3,500 Extra Warwickshire UK Premises to Get “Fibre Broadband”

The state aid supported CSW Broadband project has confirmed that £2m in clawback is set to be reinvested by BT (Openreach) into the local roll-out of “fibre broadband” (FTTC/P) connectivity, which means that an additional 3,500 premises in Warwickshire will soon gain access.

At present the project is already working with BT to ensure that “nearly” 94% of homes and businesses in Warwickshire, Solihull and Coventry (England) can access a “superfast broadband” (24Mbps+) FTTC/P network by 2017. So far around 56,000+ premises have already been completed and they appear to be keeping to target.

The good news is that take-up of the new service has already hit an impressive 40% in CSWB upgraded areas, which under the terms of the contract means that a portion of the public investment can be clawed back from BT (£2 million so far) and reinvested into further coverage.

Alan Cockburn, Warwickshire Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Finance, said:

“Once again, the CSW Broadband project is taking the superfast coverage even further than we had originally envisaged. This latest announcement shows the commitment of the funding partners to ensuring that residents and businesses are able to benefit from the modern communications technology that is so often taken for granted by those who already have superfast access.”

Ian Binks, BT’s Regional Manager for Warwickshire, said:

“Our CSW Broadband partnership has already made huge progress in making fibre broadband available across Warwickshire. This expansion is great news for those communities in the county not included in the current roll-out programme. High-speed broadband plays such an important role in everyday life for households and businesses. Whether you’re working from home, doing homework or online shopping, everything is easier and faster with fibre broadband.”

It’s worth pointing out that today’s announcement is largely separate from the £15 million expansion plan that was unveiled in November 2016, which aims to further boost coverage to an additional 8,000 premises in the area (here). However the new plan has yet to choose a supplier, while the above clawback linked announcement is more of an extension to BT’s existing contract.

Apparently the upgrade work to reach the extra 3,000 premises is due to start this Summer 2017 and it will then run for 18 months until the end of 2018. Overall around 30 communities are expected to benefit and you can get an idea of which ones via the project’s website. We expect this to include areas of Grandborough, Ladbroke, Langley and Wasperton – along with Barford and Burton Green, among others.