps (Megabits per second) broadband. This builds on the work of the private sector’s commercial roll-out which has already made fibre broadband available to more than 620,000 Hampshire homes and business.

Hampshire County Council together with district and borough partners has invested £5 million in the project, with Hampshire being awarded £5 million from the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK initiative and BT contributing an additional £3.8 million towards the cost of installing the new fibre infrastructure, bringing the total investment in the first Phase of the project to £13.8 million. A further £9.2m earmarked by Hampshire County Council will help attract additional funding for the next Phase of the project to extend coverage to even more residents and businesses across the county.

Leader of Hampshire County Council, Councillor Roy Perry, said: “The roll out of superfast broadband is right on track and I expect at least 95 per cent of homes and businesses in Hampshire will be able to access these services by 2017.

Coupled with the recent announcement that Hampshire secured £1.2m to explore innovative solutions to take superfast broadband to some of the more remote and hardest to reach places in the county, we hope to see these services being available to even more of Hampshire’s residents. The social and economic benefits of having access to superfast broadband is huge with businesses being able to manage their accounts online, the less mobile being able to order food shopping to their doors and school children being able to research homework, to name just a few. This not only tackles social isolation but has potential to grow our economy in the South, providing more jobs and opportunities.”

Peter Cowen, BT’s regional partnership director for the South East, said: “Today’s announcement is another important milestone for a partnership which is making real progress. Working with our partners, we are able to bring this game changing technology to locations where the economics and engineering challenges are that much greater. High-speed fibre broadband is increasingly important if local households and businesses are to make the most of the huge range of opportunities and reap the benefits offered by the internet, whether they are seeking to start a new business, find new customers, undertake on-line training or simply wish to browse for entertainment or leisure purposes.”

The new fibre-based network is open to all broadband service providers on an equal basis, ensuring competitive pricing and products for local households and businesses.

The technology will boost the competitiveness of local businesses, helping them to find new customers and operate more efficiently, whilst opening up a host of new learning and development opportunities for households.

People using fibre broadband are able to use multiple bandwidth-hungry applications at the same time and send and receive large amounts of data much more quickly and efficiently. New fibre broadband services are set to transform the way households use the internet, from the simple sharing of pictures and video and on-line training and research to enjoying the growing boom in entertainment services available on-line.

For local businesses, the fibre network will underpin the introduction of many new services and applications. Big business applications driven by new ‘cloud’ services will be within the reach of enterprises of all sizes. Computer back up, storage and processing will be faster, and the use of high-quality videoconferencing will become viable.

About BDUK

Superfast Britain is a UK 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