Superfast Cornwall Expands BT Fibre Broadband to Half of all Premises

The £132m Superfast Cornwall scheme, which aims to roll-out fibre optic based broadband (FTTC etc.) ISP services to “at least” 80% of homes and businesses in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly by the end of 2014, has achieved a “major milestone” after it became available to around 125,000 Cornish premises (i.e. 50% coverage).

Residents of Blisland village on the edge of Bodmin Moor became the latest to gain access to BT’s service today, which means that locals can now receive internet download speeds of up to 80Mbps (Megabits per second). As a result BT’s overall superfast service coverage in Cornwall has improved by around +5% since the end of last year when it stood at 45%.

John Holman, Director of Blisland-based IT company Tanist, said:

“We were one of the first to order in Blisland, and now receive download speeds of around 27Mbps where before we had a much slower 2.5Mbps connection. This has created many efficiencies, enabling considerably faster downloads and file transfers – a major improvement for our web development team. In addition, an upload speed increase from 0.4Mbps to over 6Mbps greatly assists our IT support team when accessing our systems remotely from client sites. Receiving this service has allowed us to progress our planned premises expansion where we would otherwise have had to relocate the business.”

Nigel Ashcroft, Programme Director of Superfast Cornwall, said:

“This is a momentous milestone for Superfast Cornwall. I’m proud and excited to say we’re on track in making Cornwall one of the best connected places in the world, bringing a world of possibilities to thousands of rural villages like Blisland. Such investment is a vital boost for the local economy.”

Subscribers have also continued to increase with take-up of the faster connectivity reaching 400 people connecting across the county each week (at the end of last year the total stood at 17,000 customers). Other communities set to be upgraded include Gorran Churchtown, Rock (including St Minver & Pityme), Mount Charles and Tregony.