County poised to get the fastest broadband (From Swindon Advertiser)
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County poised to get the fastest broadband
1:00pm Friday 1st February 2013 in News
County poised to get the fastest broadband
A PROJECT worth £35.61m announced yesterday is set to catapult Wiltshire into the broadband fast lane.
Wiltshire Council, in partnership with South Gloucestershire Council, has agreed a deal with BT which should enable 91 per cent of homes and businesses in the Wiltshire authority area to have access to world class broadband speeds by the end of March, 2016.
The remaining premises within the project area will see a significant improvement in their speeds with the majority receiving greater than 2Mbps.
The project, which is set to benefit more than 104,000 homes and businesses in Wiltshire and South Gloucestershire, builds on BT’s commercial roll-out of fibre broadband across the two local authority areas.
Following the contract signing, there will be a period of planning, with work expected to start during the autumn. The first exchanges are expected to go live with fibre in spring, 2014.
The partnership is the latest to be announced under the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK programme. £4.6m of the funds will come from BDUK, £15.5m from Wiltshire Council, £2m from South Gloucestershire Council, £12.8m from BT and £0.74m from the European Regional Development Fund.
