UK superfast broadband scheme connects three million

The money is being made available to Leicestershire County Council to reinvest in providing further superfast broadband coverage to even more homes and businesses and much earlier than originally planned.

In partnership with BT, the government’s aim is to provide a 24MBps internet speed to 95 per cent of homes by 2017. He said: “We are transforming the digital landscape of the UK and our nationwide rollout of superfast broadband has now reached an additional three million UK homes and businesses”.

Telecoms giant BT picked up the licences for all 44 rural broadband projects on offer across the UK and around £1.2 billion public funding after all rival bidders withdrew from the tender process.

THREE million extra premises now have access to superfast broadband, 60,000 of which are in Hampshire, according to news welcomed by Hampshire County Council’s leader.

Culture secretary John Whittingdale described the figure as a huge achievement, saying that take-up by homes and businesses is exceeding expectations, as noted by the recent return of £129m by BT to the government owing to high take-up.

The UK government’s department for culture, media and sport has claimed its Broadband Delivery UK initiative has connected three million more premises to “superfast” broadband than would have been the case without its intervention.

But Communications Minister Ed Vaizey told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that the Government acknowledged these concerns.

Many residents in the hamlet have seen broadband speeds increase from less than 1Mbps to up to 80Mbps* since fibre broadband went “live” in the hamlet past year.

BT said work is also starting to bring fibre services to Cannich, west of Inverness.

“For us, it was get either get fibre broadband or get nothing at all”.

“The challenging geography, smaller population numbers and more scattered communities make this a really challenging area to reach”.

Ian Gray, chair of the Superfast West Yorkshire project board, said: “It is great to have passed the finish line on this first phase of the project, and to have delivered above target, reaching almost 65,000 homes and businesses”.

Bill Murphy, BT’s managing director for next generation access, said: “Today marks another very important stage in the rollout of an exciting technology, which is transforming the lives of communities across Wiltshire and the UK as a whole”.

“Our Openreach engineers have worked tirelessly to connect some of the most remote parts of Scotland, from Shetland and the Hebrides to Rothesay in Argyll and Bute, and now places like Dores and Drumnadrochit are set to follow. The open network which we’re rolling out brings real choice to communities and this is helping to drive take-up which is key to the programme’s future”.

“It’s for this reason that the roll out of superfast broadband is so important to the rural economy”.