Connecting Cheshire Expands Broadband Rollout to 1000 Extra Premises

The Connecting Cheshire project in England has found another £643k to help boost its state aid supported £28.5 million roll-out of “fibre broadband” (FTTC/P) services, which will add an additional 1,000 “rural” premises to BT’s local network coverage.

At present the project aims to cover “around” 96% of premises across Cheshire, Halton and Warrington by the end of summer 2015 (overall total of 80,000 premises) and the new funding will focus on four “hard to reach locality areas” including: Huxley, Arley & Antrobus, Burleydam & Audlem and Gawsworth, North Rode and Wincle.

The related update states that the additional coverage will be provided under an “extension to the current Connecting Cheshire programme being rolled-out by BT Openreach in partnership with four Cheshire councils“, although a report on Thinkbroadband suggests that the grant might have actually come from the £20m Rural Community Broadband Fund (RCBF).

Recently the RCBF has increasingly seen its investment being merged into local Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) schemes and thus predominantly going towards BT, although originally many had hoped that the fund would act as a boost for projects initiated by smaller ISPs (altnets).

Councillor Herbert Manley said:

“This is even more good news on the roll out of Superfast Broadband for Cheshire West and Chester – taking us even further into our rural communities. These communities have been actively involved in championing the need for Superfast Broadband and today’s news really demonstrates the value in doing so.”

It’s worth pointing out that the Government has also recently allocated another £2.12 million to the local scheme, although precisely how or where this will be spent has yet to be confirmed.