£119K Grant Helps Rural Village of Diseworth to Get Faster Broadband

Some 250 homes and businesses in the rural Leicestershire (England) village of Diseworth should gain access to BT’s “high speed fibre broadband” service by the end of 2015 after it was announced that an additional £119,000 had been secured from the UK Government to help fund the upgrade.

The village, which is home to around 700 people, had originally been left out of the £18.6m state aid supported Superfast Leicestershire project but locals, many of whom took part in a campaign called ‘Disewired’, appear to have succeeded in prizing an extra slice of cash from the Government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) in order to fund the work.

Nick Rushton, Leader of the County Council, said:

“I am proud to announce that Diseworth will be part of the Superfast Leicestershire high-speed fibre rollout. This is another positive step towards realising our vision of bringing high speed fibre broadband to all of our county’s homes and businesses.

I’d like to commend the dedication shown by the residents of Diseworth. It is in no small part down to their continued efforts that we now have access to this funding.”

Mike Doyle, Chairman of Disewired, said:

“This is the culmination of a long campaign to bring decent broadband into our village. The ‘Broadband Divide’, where urban areas see increasing broadband speeds whilst rural areas are left languishing with a poor service, is a very real issue. Our partnership with Leicestershire County Council and BT has been a fine example of how a community can pull together with local government and national industry to improve life for local residents.”

Diseworth will now join the overall Superfast Leicestershire scheme, which aims to make BT’s “fibre broadband” (FTTC/P) network available to 96% of local homes and businesses by March 2016 and recently announced its first roll-out locations (here).