Charmouth and Wootton Fitzpaine this week became the first villages to benefit from the multi-million pound Superfast Dorset programme.
More than 400 homes and businesses in the two communities now have the opportunity to take up faster, more reliable broadband services for the first time.
As work continues in the weeks ahead, many more premises in these communities will get access to fibre broadband.
A reception to mark this important milestone in the roll-out will be held in Charmouth on Friday 23 May. Councillor Robert Gould, Leader of West Dorset District Council, will join the Superfast Dorset team to ‘switch on’ a new green roadside cabinet on the intersection of The Street and Higher Sea Lane in Charmouth from 11.30am to 12.00pm.
The event is also a significant opportunity for Charmouth residents and businesses. Community members are invited to come meet the team and find out more about how they can benefit now that faster, more reliable internet is available.
Jim Hosford, owner of the award winning self-cleaning filters and strainers company Rotorflush Filters Ltd in Charmouth, plans to take up a service as soon as he can. He said: “High speed broadband will be bringing great benefits to our innovative design and engineering business. We’ll be able to share larger CAD files faster with our customers and suppliers, take advantage of cloud-based applications and storage, and speed up all our on-line activities. Rotorflush Filters Ltd and the wider Dorset economy will profit from this exciting improvement to our communications.”
Cllr Robert Gould said: “Superfast broadband is vital for West Dorset’s future economy and for our residents. It will make it easier for people to work from home, do business online and also download films and television. This is why West Dorset District Council has invested £1.3 million to help get superfast broadband to parts of our areas that would otherwise have missed out.”
Grant Munn, BT’s programme manager for Superfast Dorset, said: “The arrival of fibre broadband is one of the most important investments in Dorset in recent times. High-speed fibre broadband is transforming the way we live and work. For businesses, it can help deliver a competitive edge, which will help them attract new customers and find new, more efficient ways of working. For households, it’s ideal for quick and efficient on-line shopping, entertainment, education, research and social networking.”
Cllr Spencer Flower, leader of Dorset County Council which is investing over £7.4 million in the project, said: “These 400 homes and businesses are the start of a programme which will see us bring access to fibre broadband to almost 80,000 premises. This will breathe new life into Dorset’s villages, enabling young people to study on line and older people to work from home.”
Existing broadband connections do not upgrade automatically. Customers will have to contact their broadband provider and buy a superfast service. The network is available on an open wholesale basis to all broadband providers, thereby ensuring competitive pricing and a wide choice of suppliers for local households and businesses.
Since the £31.75 million partnership was announced last year, engineers from BT’s local network business, Openreach, have been busy surveying the network in order to ensure that the roll-out of the new technology is carried out in the most cost effective and efficient manner.
The early stages of Superfast Dorset’s roll-out use Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) technology, where the fibre runs from the telephone exchange to a fibre optic street cabinet. It can deliver download speeds of up to 80Mbps and upload speeds of up to 20Mbps1. According to regulator Ofcom, the average download speed in Dorset is 10.9Mbps.
Communications Minister Ed Vaizey said: “This fantastic news marks the beginning of a remarkable transformation of Broadband in Dorset which will see more than 95 per cent2of homes and businesses able to access superfast speeds by the end of 2016. The UK already does more business online than any other European country, and widespread access to superfast broadband will provide a tremendous boost to the Dorset economy.”
Superfast Dorset aims to have made superfast broadband available to 95 per cent of the county’s premises by the end of 20162. It builds on the work of the private sector, which has so far given more than 60 per cent of Dorset homes and businesses access to fibre broadband.
The partnership also plans to ensure a minimum speed of 2Mbps for all premises within the programme area where fibre broadband isn’t viable.
Announcements of other communities to benefit from faster, more reliable broadband will come phase by phase throughout the three-year life of the project. Find more information on the Superfast Dorset project and coverage.
- These are the top wholesale speeds available from BT’s local network division Openreach, to all broadband service providers; speeds offered by service providers may vary.
- This percentage includes BT’s commercial roll-out of fibre broadband.
