First BDUK Superfast Broadband Cabinets in Devon and Somerset Go Live

The £94m state aid supported Connecting Devon and Somerset (CDS) project has become the latest Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) effort to announce that the first local premises can now gain access to superfast broadband (25Mbps+). The work is currently running three months ahead of schedule.

BTOpenreach has reportedly enabled several street cabinets in Sticklepath (Devon) and Bradford on Tone (Somerset) with support for its up to 80Mbps capable Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) broadband technology. The local network is now being expanded to connect 700 homes and businesses in Sticklepath and up to 500 in Bradford on Tone.

The next areas to receive an upgrade will be Moretonhampstead, Holsworthy, Bishops Lydeard, Creech St Michael and Monkton Heathfield (near Taunton) by the end of 2013 and the scheme hopes to have delivered FTTC to 15,000 premises (aka – phase one) by early 2014. This includes work to help expand upon BT’s existing FTTC availability in Taunton and Bridgwater.

In the longer term CDS aims to make superfast broadband (FTTC/P) services available to “around” 90% of local premises by the end of 2016 (original news). A coverage map is available on the projects website but it’s extremely sparse on detail.