The state aid supported CSW Broadband partnership, which is working to make BT’s “fibre broadband” (FTTC/P) network available to 92% of Coventry, 96% of Solihull and 91% of Warwickshire in England (overall 91% will receive “superfast” speeds of 24Mbps+) by spring 2016, has published its roll-out plan for most of 2015 (Phase 4).
So far the project has managed to put 126 Street Cabinets live and this has helped to bring the new service to 26,365 local homes and businesses, with the current end-goal being to help bring the connectivity to a total of around 51,000 premises. Furthermore the local take-up among premises being upgraded through the scheme is currently 7.8% and rising (September 2014 Data).
The next Phase 4 roll-out details have now been published, which we accidentally overlooked last week as it initially appeared to be just a general status update. The latest list represents a combination of both new and existing (infill) coverage, which appears to reflect upgrades that are due to occur between now and October 2015.
Alan Cockburn, Deputy Leader of Warwickshire County Council, said:
“The CSW Broadband rollout is really gathering pace now, and this Phase brings improved connectivity to over 4,700 more properties which, taken with the previous rollout means that almost 29,000 properties will soon have access to the new fibre network.”
CSW Broadband – Phase 4 Rollout
From January 2015
ACOCKS GREEN
ALCESTER
BARFORD
CLAVERDON
DUNCHURCH
FILLONGLEY
HASELEY KNOB
PAILTON
RUGBY
SHIRLEY
WARWICKFrom April 2015
ATHERSTONE
BARTON ON THE HEATH
BRAILES
EARSLWOOD
ELMDON
FOUR OAKS
HAMPTON IN ARDEN
KENILWORTH
MERIDEN
PAILTON
RUGBY
SHELDON
SHIRLEY
SWINFORD
TANWORTH IN ARDEN
TILE HILL
WELLESBOURNE
WOLVEYFrom July 2015
ALCESTER
ALDERMINSTER
BIDFORD ON AVON
BYFIELD
COLESHILL
FILLONGLEY
ILMINGTON
LAPWORTH
LEAMINGTON SPA
LONG COMPTON
MORETON MORRELL
PAILTON
RUGBY
SHIPSTON ON STOUR
SHIRLEY
SOUTHAM
STRATFORD ON AVON
STUDLEY
WALSGRAVE ON SOWE
WARWICK
WELFORD
WOLSTON
WOLVEY
WROXTON ST MARY
WYTHALL
It’s worth pointing out that specific Street Cabinet upgrades have also been listed for the January 2015 period (here) and the projects related Coverage Map has been updated to reflect the planned enhancements. As usual BTOpenreach’s ‘up to’ 80Mbps dominated FTTC deployment won’t reach 100% of each listed area, with the coverage % varying from location to location (note: BT often returns at a later date to expand coverage via infill and additional funding).
Further roll-out announcements for the latter stage of 2015 and into 2016 will be announced later, but in the meantime most of the attention is likely to be focused upon CSW Broadband’s Contract 2 plans (i.e. the second contract required to meet the Government’s 95% superfast broadband coverage goal by 2017).
The second contract, which will make use of an additional £3.68m that has been provided by the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK programme, will aim to expand “fibre broadband” connectivity to as many of the remaining 33,061 non-superfast premises as possible. Most of these will be in rural areas and locations that suffer from Exchange Only Lines (EOL).
The latest update states that “we hope to be in a position to sign contracts by the end of this month“, which will almost certainly involve an extension of the existing agreement with BTOpenreach.
Comments are closed