BT Sign £28.5 Million Deal to Blanket Cheshire UK with Superfast Broadband

BT has today signed a new deal worth £28.5 million with four Cheshire councils (England), which will make its superfast broadband (FTTC and FTTP) ISP services available to “around” 96% of homes and businesses (over 400,000 premises) across Cheshire, Halton and Warrington by the end of 2016.

The joint Connecting Cheshire partnership, which includes Cheshire East Council, Cheshire West and Chester Council, Halton Borough Council and Warrington Borough Council, is funded by a contribution of £9m from BT. In addition a further £4m will come from the government’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) office, with £1.85m from the local councils and £13.6m from European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

The money will apparently go towards improving connectivity to 80,000 premises that have been left neglected by the private sector, which will now gain access to BT’s latest up to 80Mbps capable FTTC technology (some may also benefit from their 330Mbps FTTP technology). But as usual the last 4% or so have only been promised a minimum download speed of at least 2Mbps.

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

“Cheshire has a large number of small and medium sized enterprises and a high volume of business start-ups, which collectively contribute a substantial proportion of the regional economy. The rollout of more fibre broadband will act as a powerful economic driver for these businesses.

Ensuring enhanced connectivity is vital to secure future growth; exploiting the strategic benefits of high-speed broadband across Cheshire, Halton and Warrington will deliver huge returns on investment. It is no longer enough to be connected, it must be fast, reliable and affordable to fully realise the county’s potential.”

David Brown, Deputy Leader of Cheshire East Council, added:

“The award of this contract to BT marks the end of a comprehensive process to secure the best broadband deal for Cheshire. The four councils across Cheshire are committed to providing reliable high-speed fibre broadband for both our home and business users. From children doing homework to caring for our elderly population and from social media, to ecommerce and home entertainment – fast broadband is the critical enabler. The social, environmental and economic benefits will be huge, making Cheshire one of the best connected regions in the country.”

BTOpenreach is now expected to begin its preliminary surveying work, which should take around eight months to complete and thus the first roll-out details aren’t set to be unveiled until December 2013.