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BT to connect 53,000 Northamptonshire premises to superfast broadband

Around 53,000 Northamptonshire homes and businesses will be connected to superfast broadband as a result of a local investment plan. 

The Superfast Northamptonshire project that’s part-funded by BT, Northamptonshire County Council and the Government’s BDUK will ensure that 50,000 homes and 3,000 businesses will have access to superfast speeds by the end of 2015. 

While there’s still no word on which locations will see the benefits of fibre broadband first, we’re told that location planning is already underway and the first locations enabled with fibre will be announced later this year. 

Similarly, while we know that Superfast Northamptonshire will be rolling out a mixture of FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet) and FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) lines to customers we don’t know what the ratio of FTTC:P will be. 

BT to connect 53,000 Northamptonshire premises to superfast broadband
Fibre on the streets of Northamptonshire

At some point this year, BT’s FTTP On Demand programme will be revealed, so customers who stand to get FTTC will know how much they’ll need to put aside if they want an upgrade to FTTP. 

Andre Gonzalez De Savage, Northamptonshire County Council cabinet member for infrastructure and public protection, said: “This is undoubtedly one of the biggest projects we’re involved with which will make an enormous difference in bringing prosperity to the county. Having widely available superfast broadband is essential if we are to compete in the digital global economy and I’m delighted that we’ve reached such a significant stage of this initiative.” 

Northamptonshire County Council estimates that deployment of superfast broadband will provide an additional 1,700 jobs by 2026 and a £110 million annual boost to the local economy. 

BT and Northamptonshire County Council have struck a deal which will see superfast broadband rolled out to 90 per cent of premises by 2015. Northamptonshire also has ambitious plans to connect the last ten per cent to fibre-based broadband by 2017. By the end of 2015, those in the last ten per cent will be able to get speeds of at least 2Mbps, but a couple of years after that they could too be included in the superfast revolution. Lets hope that with their zeal to see everyone connected that they don’t fall afoul of the funding problems that have beset the Digital Region in South Yorkshire. 

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