BT Reminds Northampton – We Also Connect Businesses to Fibre Broadband

BT’s state aid supported roll-out of “fibre broadband” (FTTC/P) services has sometimes been criticised for not giving enough attention to businesses, perhaps fearful for the loss of any lucrative leased line revenues. As such they’re keen to tout some recent improvements at Northampton’s Waterside Enterprise Zone.

The Northamptonshire County Council and BT have today announced that 3 out of the 8 new FTTC (up to 80Mbps) Street Cabinets planned for the enterprise zone are now ‘live’ thanks to the local Superfast Northamptonshire project. So far the work is also running three months ahead of schedule.

Once completed the new service should be put within reach of some 180 premises within the zone (many of those are of course businesses).

Cllr Andre Gonzalez De Savage said:

“Providing superfast broadband to the enterprise zone is of strategic importance for the county’s economy and this new infrastructure will help to retain businesses here, support their growth and be a real boost to attract further inward investment to the area.

Fast broadband is crucial for businesses across Northamptonshire and our local economy. More than 6,000 local companies which otherwise wouldn’t be served are set to benefit from broadband plans now in place through the Superfast Northamptonshire project.”

The Northampton Waterside Enterprise Zone, which is made up of more than 20 sites stretching along the River Nene, is worth a mention because it’s also said to be “the largest urban enterprise zone” in the United Kingdom (you’ll find brands like Carlsberg and Cosworth based there). The new campus for the University of Northampton is also set to be based in the same area.

Meanwhile the overall project for Northamptonshire still has a lot of work left to do in order to reach “almost” 95% of all premises in the county with superfast broadband speeds (24Mbps+) by September 2018. So far over 50,000 additional premises have already benefitted and this should reach 73,850 by December 2017.