The North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire Councils have today signed a new state aid supported £5.7 million contract that will see BT expand the reach of its “high-speed fibre” broadband (FTTC/P) connectivity to cover 89% of local homes and businesses by the end of Spring 2015. But how many of the 89% will be “superfast” (25Mbps+)?
The scheme is being funded by £1.51 million from BT, £2.64 million from the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) office and the remaining £1.557 million will be coming from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). As usual a mix of up to 80Mbps capable FTTC and 330Mbps FTTP technologies will be used.
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A North Lincolnshire Council spokesperson said:
“This is an important step in the campaign to bring faster broadband speeds to every home, business and school in North and North East Lincs. Working with BT we will be announcing the installation schedule in the coming months and communities across the county can look forward to improved access to online services and better connectivity for businesses from 2014 onwards.”
Bill Murphy, BTs MD for NGA, added:
“This is exciting news for everyone who lives and works in North and North East Lincolnshire. Superfast broadband will open the doors to countless business opportunities, boosting the rural economy and supporting thriving local communities.
This is a large rural area which makes deploying broadband a substantial challenge but a vital one which will help local businesses to be competitive and ensure they remain in the county. It can also play an important role in attracting more firms to the county, helping to create jobs for local people.”
However, just as with BT’s prior contract win (here), we remain concerned that this latest press release could be lacking crucial information. In particular it’s not clearly stated whether the 89% figure refers to the coverage of “superfast” (25Mbps+) speeds or merely the fibre network by itself (i.e. could be anything from upwards of 2Mbps). We have requested clarification.
UPDATE 29th June 2013 – 7:11am
After some prodding Openreach has kindly confirmed that 85% of the related area are expected to get speeds of “40mbps plus” (an odd figure to give). Openreach also confirmed that neither council contributed any of their own public money to the effort, which is somewhat unusual.
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