East of England
intouch Autumn 2013
Our half- year
financial results
highlighted the
fact that our fibre
network now passes
more than 17million
premises, with
more than 2million homes and
businesses using our fibre based
services.
Also noted alongside the commercial rollout
was the great progress with our BDUK
partnerships - you can read about some
of these and case studies of how SMEs are
reaping the rewards of fibre technology in
this issue. The success of BT Sport was also
highlighted, which is not only good news for
sports fans but also has the benefit of driving
broadband take up which can only have a
positive impact across the region.
You may also be aware that Ofcom has
just released their latest UK Infrastructure
Report. This report provides a very
comprehensive review of actual UK
communication infrastructure as of today.
It highlights the strong position of the UK
compared to major EU countries, and the US
in particular, against the key government
targets of SFBB coverage, take up and
overall speed. The report also highlights that
most of the growth in coverage is a result
of BT’s continued investment in fibre and
recognise that the BDUK programme will
help to address this going forward.
But it’s not just about broadband - we take
our social responsibilities seriously at every
level of engagement. We are working with
organisations across the UK to help people
overcome the digital divide and providing
the technology and support for initiatives
such as BBC Children in Need.
It’s a very exciting time for us all.
New postcode checker for fibre broadband
The postcode checker – which tells users when
exchanges in their area are due to have fibre
broadband equipment installed – now offers
more precise information about the status of
their own local exchange.
Instead of telling users about all of the
exchanges in their area, the postcode checker
narrows it down to the exchange that serves
them, annotated with the symbol that
applies to the current super-fast status of the
exchange. This gives a much clearer picture of
whether they are likely to be able to receive
fibre services.

New postcode checker for
fibre broadband

East of England looks forward
to super-fast future
New research shows fibre
 network boosting local
economy

Small businesses making it
big with fibre broadband

Power of fibre broadband
feature on YouTube

Young people given a
sporting chance

Disabled people still facing
digital divide

Suffolk premises benefit from
early fibre boost
Dave Hughes, Regional Director for the
East of England
dave.hughes@bt.com.
Openreach’s recently launched
new-look super-fast broadband web
page now gives customers a better
idea of when their exchange will be
upgraded.
 Regional Director’s Message
The checker will provide the information
required for 99 per cent of enquiries – the
exceptions being where postcodes straddle a
number of exchange boundaries,
as they do in Shropshire and Wales.
The new web page also features a list of all
internet service providers offering fibrebased broadband services on the Openreach
network, plus a new ‘don’t let your internet
connection hold you back’ video animation.
In addition, it has been made more mobilefriendly, so it can be viewed on phones and
tablets more easily.
The web page now attracts around 200,000
visitors, and delivers around 25,000
clickthroughs to ISP websites every month.
Check it out at www.superfast-openreach.
co.uk
Council leader explores
 potential of new fibre
network

