BT Openreach has added 121,000 homes and businesses in North East England to its superfast broadband expansion plan.
The local phone-and-broadband infrastructure provider has also named the next exchanges to get a fibre upgrade in Surrey’s bid to achieve 100 per cent superfast coverage.
Read more about BT Broadband Rollout UpdatesIn the North East, exchanges serving Darlington, Easington, Ebchester, Norton, Wellfield, Dunston, Whickham, Seaton Delaval, Birtley, Beamish, Barnard Castle and Redcar will be upgrade by the end of 2014.
Openreach said this will also involve extending the reach of FTTC (fibre-to-the-cabinet) broadband to more street cabinets in areas already upgrade or on its roadmap.
The technology already reaches 530,000 homes and businesses in the region, and Openreach predicts it will now reach 735,000 as part of its £2.5 billion national fibre rollout.
Farooq Hakim, BT’s North East regional director, said: “This latest investment is a major vote of confidence in the future success of the North East.
“It will be a key part of our economic revival as we finally shrug off the effects of the downturn and create a better, more prosperous future.”
More for Surrey
In Surrey, Abinger, Betchworth, Bramley, Chobham, Dawes Green, Dunsfold, Elstead, Godstone, Newdigate, Nuffield Ridge, Oakwood Hill, Oxted, South Godstone, and Wormley exchanges will be upgraded this summer.
Around 15,000 homes and businesses can expect to have access to fibre broadband by the end of September 2013, with details at the Superfast Surrey website.
Surrey is already among the best-connected of the English Home Counties, with 80 per cent superfast coverage already expected through commercial plans.
The £35m deal with Surrey County Council aims to deliver superfast broadband for the remaining 20 per cent – more than 80,000 premises
Surrey County Council deputy leader Peter Martin said: “This very much keeps Surrey at the forefront of the superfast broadband roll-out nationally and means we remain on track to make Surrey the best connected county in the UK.”
This spring, Openreach is will begin offering fibre-on-demand for businesses which want to access speeds of up to 330Mbps over an FTTP (fibre to the premises) connection.
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