BT Help 88 Percent of Lincolnshire UK to Get Superfast Broadband by 2016

BT and the Lincolnshire County Council (LCC) have today announced details of how they intend to make superfast broadband (25Mbps+) available to “at least” 88% of all homes and businesses in the English East Midlands county by April 2016 (everybody else will get speeds of at least 2Mbps).

The £48m project (Onlincolnshire) is funded by £14.3m from the government’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) office, £11.2m from the county council, £4m from the district authorities and finally BT itself will contribute a total of £18.8m.

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

“This is great news for Lincolnshire. We’re already seeing the positive impact that faster, fibre broadband is having on businesses and residents in the county and now, thanks to this partnership, the benefits will be felt much wider, helping boost the local economy.”

Ed Vaizey, Communications Minister, added:

“It’s fantastic that for the first time, broadband will be available everywhere in Lincolnshire as the result of one of our largest super-fast broadband projects in the country. The UK already does more business online than any other European country, and widespread access to super-fast broadband will provide a tremendous boost to Lincolnshire’s local economy.”

As usual work on the project will “start imminently” and the first super-fast connections are expected to be available in January 2014. The roll-out will begin with a period of planning and detailed surveying, before BTOpenreach starts work on the ground. It’s also the latest project to see the completion date slip from 2015 and into 2016.