A businesswoman says moving to Dorset and switching to full fibre broadband has “changed her life”.
Sue Escott ran her business from an office in Cambridgeshire for 18 years, helping Governments and institutes across the globe prepare for media interviews when making major announcements and publishing the results of scientific research.
She decided to relocate to a village near Dorchester a couple of years ago but couldn’t move the business because fast broadband is essential to her work.
“I run webinars with scientists around the world, internally we share large documents, hold virtual meetings and make all our calls over the internet. This was impossible from home – it used to take three to four hours to upload interviews. It was easier to travel to Cambridge,” said Sue.
The arrival of some of the UK’s fastest broadband in her village has now allowed Sue to drop the 4.5-hour drive to the office and work from home.
The Superfast Dorset programme and its delivery partner Openreach recently brought full fibre broadband to Higher Bockhampton, birthplace of Victorian novelist and poet Thomas Hardy.
Download speeds were previously around 2Mbps (megabits per second), but the new fibre to the premises (FTTP) network can support speeds up to 500 times faster.
Sue, who used to work at the highest levels in Government, has taken an 80Mbps service via internet provider Zen.
She said: “Uploading an interview now takes one to two minutes. It’s fantastic. We have always loved Dorset and being based down here really has changed my life. We have the beautiful location and latest technology . . . it’s the best of both worlds.”
Around 96 per cent of properties in Dorset can already access superfast broadband – download speeds of 24Mbps or more. But to benefit you must contact an internet provider and ask to switch to fibre broadband.