Research staff party in park
for charity

BT volunteers win support for
community groups
East of England
intouch Autumn 2013
East of England looks forward to super-fast future
Councils across the East of England
have recently agreed multi-million
pound deals with the company to
deliver high-speed fibre broadband
to thousands more homes and
businesses in the region within the
next two and a half years.
24Mbps. With commercial deployment across
the area taken into account, by spring 2016
coverage will have been extended to 91 per
cent of local premises.
In Essex, the County Council has joined forces
with us on a project which, when combined
with plans by the private sector, should result in
around 87 per cent of properties in the county
having access to the technology by the end of
summer 2016.
Bill Murphy, Managing Director, Next
Generation Access, BT, said: “This is great
news for the people living in these areas.
It is important to support local economies,
as well as helping new development and
infrastructure in these communities. This is
where fibre broadband can play an essential
role by revitalising towns, villages and hamlets,
helping businesses to be connected in these
locations.”
Meanwhile, the company is proud to be
partnering with Central Bedfordshire Council
and Bedford Borough Council, plus Milton
Keynes Council, to deliver a fibre broadband
infrastructure to around 33,000 firms and
households. Of these, around 32,000 will be
able to receive super-fast speeds of at least
The upgrade work will transform broadband
speeds across the region, particularly in its rural
areas. Both agreements aim to ensure that
everyone in the locations covered will receive
a minimum of 2Mbps, with the vast majority
enjoying speeds well in excess of this.
Bedfordshire and Milton Keynes will benefit
from a highly competitive market. It will also
boost the competitiveness of local businesses,
helping them to find new customers and
operate more efficiently, while opening up
a host of new learning and development
opportunities for home users.
Similar contracts have also just been
signed covering Newcastle; Merseyside;
West Yorkshire and the East Riding of
Yorkshire; Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and
Leicestershire; Worcestershire; and Berkshire
and Oxfordshire
The new network will be open to all
communications providers on an equal basis,
meaning households and firms in Essex,
New research shows fibre network boosting local economy
New independent research by
SERIO at Plymouth University and
Buckman Associates shows that the
fibre network in Cornwall is already
providing a major economic boost
to local small and medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs) - making it one of
the best connected areas in Britain
and the best connected rural region
in Europe.
In fact, six out of every 10 (58 per cent) SMEs
surveyed said their business is growing because
of the new technology, whilst more than a
quarter (26 per cent) have either created
or safeguarded jobs as a direct result of the
efficiency and innovation that super-fast
broadband encourages.
Early findings from the study revealed that
after 12 months, 83 per cent of them were
saving time and money thanks to the faster
speeds and innovative services that fibre
broadband enables.
Nigel Ashcroft, Superfast Cornwall programme
director for the Cornwall Development
Company, said: “The economic benefits of the
infrastructure investment will grow over time,
In addition, over a third of businesses
participating in the study (37.5 per cent)
reported that super-fast broadband had
helped their business to generate new sales,
with a quarter (24 per cent) of that group
pointing to new trade overseas.
but we have encouraging early signs that we
are moving in the right direction in Cornwall.
Given the challenging economic conditions
for SMEs, it is great news that businesses are
growing, generating new sales and creating
jobs for the Cornwall economy.”
More than 35,000 local homes and businesses
are already taking advantage of the faster
speeds, including an estimated 4,130 SMEs.
The Superfast Cornwall project is on track
to deliver fibre broadband to 95 per cent
(originally 80 per cent) of the region, as well as
the Isles of Scilly, by the end of 2014. It is also
aiming to boost speeds for the remaining 5 per
cent of premises (about 13,000) by deploying
alternative technologies.
www.superfastcornwall.org
East of England
intouch Autumn 2013
Small businesses making it big with fibre broadband
Businesses all over the UK are now
seeing the benefits of upgrading to
fibre broadband. And for small and
medium enterprises (SMEs), faster
speeds have transformed the way
they work and their relationships
with their clients, as two satisfied
customers explain below.
Brian Rees is company chairman of the if
Agency, an integrated creative agency based in
South Manchester that delivers effective online
and offline campaigns for retail, leisure, finance
and other business clients across the country.
“When we set up six years ago, we quickly
