Milton Keynes and Bedfordshire UK Update BT Broadband Deployment Map

The joint £12 million+ Central Superfast project between the Milton Keynes Council, Central Bedfordshire Council and Bedford Borough Council in England, which aims to rollout BT’s FTTC/P service to cover “around” 91% of local premises by spring 2016 (97% in Milton Keynes), has released a revised deployment map following new funding.

The project, which was originally funded by £6.2m from BT, £2.4m from Milton Keynes Council, £1.2m from Central Bedfordshire Council, £0.44m from Bedford Borough Council and £2m from the Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) budget, intended to expand the reach of BT’s “fibre broadband” network to an extra 33,000 premises (note: 32,000 of those will have access to superfast speeds of at least 24Mbps).

But since August 2013 BTOpenreach has made progress on its pre-deployment survey work and the Bedford Borough Council has also secured an additional £600,000 for the project from BDUK, which has similarly boosted BT’s commitment by another £400,000. The result is that 8,200 additional premises in the Borough will get superfast speeds, which is up from 6,300 in the original plan.

Richard Wenham, Cllr Central Bedfordshire Council, said:

“We felt it was important for people to see this information but please remember that this is the current project plan, so it is subject to change and areas might be added or removed depending on ‘on the ground’ conditions as BT works to deliver new infrastructure. There are some Frequently Asked Questions on our website that should help if people have queries.

While we are pleased with the 90 per cent high-speed coverage, we’re not stopping there. Our goal is to provide 100 per cent superfast access so we’re working with the Government, local partners and commercial providers, to secure additional resources and new ways of delivery to extend coverage even further.”

The project has released an updated deployment map, which as ever only represents an indicative overview. A proper announcement concerning the first areas to benefit is due early next year.

Deployment Map
http://www.centralbedfordshire.gov.uk/…/Map_tcm6-50592.pdf

A specific map for the Central Bedfordshire area can also be found here. As a side note basic broadband (speeds of at least 2Mbps) will be ensured for the remaining premises by the end of 2016.