South Gloucestershire and Wiltshire UK Reveal First BT Fibre Rollout Areas

South Gloucestershire Council (SGC) and Wiltshire Council (WC) in England have today revealed which areas will be the first to benefit from their £35.6m contract with BT to roll-out superfast fibre broadband based connectivity to 95% of local premises by the end of March 2016.

Today’s update to the contract, which was originally signed in January 2013 (here), has been split into two separate announcements and so to keep things simple we’re putting the details from both back into a single article; well it is supposed to be a joint scheme.

South Gloucestershire’s Rollout

SGC expects 94% of local premises to be within reach of a 24Mbps+ capable FTTC/P connection from BT’s infrastructure by the end of March 2015, which will be underpinned by 100 kilometres of new fibre optic cabling and over 50 new street cabinets. Overall more than 5,000 premises should be able to connect to this service by June 2014.

The first villages to benefit will be Pucklechurch and Wick by spring 2014.

Wiltshire’s Rollout

WC similarly expects 91% of local premises to be within reach of the same superfast service, albeit by the end of March 2016 instead of 2015. The extensive effort will require nearly 1,500 kilometres of new fibre optic cabling to be laid across the county, which should connect to 300 new street cabinets.

The first areas to benefit will be Royal Wootton Bassett, Purton, Alderbury and Downton by spring 2014. Overall some 10,000 local homes and businesses should be able to connect to the new service by June 2014.

As usual we expect more areas to be announced in the future.