The North Lincolnshire superfast broadband project has hit its halfway point, with over 16,000 homes and businesses reached.
The £7m Northern Lincolnshire Broadband project is currently deploying superfast broadband – a mixture of FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet) and FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) – to around 600 new properties every week.
At this rate it’s on target to reach its target of 31,000 properties by June 2015. By then 92 per cent of properties across the region will be able to order next-gen services.
Cllr Neil Poole, cabinet member for policy and resources at North Lincolnshire Council, said: “The Northern Lincs Broadband project is already having a huge impact on the area. Residents and businesses across Northern Lincolnshire keep telling us how much of a difference it is making to be able to access high-speed broadband.”
The project, led by BT, will see the majority of locations able to access FTTC broadband. This can deliver top download speeds of 80Mbps and maximum upload speeds of 20Mbps. Due to the nature of FTTC, the further away your home is from the green street cabinet, the slower your download speeds will be. As is the case with old-fashioned ADSL, the speed you actually end up getting is based on your location – in this case proximity to a cabinet instead of the exchange.
A handful of properties are in line to get FTTP broadband. BT’s FTTP lines can currently deliver top download speeds of 330Mbps and uploads of 30Mbps. Speeds don’t degrade over distance with FTTP and the connection is future-proofed – the Superfast Cornwall project has demonstrated that speeds of up to 10Gbps can be delivered on BT’s pure fibre lines.
Where can I get superfast broadband in Northern Lincolnshire?
Areas in north Lincolnshire that are already benefitting from high-speed broadband thanks to NLBB are: Winterton, Winteringham, Scunthorpe (parts of Bottesford, Timberlands, Riddings, Frodingham, Crosby and Ashby), Epworth, Barton, Brigg, Broughton, Belton, Cleethorpes, East Halton, Grimsby, Immingham, Barrow, Great Coates, Messingham, Worlaby, North and South Killingholme, Ashby-cum-Fenby, Brigsley, Humberston, Scartho, Waltham and Laceby.
Tom Keeney, BT’s regional director for Yorkshire and the Humber, said: “Faster connectivity breaks down the barriers to doing business in the digital world like online trading, which helps to empower those small businesses to find new markets, sell new products, try new models and compete on an equal footing with larger businesses.“
Northern Lincolnshire Broadband forms part of the government’s Superfast Britain initiative to provide two thirds of UK properties with superfast broadband, using £2.5bn of investment. Earlier in October, the project secured extra funding to speed up operations.
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