15 June 2017
£5m boost to superfast network
£5 million plans to start rolling out superfast broadband to the remaining three per cent of Leicestershire homes and businesses are set to move forward.
Leicestershire County Council wants to extend the network to the properties, which are mainly located in the most difficult to reach rural areas.
Since July 2014, the council has worked with BT to make superfast broadband available to more than 73,000 premises. By September 2018, it’s expected that a further 11,000 will benefit – taking the total to 97%. This third phase would increase coverage further.
Council leader Nick Rushton said: “The city and county’s economy is on the up, and broadband is an essential driver for further growth, innovation and job creation.
“Residents and businesses need reliable, fit-for-the-future communications. That’s why we’ve ploughed more than £33m into superfast broadband, and I’m pleased the network is set to grow even further.”
If approved, the council will consult residents and appoint a company – work would get underway in autumn 2018.
Cabinet will discuss the plan next Friday (23 June). The meeting starts at 11am and will be webcast, live, at www.leicestershire.gov.uk/webcast – a recording will be available from the following day.
Notes
Superfast Leicestershire – which has already reached 73,000 premises in the city and county – is on course to make superfast broadband available to more than 84,000 premises in Leicestershire by the end of 2018. The third phase would start to bring it to the remaining 13,000 properties.
Fibre broadband helps make everything happen online much faster than a standard broadband connection. The technology offers download speeds up to 330Mbps.
With a fibre broadband connection of at least 50Mbps, a music album will take roughly 16 seconds to download, compared to more than three minutes with 4Mbps. A high-quality film will take around four minutes to download on a 50Mbps fibre connection, compared to 50 minutes on a standard 4Mbps connection.
Funding for Superfast Leicestershire partnership has been provided by a wide-range of organisations including the county council, other local authorities, BT, Broadband Delivery UK (the Government’s broadband delivery arm), European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership as part of its Local Growth Fund.
For more information on Superfast Leicestershire and key partners visit: www.superfastleicestershire.org.uk/news-and-events/programme-background
