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Dorset Sees £7.4m BT Deal to Rollout 1Gbps FTTP Broadband to 3800 Premises

Tuesday, Jul 11th, 2017 (9:45 am) - Score 1,609

A new £7.4 million deal has this week been signed between BT and Dorset County Council in England, which will enable Openreach to roll-out their ultrafast Fibre-to-the-Premise (FTTP) broadband network to an additional 3,800 businesses and homes in the county by summer 2019.

At present the existing Superfast Dorset project claims to have already extended “superfast fibre broadband” (24Mbps+) services to cover 95% of premises in the county, while a second Superfast Extension Programme contract (here) aims to add another 3,000 premises across 50 local communities by around 2017/18. On top that a clawback linked agreement should add a further 800+ premises (here).

The project’s ultimate goal is currently to extend superfast broadband coverage to 97% of the county and today’s announcement looks set to support that target, albeit by deploying superior 1000Mbps+ capable “full fibre” (FTTP) technology instead of slower ‘up to’ 80Mbps hybrid fibre FTTC (VDSL2).

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The new contract will mostly target business premises around the Dorset Innovation Park Enterprise Zone and Aviation Business Park, although it also aims to reach new build homes within part of the Western Dorset Growth Strategy Area and other houses in Stinsford/Lower Bockhampton, Ringstead, Poyntington, East Burton Ridge, Harman’s Cross, Worgret Hill, Wareham, Southwell, Portland, Hampreston and Hurn.

Paul Coles, BT’s Regional Director for the South West, said:

“This latest multi million pound investment in high-speed broadband is another step forward for Dorset.

Huge progress has been made since the first Superfast Dorset contract was announced less than four years ago. This strong partnership between Dorset’s councils and BT has created a programme that is transforming the opportunities available for many thousands of local households and businesses. Widespread availability of faster broadband is already providing a major boost for the county’s economy because whatever you do online you can do it better with fibre broadband.

And we recognise there is still more to do as we work to extend the fibre broadband network even further. We are committed to making high-speed broadband as widely available as possible.”

Cllr Daryl Turner, Cabinet Member for the Built Environment, said:

“The work we are announcing today will push fibre coverage even further. It will boost the local economy by giving more homes and businesses access to the very fastest broadband speeds.

Meanwhile, we continue to work with the minority of Dorset communities which are now outside fibre broadband plans, helping them access funding towards alternative solutions.”

Interestingly BT has pledged to commit the biggest lump of investment to this contract (£3.4 million), while the Dorset LEP will contribute £2 million of public investment and the central Government’s Broadband Delivery UK programme will match that with another £2 million.

So far the Superfast Dorset project has enabled more than 570 roadside street cabinets across the county, delivering “superfast fibre broadband” to more than 80,000 additional properties.

Mark-Jackson
By Mark Jackson
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and .
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