28/09/2015 - Permalink

Artistic Shropshire pupil with designs on faster broadband wins poster competition with ‘lightning fast’ entry

Related topics: Community / Partner organisations

Nesscliffe becomes latest community to benefit from Connecting Shropshire’s rollout of fibre broadband

A Shropshire youngster with designs on faster fibre broadband is celebrating today.

Artistic Josie Lawson, aged 8, has won a poster competition organised by Connecting Shropshire, lead partners Shropshire Council and BT announced today (Monday 28 September 2015).

To see the winning poster click here.

Josie and fellow pupils at St Andrew’s Church of England Primary School were asked to design a poster to celebrate the arrival of faster fibre broadband in Nesscliffe, and to raise awareness about its many benefits in the local community.

Josie’s colourful, imaginative design for fibre broadband, which she described as “fast as a flash of lightning”, was picked from a shortlist of four entries and now adorns the new fibre broadband cabinet on the outskirts of the village. It makes the new high-speed broadband service available to around 150 premises – including the school.

Nesscliffe primary poster competition V2

Front: Henry Burgoyne, Oscar Moore, Josie Lawson and Alfie Lewis-Coxill.  Back: Ian Motton, Assistant Headteacher. and Ben Walker from Connecting Shropshire.

Nesscliffe cabinet and poster V2

The cabinet is one of more than 200 that have ‘gone live’ as a result of Connecting Shropshire, which earlier this month announced it had brought more than 40,000 premises across the county within reach of the new fibre network.

Nesscliffe primary - whole school photo V2

Competition winner Josie said:

“I enjoy playing games, listening to music and also doing my homework on the Internet, so it will be great to do them much faster!”

Ian Motton, assistant headteacher at St Andrew’s Church of England Primary School, said:

“Increasingly the Internet is becoming a more important learning tool than ever before – in the classroom and for pupils to use at home – so these improvements are a welcome boost all round.”

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

“Young people are the digital future and by engaging with young people like this it has brought to life what Connecting Shropshire is doing to provide access to faster Internet connections. These children have shown great creativity in their designs and the teachers and parents are rightly very proud of them.

“Whilst many Shropshire communities like Nesscliffe now have access to the fibre broadband network, we fully appreciate there is more work to do. The objective remains clear: we want to provide superfast broadband to as many homes and businesses as possible over the next three years.”

David Roberts, local Shropshire Councillor for the Loton division, said:

“I’m really pleased that fibre broadband has arrived in Nesscliffe. Many homes and businesses in and around the village now have access to faster download/upload speeds over the new fibre broadband network. However, the broadband speeds don’t increase automatically. The market for broadband services is currently very competitive and I would encourage people to shop around to get the best deal when they decide to upgrade to a fibre broadband connection.”

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

“It’s great to see how the arrival of fibre broadband has captured the imaginations of the local children in this way. Connecting Shropshire is a huge engineering challenge, but the rollout is progressing well. Whatever you do on the Internet you can do it better with fibre broadband. For example, families who need to connect a number of different devices to the Internet at the same time will notice an immediate improvement, while small businesses and homeworkers will be able to share information and large files more easily and quickly. It enables children to access their homework online, helps provide care for our elderly, as well as offering better access to ecommerce, social media and home entertainment. Superfast broadband has a huge impact on the way we live.”

Connecting Shropshire builds on the commercial rollout of fibre broadband by the private sector, which has already made the high-speed technology available to more than 110,000 Shropshire homes and businesses.

People wanting to find out if fibre broadband is in their area should enter their phone number or postcode in the checker on the Connecting Shropshire website: http://connectingshropshire.co.uk/when-and-where/.

Residents and businesses wanting to upgrade should contact their chosen broadband service provider – the broadband speeds don’t increase automatically.

Further information

For more information, please contact Adam Spreckley at the Shropshire Council press office on 01743 252826 or email adam.spreckley@ipande.co.uk

or

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

About Connecting Shropshire

The Connecting Shropshire programme is bringing fibre based broadband to areas where it isn’t economically viable for commercial companies to provide do so. It’s 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. In June the partnership announced additional funding that will enable approximately 4,000 more homes and businesses to access high-speed fibre broadband during 2017 and 2018.

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

All Shropshire Council news stories can be read at http://shropshire.gov.uk/news/

About BT

BT’s purpose is to use the power of communications to make a better world. It 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 customer-facing lines of business: BT Global Services, BT Business, BT Consumer, BT Wholesale and Openreach.

For the year ended 31 March 2015, BT Group’s reported revenue was £17,979m with reported profit before taxation of £2,645m.

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.btplc.com/News

About Superfast Britain

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.