Broadband boost for 40,000 Shropshire homes and businesses
More than 40,000 homes and businesses across the county are now able to connect to faster fibre broadband as a result of Connecting Shropshire, partners Shropshire Council and BT announced today.
The latest villages to benefit from the rollout of high-speed broadband include Ashford Carbonell, Chirbury and Wollerton. In addition, work continues in parts of Bishop’s Castle, Prees and Wem, where faster fibre broadband is also starting to become available for the first time.
Morris Corfield, a family-run supplier of agricultural equipment, with sites in Broseley and Craven Arms, is one of the many businesses already reaping the benefits of the Connecting Shropshire rollout – and as a result, changing the way it works for the better.
Oliver Morris, the company’s IT director, said:
“The main difference has been the faster broadband speeds. At Broseley we’re now pushing download speeds of 30 megabits per second, and our Craven Arms site is regularly seeing download speeds of up to 60Mbps, while our upload speeds there have risen dramatically from 0.5Mbps to 8Mbps.
“As well as making our day-to-day processes far more efficient, the other significant improvement we’ve seen since upgrading to fibre is how much easier it is to keep our website updated, and we’re now able to back-up our data using Cloud-based services for the first time ever.
“Increasingly it’s become more and more important for businesses like ours to include photos alongside all the stock we sell online. Upgrading to fibre broadband has made this much easier to manage, and of course has had the knock-on effect of giving our online customers a much better overall experience.”
Steve Charmley, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member with responsibility for broadband, said:
“It’s a fantastic achievement for the Connecting Shropshire programme to have provided more than 40,000 homes and businesses with access to a fibre-based broadband connection that wouldn’t have benefitted without our intervention. High-speed Internet access is increasingly important for all members of society and Connecting Shropshire remains a key strategic programme for Shropshire Council.
“Shropshire has a high percentage of small enterprises and businesses run from home, and it is imperative that these should be able to compete in an increasingly global economy. As more communities get connected to fibre-based broadband, it’s great to see more companies like Morris Corfield are upgrading and taking advantage of being able to work faster and smarter to increase productivity.”
Bill Murphy, BT’s managing director for next generation access, said:
“Today marks another important milestone for Shropshire. As our ambitious rollout continues at a pace, we’re now enabling an increasing number of people in the more remote parts of the county to access faster fibre broadband, often for the first time.
“Every day we’re seeing how high-speed broadband is transforming the way local families, residents, homeworkers and other businesses work, learn, communicate and enjoy their leisure time.”
Steve Charmley added:
“At the same time as this positive news, we fully appreciate there is more work to do. We have previously published our strategy in an ‘open letter’, and remain confident of our ambitions for providing all of our communities with faster broadband.”
People wanting to find out if fibre broadband is available 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/.
For more information, please contact Adam Spreckley at the Shropshire Council press office on 01743 252826 or email adam.spreckley@ipande.co.uk.
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 2015 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