embraced ‘first generation’ broadband
with ADSL that ran at 5Mbps downstream
and 800Kbps upstream. This helped but it
wasn’t a full answer. Large files still couldn’t
be transferred efficiently and many chunky
pieces of artwork were biked up and down
motorways, adding risk, time and cost to jobs.
“We understood that we needed better
connections to compete successfully against
nationally-networked agencies, and to work
more effectively with our blue-chip clients.
“Our IT consultant outlined the benefits we
could gain from fibre broadband with a superfast connection. We found that BT was offering
its new BT Infinity services in the region
and responded immediately to its customer
marketing. After two days of installation work
in November 2010, we have never looked
back.
“Using fibre connections, we are more
responsive than ever, and can now zap
45Mbps downstream and about 13Mbps
up. We worried about the cost and possible
inconvenience, but this game-changing
improvement in the service we can offer has
not cost us a premium, and we didn’t suffer
any disruption to our business.
“We understand that our connections are
the platform for our continuing success. We
always keep a close eye on BT’s plans and
developments so we’re best positioned to
take advantage of the latest technologies in
our ever-changing and furiously competitive
business.”
Stuart Landreth is one of the founders and
directors of Northumberland-based BeeBox
Systems, which provides background music
systems and digital signage to bars, clubs,
hotels, restaurants and family entertainment
centres across the North East and, increasingly,
throughout the country.
“The traditional industry model for providing
music services – still widely in use today – is
particularly slow and inflexible. The service
provider receives new material from the
content provider, processes it onto a computer,
burns it to a CD, and then sends it by post to
the venue for the landlord to upload locally. It
takes at least a week to complete the end-toend process when nothing goes wrong.
“Using fibre broadband, we upload new
content to our servers as it arrives from our
providers. Every night, each customer’s system
automatically downloads a scheduled daily
update that includes new releases and any
requests that they have made. If anything goes
wrong or our customer needs a last-minute
change, our fibre connection allows us to fix
the problem remotely, in real time, often while
the customer is still on the phone.
“Super-fast fibre has transformed the range
and quality of services we can offer. We have
two BT Infinity lines with a custom-designed
router that helps to load balance our needs for
fast content turnaround, and are moving away
from desktop-based software to a web-based
and cloud-based management system so that
we can work from anywhere, at any time.
“We no longer experience capacity constraints
that affect our general office systems, so
we use all our time far more effectively.
We automate where we can to add new
services, and to keep our costs low and prices
competitive.”
If your business has received a boost from fibre
broadband, and you would like your story to
be featured as a case study in a future edition
of InTouch, we would love to hear from you.
Please contact regions.comms@bt.com
Power of fibre broadband featured on YouTube
The winning entries in a short story
competition held in Northern Ireland
have been turned into thoughtprovoking films on the power of fibre
broadband and they can now be
found on YouTube.
write a 500-word story illustrating how fibre
broadband can transform people’s lives. Take a
look at these inspiring videos – they really help
bring the story to life.
Northern Ireland Broadband’s ‘Super Short’
competition challenged teenage citizens to
Another inspiring video available on YouTube
has been produced, capturing the great work
Fourteen-year-old Enniskillen student Dorothy
McDowell’s film can be viewed here. Twelveyear-old Lisburn student Amy Warke’s film can
be viewed here.
that is going on in Cornwall via the Get IT
Together programme to help local people take
their first steps to get online.
You can view the video on the Better Future
YouTube channel here.
East of England
intouch Autumn 2013
Young people given a sporting chance
An exciting new venture between
BT and its BT Sport partners and
Comic Relief is using the power of
sport to help disadvantaged young
people both here in the UK and
around the world.
The Supporters Club has been set up to raise
money to fund the coaches, mentors and
teachers that these young people need to
help them to fulfil their potential.
When customers sign up to BT Sport
through our call centres, bt.com or www.
thesupportersclub.org, they are being
invited to make a recurring £1, £3 or £5
monthly donation to The Supporters Club,
collected via their BT bills. However, people
who haven’t signed up to BT Sport but wish
to contribute can do so through our website
as well.
BT have donated £500,000 from various
initiatives to kick things off and will match
every £1 given by customers up to the first
