UPD Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire Name Next Fibre Broadband Areas

The £15.47 million CSW Broadband project, which hopes to make BT’s “fibre broadband” (FTTC/P) services available to 92% of Coventry, 96% of Solihull and 91% of Warwickshire in England by spring 2016 (overall 91% will get speeds of 24Mbps+), has today confirmed the next batch of communities to benefit from its Phase Two roll-out.

At present around 40,000 local homes and business have already gained access to the service thanks to BT’s separate commercial deployment, although the CSW Broadband scheme is expected to add another 41,000 (possibly reaching 51k in the future) to that total by completion.

Councillor Alan Cockburn, Deputy Leader in Warwickshire, said:

“The project is currently ahead of schedule and many of our residents and businesses are now able to connect to the fibre network and really benefit from improved communications. This makes a real difference to the quality of life for so many people as it reduces the need to travel and makes everyday tasks such as Internet banking, ordering prescriptions on-line and working from home a reality rather than a dream. We are doing our best to extend the reach of the network and hope to make further announcements in the near future.”

The New CSW Broadband Areas

New Areas
Curdworth
Harbury
Hurley
Kineton
Newton Regis

Infill (Expanding Existing Coverage)
Leamington Spa
Nuneaton
Stratford-upon-Avon

So far around 40 additional street cabinets have been installed and this will reach 90 by the end of 2015. In addition, more than 63 km of new fibre optic cable has been laid, bringing the new broadband service to within reach of more than 7,500 extra premises. A lot more detail on their roll-out, including specific cabs, can be found here.

UPDATE 24th June 2014

We queried the timescale for phase two with BT and it’s expected to run from the summer to around the end of this year.