High-speed technology now available to first homes and businesses around St Austell, Redruth, Camborne and Callington
More than a quarter of all Cornish exchange areas already starting to get access
Fifteen more Cornish towns and villages have joined the growing number of communities with access to superfast broadband.
The high-speed technology is now available to the first homes and businesses in St Austell and the nearby villages of Polgooth, Sticker and Trewoon; Redruth and the nearby villages of Lanner, Illogan Highway, Carn Brea Village and Four Lanes; South Tehidy, near Camborne; Ludgvan and Crowlas, near Penzance; Callington, Roche and Kilkhampton. They join the 21 Cornish communities where the superfast roll-out is already under way*.
Superfast Cornwall, the pioneering public and private sector partnership, today announced that it was well on its way to achieving the key target of the superfast network reaching 90,000 Cornish premises by the end of March.
Nigel Ashcroft, programme director of Superfast Cornwall for Cornwall Development Company, which manages the £132 million initiative, said: As we enter this Olympic year Superfast Cornwall already has a head start in the race to roll-out superfast fibre broadband and 2012 will be remembered as the year when Cornwalls communications infrastructure took one of the biggest steps forward in its history.
This exciting technology offers so much for our people, firms and communities. Households and businesses will be better equipped than ever before to take advantage of the internet revolution. There is a huge amount to be done this year, but we have got off to a great start in 2012 worthy of a world class sprinter!
The Superfast Cornwall partnership comprising the European Union, BT, Cornwall Council and Cornwall Development Company expects to make fibre optic broadband available to at least 80 per cent of premises in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly by the end of 2014. Alternative technologies, such as wireless and satellite, will be used to boost broadband speeds in locations where optical fibre is not currently viable.
Ranulf Scarbrough, BTs Superfast Cornwall programme director, said: Theres still a long way to run, but the Superfast Cornwall partnership has placed itself in a winning position. Already, superfast broadband is starting to become available to homes and businesses in more than a quarter of all exchange areas in Cornwall.
Among those due to get superfast broadband in St Austell later this month is Malcolm Putko, who is known as the the fat landlord of the Western Inn.
He said Wow, superfast broadband will be great for us. We see ourselves as a village pub in the centre of town and this will help us give our customers of all age groups an even better experience. We will be able to offer free superfast wi-fi access to our customers.
We have a lot of live music events here and now we will be able to look at live streaming of these and more use of video on our marketing. This will help us reach out to new customers.
Superfast broadband will also help with all the back-office side of running the business. It will help make so many things easier everything from internet banking to stock control, saving us lots of time and money.
A superfast broadband connection allows people to do much more online, all at the same time. For example, a family can download a movie, watch a TV replay service, surf the net and play games online simultaneously. The latest chart hit can be downloaded in around two seconds and a CD in 30 seconds. Upload speeds are the fastest in the UK, with large video and data files being sent almost instantly. Posting hi-resolution photos on Facebook takes seconds.
The new network is available on an open wholesale basis to all companies offering broadband services. Customers can check their phone line at www.superfastcornwall.org to see if they can get the service straightaway and, if so, there are a number of internet service providers from which to choose. Prices start from as little as £18 per month. Introductory offers can be even cheaper.
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For further information
Enquiries about this news release should be made to the BT Regional Press Office on 0800 085 0660 or Cornwall Development Company on 01209 311104. All news releases can be accessed at: http://www.btplc.com/News.
For further information on the Superfast Cornwall programme visit www.superfastcornwall.org
Notes to Editors
*Superfast broadband is already available in 28 of the 99 Cornish exchange areas Truro, St Austell, Liskeard, Launceston, Bude, Falmouth, Marazion, North Hill, Marhamchurch, Dobwalls, Chiverton Cross/Chacewater, St Agnes, St Day, Portreath, Devoran, Leedstown, Stenalees, Lanivet, Penryn, Porthtowan, Drakewalls, Par, Redruth, Camborne, Callington, Penzance, Roche, Kilkhampton.
Superfast fibre optic broadband can be delivered as fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) or fibre to the premises (FTTP). FTTC is where the fibre connection is from the exchange to the street side cabinet with the remainder of the connection being over copper. FTTC provides download speeds of up to 40Mbps and upload speeds of up to 10Mbps. Technical improvements should see these headline speeds roughly double during 2012. FTTP is where the fibre connection runs all the way from the exchange to the customers premises. This technology typically provides download speeds of up to 100Mbps and upload speeds of up to 15Mbps. And from next Spring FTTP download speeds will be boosted to up to 300Mbps.
Further information about next generation broadband is available from www.bt.com/ngb
About the Convergence Programme
The Superfast Cornwall programme is part financed by the European Union with up to £53.5 million from the European Regional Development Fund Convergence Programme.
For further information see: www.convergencecornwall.com
Convergence helpline telephone: 0800 0280120.
In Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly the Convergence programmes are made up of European Regional Development Fund (£374 million) and European Social Fund (£153 million) Convergence Programmes and will run until 2013.
The ERDF Programme investment is intended to boost the regions economy by providing focussed support for business creating better quality, higher paid jobs. This support includes training and access to higher education, strengthening links between academia and business, improved IT infrastructure, additional high quality workspace and specialist support to boost business productivity.
About Cornwall Development Company
Cornwall Development Company Ltd is the economic development company for Cornwall Council and its mission is to achieve sustainable prosperity for all in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.
Further information is available at www.cornwalldevelopmentcompany.co.uk
About Openreach
Openreach is responsible for the last mile of the UK access network the copper wires and fibre connecting homes and businesses to their local telephone exchanges. Openreach provides communications providers with services and products associated with that network.
About BT
BT is one of the worlds 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 our customers for use at home, at work and on the move; broadband and internet products and services and converged fixed/mobile products and services. BT consists principally of four lines of business: BT Global Services, BT Retail, BT Wholesale and Openreach.
In the year ended 31 March 2011, BT Groups revenue was £20,076m with profit before taxation of £1,717m.
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
