£775k Brings Superfast Broadband to 700 Extra Buckinghamshire UK Homes

The Buckinghamshire County Council in England has expanded its roll-out of BT’s “fibre broadband” (FTTC/P) network after an extra £775,000 was secured from the RCBF to cover 700 more homes in Cholesbury, St Leonards, Bellingdon and four villages north of Buckingham (Cholesbury Telephone Exchange).

It’s important to point out that Buckinghamshire has joined forces with Hertfordshire in order to support the regional £18.06m Connected Counties project, which aims to expand BT’s superfast broadband capable network to reach 90% of local premises by the end of March 2016.

Unfortunately the article on Bucks Free Press doesn’t say where the extra investment of £775k for the new extension is coming from. But after a little digging we happened across a website for the related Cholesbury Exchange Superfast Broadband Working Group, which said that a “bid application put together by BBF was submitted to DEFRA at the end of February 2014” (i.e. the Rural Community Broadband Fund).

Martin Tett, Council Leader, said:

“Releasing these two rural communities from a broadband cul-de-sac is not only good news for residents, but also for small businesses who need access to high quality, high speed broadband.”

The CESBWG website also reveals that over 50% of the 700 plus potential subscribers have registered their interest in the new superfast connectivity, although converting that into customers can often be far more challenging.

In related news it’s worth pointing out that the Connected Counties project has recently confirmed which exchange areas and even street cabinets will benefit from Phase 2 of the local deployment between June – December 2014.

Phase 2 Rollout – June – Dec 2014

High Wycombe – Cabinets: 26, 27, 29, 32, 34, 39, 46, 47, 53, 55, 57, 78, 90, 93, 101, 107, 109, 111, 113, 120, 122, 123

Holmer Green – Cabinets: 10, 15, 16

Knebworth – Cabinets: 5

Lane End – Cabinets: 1, 2, 5, 7

Naphill – Cabinets: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12

St Albans – Cabinets: 55, 83, 84, 86, 102, 114

Stevenage – Cabinets: 10, 13, 29, 55, 63, 66, 72, 83, 86, 100, 118, 119, 121

Waddesdon – Cabinets: 1

Meanwhile Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire have recently been allocated another £6.63m from the Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) office, although how this will be spent has yet to be confirmed but the safe money will be on another BT extension.