9 Extra Berkshire UK Villages to Get Superfast Broadband

A new grant worth £550,000 from the often criticised Rural Community Broadband Fund (RCBF) looks set to help 9 additional villages (3,300 properties) in the south eastern county of Berkshire (England) to receive a “fibre broadband” (FTTC/P) service from BT.

The new funding, which like so many other RCBF grants these days will be melted into the local Superfast Berkshire scheme and increase its overall investment to total £4.6 million, is expected to benefit locals in the villages of Aldermaston, Beenham, Brightwalton, Brimpton, Compton, East Garston, East Ilsley, Hampstead Norreys and Inkpen.

The exact reach of the new technology will depend on the outcome of contract discussions with BT and Openreach’s accompanying survey work. However, the additional funding will enable the existing county-wide project to be extended “without further contributions from local councils“.

Roger Croft, West Berkshire Executive Councillor, said:

“This is another valuable boost for the Superfast Berkshire project. We are now working on the next tranche of government funding recently announced under the BDUK Superfast Extension Programme. This could enable even more rural premises to get better connected, and our successful track record in bidding for government funds leads us to be optimistic.”

It’s noted that there has been no change to the overall schemes original timescale, which still aims to roll-out BT’s hybrid fibre broadband (FTTC/P) network to “around” 91% of local premises by the end of September 2015.

But a related update over on Thinkbroadband notes that Aldworth, Ashampstead and Winterbourne have been dropped from the original RCBF application due to being deemed too expensive to serve, although they might still benefit from BDUK’s next funding allocation under the £250m Superfast Extension Programme (SEP).