Cotswold broadband network gets a boost

BT Broadband has been very aggressive when it came to their fibre deployments and rollouts last year. Several of the firm’s key projects were in line with the government’s Broadband Delivery UK program. The goals of the BDUK, among others, were to provide universal broadband access of at least 2Mbps to the entire UK. Aside from that, the government was hoping to bring next-generation broadband Internet to at least ninety percent of the country by the year 2015.

BT began their fibre deployment last year and have initially announced that their rollout will be completed by 2015. However, the provider was ahead of schedule and revealed that the deployment would be finished a full year earlier by 2014. This move has been praised and heralded by many, including Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, Jeremy Hunt. Hunt had said: “Superfast broadband is essential for achieving sustainable growth and it is vital that homes and businesses have access to it as soon as possible. BT’s accelerated fibre roll-out plan is great news for the UK.”

Now homes in Cotswolds are set to benefit from BT’s fibre rollouts by the end of this year. Superfast broadband will be deployed in the area as part of BT’s £2.5 billion expansion plan. Around 52,000 homes and businesses in Gloucestershire will have their broadband speeds double thanks to the planned upgrade.

The move is a part of BT’s local Openreach business to make high speed broadband available to two-thirds of the UK. The service is geared to provide broadband speeds ranging from 20Mbps to 300Mbps. The speed will depend on whether the fibre technology is being delivered to the street cabinets or directly to the premises.

BT’s South West regional director John Reynolds stated: “This latest major investment is a tremendous boost for Gloucestershire. At a stroke, small and medium sized firms will have access to big business speeds at much lower costs allowing them to find new markets, boost their competitiveness and create new jobs.”

Source – Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard