6,500 homes and businesses in South Gloucestershire now have access to fibre broadband thanks to the multi-million pound Great Western Broadband (GWB) partnership between South Gloucestershire Council, Wiltshire Council and BT.
In reaching this milestone, the partnership exceeded the original target of 5,000 South Gloucestershire premises by summer 2014 as the roll-out continues to gather pace.
One community which has benefited from this success is Bradley Stoke where more than 500 homes and businesses are now able to benefit from the roll-out earlier than expected as their street cabinet has already gone live ahead of the expected autumn date. [1]
Nationally, the Government announced that more than one million UK homes and businesses now have access to superfast broadband as a result of the UK wide state-aided rollout programme to areas not served by commercial operators. Up to 40,000 premises are gaining access every week and the programme will extend superfast broadband to 95 per cent of the UK by 2017.
Cllr John Goddard, Chair of South Gloucestershire Council’s Resources Sub-Committee, said:
“We have always been focused on reaching our target of 94 per cent of homes and businesses in South Gloucestershire to have access to superfast broadband speeds by the end of March 2015 and we are well on the way to achieving this.”
“The project has been performing strongly and we have already exceeded our original target to reach 5,000 premises by the summer. Having passed 6,500 premises, we have now set ourselves an ambitious new target to reach 10,000 premises by the autumn and at least 15,000 premises by spring 2015.”
“We recognise that not all areas in South Gloucestershire will benefit from the current roll-out of superfast broadband. This is because we are not able to invest in areas where there is already a commercial provider. However, we are working hard to try and find a solution and source further funding so that the project can be rolled out to even more premises.”
Bill Murphy, managing director of next generation access for BT, said:
“This is a major engineering project so it is great to see that we are now starting to reach into the heart of communities across South Gloucestershire that have so far been beyond the reach of high-speed broadband. It means that families are better connected and able to do more online than ever before and it enables local small businesses to compete on an equal footing with larger firms by enabling them to become more competitive and to attract new customers.”
For all the latest news and information on broadband in South Gloucestershire, visit www.southglos.gov.uk/broadband.
[1] The figure of 500 homes in Bradley Stoke relates to one particular cabinet (no. 34), which has gone live ahead of schedule. Several other cabinets in Bradley Stoke have previously gone live, on schedule, as part of the South Gloucestershire project.
Source: South Gloucestershire Council
