BT has been offered the job of connecting over 90 per cent of Kent to superfast broadband connections, Kent County Council has revealed today.
In total, 95 per cent of Kent will benefit from faster broadband connections by the end of 2015 through the ‘Make Kent Quicker Project’. The project is backed by £10 million of council funding along with £9.87 million from BDUK plus £19.6 million from BT.
Read Recombu Digital’s report on Fibre Broadband and BDUKRoger Gough, KCC Cabinet member for business strategy, performance and health reform, said: “Just as the thousands of miles of rail and roads are essential in bringing the county together, this is an essential network for Kent. I am looking forward to seeing how, by working with BT, we can keep the county connected and competitive for the future.
Bill Murphy, BT’s managing director for next generation access, added: “This beautiful county, home to the iconic White Cliffs of Dover, will now start to see high-speed fibre broadband roll-out extended and this will enable more local businesses to think global as well as enhancing education and transforming the way consumers use the internet.”
Interestingly, 91 per cent of homes and businesses are guaranteed to get ‘superfast broadband’, which the Government defines as anything providing speeds of above 24Mbps. The remaining 4 per cent will benefit from faster broadband connections, but it looks like they’ll fall short of getting 24Mbps.
Read Recombu Digital’s report on BT Broadband Rollout UpdatesThe majority of connections BT has been rolling out in regional BDUK projects are FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet) connections. While FTTC can provide a much faster and more stable experience than the older ADSL-based broadband, it still suffers from the same ‘distance difference’ that ADSL broadband does.
Instead of the download speed you get being dependant on the distance from a BT exchange its more dependant on the distance from your street cabinet. So homes and businesses in this 4 per cent are likely to be connected to FTTC but will probably get speeds better than what they can now, just not faster than 24Mbps.
Homes and businesses not covered by the 95 per cent footprint will still benefit from speeds of at least 2Mbps once the project is finished.
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