£1 million. In addition, we are covering
the running costs of the fund so that 100
percent of donations will go straight to The
Supporters Club, which will be managed by
Comic Relief.
The scheme aims to support initiatives both
in the UK and overseas that utilise the power
of sport to help disadvantaged young people
improve their lives. These include projects
that boost enrolment and achievement in
school; reduce levels of exploitation and
abuse; secure jobs; improve health and
wellbeing; and heighten confidence and
self-esteem. We will be regularly updating
our website and producing TV programmes
featuring projects funded by The Supporters
Club, which will be broadcast on BT Sport.
Business responsibility matters to BT, and
social responsibility is a central part of our
business strategy. The Supporters Club as an
effective way for us to work hand in hand
with our customers and our employees to
make a real difference to disadvantaged
young people.
Already, thousands of customers and BT
employees have signed up to donate to
The Supporters Club, bringing in around
£300,000 a year, which BT will match –
adding a further £300,000 in the pot. To
find out more about the scheme, visit www.
sport.bt.com
Disabled people still facing digital divide
The potential for mainstream
technology to transform the
lives of the 11 million disabled
people in the UK remains largely
untapped, according to research
funded by BT’s Connected Society
programme.
In a new report, disability charity Scope and
the Royal College of Art’s Helen Hamlyn
Centre for Design argue that disabled
people still encounter a huge digital
divide – and that many still have to choose
between expensive specialist equipment
and inaccessible mainstream gadgets.
Researchers from the Helen Hamlyn Centre
for Design discovered that technology
built for disabled people is expensive,
offers low functionality and often requires
specialist knowledge to adapt. Mainstream
technology, like iPads and Windows Tablets,
is cheaper and can do much more, but is
rarely customised to meet disabled people’s
needs.
To coincide with the launch of the report –
entitled Enabling Technology – BT, Scope
and the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design
unveiled a series of digital technology
prototypes at the London Design Festival in
September. These included:
The research also found that the
information available to disabled people
about enabling technology needs to be
improved. They are amongst the groups
least likely to use the internet, and are
20 per cent less likely to be online than
their peers – despite the huge potential of
services like online shopping and banking
which could transform their lives.
•the ‘Tailored Touch’ mouse, which can be
made from touch-sensitive pads on any
surface, and in any shape or size
With this in mind, the report outlines
a series of recommendations for
technology companies, commissioners
and the providers of key digital services to
maximise the ‘enabling potential’ of digital
technology.
•the ‘Pop-up Reader’, which allows a
blind or partially-sighted person to read
letters and other documents via their
smartphone.
The Enabling Technology report, plus
accompanying videos, can be found at
http://blog.scope.org.uk/2013/09/20/
technology-for-disabled-people
East of England
intouch Autumn 2013
Suffolk premises benefit from early fibre boost
More than 2,500 homes and
businesses across Suffolk have
become the first to benefit from a
multi-million pound partnership
between Suffolk County Council, BT
and the Government to make highspeed fibre broadband more widely
available in the county.
The Better Broadband for Suffolk programme
will revolutionise internet access, with the
County Council estimating that over the next
15 years, it will provide a £2 billion boost to
the local economy and create 1,500 jobs.
The partnership builds on our existing
commercial plans, which already aim to make
fibre broadband available to around 200,000
Suffolk premises. At the end of September –
three months ahead of schedule – properties
in and around parts of Lowestoft, Belstead,
Kesgrave, Hadleigh, Whatfield, Bury St
Edmunds, Stowmarket, Sudbury, Felixstowe
and on the Suffolk-Essex border near
Manningtree were also able to order the new
technology, which provides download speeds
of up to 80Mbps and upload speeds of up to
20Mbps.
The early broadband boost has been achieved
by engineers identifying areas where our
existing fibre infrastructure could be quickly
extended. However, this is just the start of
the Better Broadband for Suffolk programme,
which will make the technology available
to 10,000 properties by the end of the year
and seeks to provide super-fast broadband
speeds of 24Mbps and above to 85 per cent
of county’s homes and businesses. Meanwhile,
the County Council is committed to ensuring
that every property in Suffolk has access to
speeds of at least 2Mbps by the end of 2015.
Over the next couple of years, more than
400 new roadside fibre cabinets are being
installed in Suffolk. However, they will serve
