BT Sign GBP35.6m Broadband Deal for South Gloucestershire and Wiltshire

The South Gloucestershire Council (SGC) and Wiltshire Council (WC) have today become the latest to sign a new £35.6m contract with BT that will make superfast broadband ISP speeds (25Mbps+) available to 94% of local homes and businesses by the end of March 2016 (the rest will get speeds of at least 2Mbps).

The project, which should directly benefit more than 104,000 local homes and businesses, will be funded by £4.66m from the government’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) office, £15.5m from Wiltshire Council, £2m from South Gloucestershire Council, £12.8m from BT and £0.74m from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

Bill Murphy, MD of BTs Next Generation Broadband, said:

“It’s great to see Wiltshire and South Gloucestershire working in partnership to bring the best possible broadband to their rural communities.

High speed broadband is critical to attracting new businesses to the area and providing individuals with access to the myriad of new applications and services that are becoming available.

The good news is that this project will catapult Wiltshire and South Gloucestershire into the broadband fast lane, providing a choice of service provider and a sustained and long term broadband solution for businesses and individuals in rural as well as urban areas.”

As usual BT intends to deploy a mix of its dominant up to 80Mbps capable FTTC and 330Mbps FTTP fibre optic broadband technologies. A period of planning will now take place, with work expected to start on the ground during autumn 2013 and the first exchanges enabled under the project are due to go live during spring 2014.

Broadband in South Gloucestershire
http://www.southglos.gov.uk/broadband