Village downloads early Christmas present from Connecting Shropshire

Adderley villagers can count on their broadband speeds rocketing

An historic village in north east Shropshire has received an early Christmas present from the Connecting Shropshire fibre broadband partnership, that will put it at the forefront of the digital information age.

Villagers in Adderley, near Market Drayton, can count on their broadband speeds improving significantly following the arrival of faster fibre broadband – with some homes and businesses who opt for an upgrade seeing a 100-fold increase in their broadband download speeds.

The early Christmas present was delivered by Connecting Shropshire partners, Shropshire Council and BT.

The majority of the village’s 100-plus premises will be able to access superfast broadband speeds of 24 megabits per second (Mbps) or above, and the average download speed will increase from 0.45Mbps to nearly 59Mbps.

Marius Coulon, Chairman of Adderley Parish Council, said:

“This is a fantastic advance for the community that will allow both children and businesses faster access to the Internet: thank you Shropshire Council.”

It’s just over 12 months since the first community benefitted from the rollout of fibre broadband by the Connecting Shropshire partnership.

Since then the Connecting Shropshire fibre broadband rollout has continued apace, with more than 28,000 premises across the county now able to access faster fibre broadband as a result of the programme.

In addition to rolling out more than 300 kilometres of fibre optic cable, engineers from Openreach – BT’s local network business – have installed around 140 new roadside cabinets, which are needed to connect local people onto the new network.

Steve Charmley, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member with responsibility for broadband, said:

“Connecting Shropshire has done much already to bring better broadband speeds to rural communities like Adderley, where download speeds previously were under 2mbps.  This is one of many cabinets that we have built and will continue to build as part of the first phase of the contract with our partners.  The approach being taken is consistent with the Government’s policy to get to as many premises as possible for the money available.

“As part of the Government’s continued commitment to delivering superfast broadband to more premises in Shropshire, we agreed at Shropshire Council’s Cabinet to begin a second phase of procurement using the £11.38m provided by Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK). This is very positive news for Shropshire and will mean that fewer people have to struggle to access the Internet and all the benefits that brings.  We are continuing to work on finding ‘match funding’ and remain optimistic that this will be achieved early in 2015.”

Ian Binks, BT’s regional manager for Shropshire and the West Midlands, said:

“Increasingly the Internet is touching our lives in new and exciting ways, which is why our teams are working hard to roll out faster fibre broadband to more communities as quickly as possible.

“The dramatic improvements that people in Adderley will now be able to experience will change the way they communicate forever.

“Whether it’s families needing to connect several devices to the Internet at the same time, or people wanting to work from home or shop online, everything is faster and easier with fibre broadband.”

Paul Wynn, Shropshire Councillor for Prees, said:

“I’m really pleased that fibre broadband is now available to order in Adderley village thanks to Connecting Shropshire: better broadband has been high on local people’s wish list for some time.  Whilst this is great news for local businesses and residents who have been struggling to connect to the web, I’d like to remind people that it is an opt-in service and broadband speeds won’t increase automatically.  To upgrade to fibre broadband contact your chosen Internet Service Provider.”

Issued by Shropshire Council and BT. 

For more information please contact ip&e Communications (re Shropshire Council’s news) on threesixtycommunications@ipande.co.uk or ring 01743 252826.  or

Emma Tennant at the BT regional press office on 0800 085 0660, email: emma.tennant@bt.com.

Further information

About Connecting Shropshire

Connecting Shropshire is the name given to the programme bringing fibre-based broadband to areas where it isn’t economically viable for commercial companies to provide it.  It is a partnership between Shropshire Council, BT and Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) that will enable more than 62,000 homes and businesses in Shropshire (excluding Telford and Wrekin) to access faster broadband by the end of 2016.

Connecting Shropshire programme website: http://connectingshropshire.co.uk/

Photos showing the rollout of Connecting Shropshire can be downloaded for free from: https://flic.kr/s/aHsk1gij7M

About BT

BT is one of the world’s leading providers of communications services and solutions, serving customers in more than 170 countries.  Its principal activities include the provision of networked IT services globally; local, national and international telecommunications services to its customers for use at home, at work and on the move; broadband, TV and Internet products and services; and converged fixed/mobile products and services.  BT consists principally of five lines of business: BT Global Services, BT Business, BT Consumer, BT Wholesale and Openreach.

For the year ended 31 March 2014, BT Group’s reported revenue was £18,287m with reported profit before taxation of £2,312m.

British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group plc and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group.  BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York.

For more information, visit www.btplc.com. 

All news releases can be accessed at our website: http://www.bt.com/newscentre. 

Superfast Britain is a Government programme of investment in broadband and communication infrastructure across the UK.  Run by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, this investment helps businesses to grow, creates jobs and will make Britain more competitive in the global race.  The portfolio is comprised of three elements:

• £780m to extend superfast broadband to 95 per cent of the UK by 2017
• £150m to provide high speed broadband to businesses in 22 cities
• £150m to improve quality and coverage of mobile phone and basic data network services.

Administered on behalf of Government by Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK), Superfast Britain is transforming Britain by promoting growth, enabling skills and learning, and improving quality of life.  For further information: https://www.gov.uk/broadband-delivery-uk.