The latest edition of Broadband Rollout Roundup details the latest burst of BT activity in Scotland, specifically Forfar and Grangemouth and Burnham-on-Sea in Somerset, England.
Thousands of homes and businesses in the area can now order in faster fibre-based broadband from either BT or the many other ISPs that offer fibre broadband services on the Openreach network.
As well as this, West Sussex County Council has announced the Better Connected West Sussex plan, the latest Broadband Delivery for the UK (BDUK) project to be announced. To no-one’s surprise, BT has been awarded the keys to this project, which aims to get 98 per cent of properties in the area connected to superfast speeds by 2016.
This also means that half of the BDUK projects have now been signed. Though the government has been quick to point to this mark of progress, note that it doesn’t mean that 50 per cent of the UK has been covered by superfast broadband yet – far from it. We’ve a way to go but we’ll providing the coverage of all the BDUK rollout programmes and keeping tabs on who is getting what and when.
As always with our Broadband Rollout Roundup reports, we’d advise you to double check with SamKnows if you see your hometown or area listed for a broadband upgrade. Just because your local exchange has been greenlit for FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet) or FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) you shouldn’t automatically assume you can get it.
Fibre to the Caledonians: 15,400 superfast connections for Forfar and Grangemouth
High-speed fibre broadband is now available to the first 7,400 homes and businesses in Forfar, Angus. The exchange has been upgraded to allow for FTTC orders to be place, bringing speeds of up to 80Mbps to the area.
Forfar is the latest location in Angus go get fibre-based broadband, following Arbroath and Montrose. Brechin, Carnoustie and Kirriemuir are in line to receive upgrades later in the year.
More than 8,000 firms and families in Grangemouth will also be able to order in FTTC broadband in the coming weeks. Grangemouth follows Falkirk and Larbert, where fibre broadband is available and Bo’ness, Bonnybridge and Denny will also be upgraded over the coming months.
Burham-on-Sea goes superfast in Somerset
More than 4,000 Burnham-On-Sea residents can now plug in to faster broadband speeds.
FTTC availability in Burnham-On-Sea is also set to swell to 10,500 premises in the coming weeks as engineers continue their work.
By the end of Spring 2014 about 226,000 Somerset homes and businesses – and about 1.5 million across the South West – will be able to benefit as a result of BT’s £2.5 billion fibre broadband roll-out programme.
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