Superfast Broadband Coming to 3,000 Extra Worcestershire UK Premises

The Superfast Worcestershire (England) project with BT (Openreach), which is currently working to make “superfast broadband” (24Mbps+) services available to “more than” 95% of the county in 2017, has announced that an extra 3,000 premises will benefit from a £3.7 million expansion.

At present around 92% of local homes and businesses in Worcestershire have already been put within reach of a “superfast” (FTTC/P) network, which reflects a raw “fibre” footprint of 96% when including sub-24Mbps areas. As part of that the above programme has helped to expand related FTTC/P networks to an additional 62,579 premises (51,500 if only counting those able to receive 24Mbps+) with support from public investment.

The good news is that an additional 3,000 premises have now been added to the future roll-out plan via a £3.7 million expansion. Most of this is actually reinvestment from the first phase of deployment, which requires BT to return some of the public money as a result of high take-up (gainshare / clawback), plus any efficiency savings. Take-up of the service in related areas has already reached 40%.

We should point out that BT also claims to have invested some of its own private money into this latest expansion, although they don’t state a specific figure. The upgrade work is expected to begin in 2017 (probably around when the existing contract completes) and will then take approximately 18 months to finish.

Ian Binks, BT’s Regional Manager for Worcestershire, said:

“Around 248,000 households and businesses across the county can now access superfast fibre broadband as a result of Superfast Worcestershire and private sector investment by companies like BT – and we are determined to go further. BT is committed to making superfast broadband as widely available as possible.

Whether you’re working from home, doing homework or online shopping, everything is easier and faster with fibre broadband.”

Councillor Ken Pollock, Cabinet Member for Economy and Infrastructure, said:

“The Superfast Worcestershire partnership has made a huge difference to people and businesses across the county. They are better connected and able to access greater opportunities. Now, the partnership is taking superfast coverage even further than we had originally envisaged. This latest announcement shows the commitment of the partnership to ensuring that Worcestershire is connected. It is great news that more people will be able to benefit from the new communications technology that is often taken for granted by those who already have access to superfast speeds.”

The coverage map on the project’s website has already been updated with Openreach’s tentative roll-out plan for the latest expansion, which should include parts of Wickhamford, Throckmorton, Wick, Heightington, Teme Valley including Eardiston and Stockton on Teme, Holt Fleet, Shelsley Beauchamp and Berrow Green.