very localised areas, so only certain parts of
the towns and villages where they are situated
will be able to access fibre broadband initially.
As the service becomes increasingly available,
firms and households will be able to check
whether they can receive faster speeds via
the Better Broadband for Suffolk website (see
below).
Bill Murphy, Managing Director, Next
Generation Access, BT, said: “This investment in
fibre broadband will boost the local economy
and help to create or protect local jobs both
in communities like Lowestoft and across the
whole of Suffolk. It will be of enormous benefit
to local businesses which can use the faster
speeds to improve their competitiveness both
within the UK and abroad.”
For more information about the programme,
visit www.betterbroadbandsuffolk.com
Council leader explores potential of new fibre network
The leader of Tendring District
Council has urged local people to
reap the benefits of the company’s
major investment in high-speed fibre
broadband in the area.
Councillor Peter Halliday made the comments
after visiting one of our three new super-fast
street cabinets in the Kirby-Le-Soken, Kirby
Cross and Great Holland area, which will allow
hundreds more local premises to receive
broadband speeds many times faster than
those previously available.
While more than 9,000 homes and businesses
on the Frinton-on-Sea exchange are able to
benefit from our £2.5 billion fibre broadband
roll-out programme, these new cabinets
were not originally in our plans for the Frinton
exchange area. However, after successful talks
with Tendring District Council, Openreach
looked again at its planned roll-out and,
because of the layout of the network, was
able in this particular case to install additional
cabinets.
At the new green cabinet in The Street,
Kirby-Le-Soken, Councillor Halliday said:
“The addition of these three new cabinets is
proof that in partnership with BT, the support
of the local community can really influence
investment decisions. Super-fast broadband
is vital to our communities. It will ensure that
we continue to be competitive and are not
left behind in the digital revolution. We will
continue to do everything in our power to
ensure that all residents have access to the best
quality services possible.”
Research carried out for BT by Regeneris
Consulting suggests that in the next 15 years
super-fast broadband could give the economy
of a typical city a £296 million boost, create
around 430 new jobs and 320 start-up
businesses, while for a typical town the figures
are expected to be £143 million, 225 new jobs
and 140 start-ups.
Our fibre footprint currently passes more than
15 million UK homes and businesses. It is
expanding all the time and is now due to pass
two-thirds of the country’s premises – around
19 million – by the end of spring 2014, at least
18 months ahead of the original timetable.
Openreach is primarily deploying Fibre To The
Cabinet (FTTC) technology, which provides
download speeds of up to 80Mbps and upload
speeds of up to 20Mbps.
For further information on the Openreach
programme, visit www.superfast-openreach.
co.uk
BT’s Annette Thorpe and Colin Brooks, BT and Peter
Halliday, Leader of Tendring District Council
East of England
intouch Autumn 2013
Research staff party in park for charity
BT employees are renowned for their
commitment to helping charities in
their local communities. And in their
latest fundraising endeavour, staff
at Adastral Park, our research base in
Suffolk, have pulled in thousands of
pounds for several worthy causes in
the area.
The event, a music festival called ‘Additude’
held at Adastral Park itself, raised more than
£3,000. Over 2,500 employees, friends and
family braved cool, blustery conditions to
enjoy an evening of entertainment, a fun
fair and a line-up of acts topped by the UK’s
biggest Take That tribute band, Rule The World.
Kate Grimwood of the RSPCA said: “RSPCA
Suffolk East and Ipswich is absolutely delighted
to have been nominated by the staff at BT’s
Adastral Park as one of the five local charities
which will receive a share of the money that
has been raised by the Additude event. We
could not achieve what we do here in our part
of Suffolk without the tremendous support of
the local people and businesses.”
Every penny raised will be distributed between
East Anglia Children’s Hospices (EACH); RSPCA
Suffolk East and Ipswich Branch; Cancer
Campaign in Suffolk; MacMillan; and St
Elizabeth Hospice – the top five local charities
chosen by those at Adastral Park.
BT volunteers win support for community groups
The company is rewarding
organisations and community groups
across the East of England with
grants of up to £1,000.
The donations are being made through our
employee recognition scheme, the BT People
Awards, which were launched last year. The
scheme acknowledges our volunteering
heroes, who offer their time and skills to help
people in their local community, by awarding
grants to organisations with which they are
involved.
Nineteen groups in the East of England have
received grants to enable them to continue
their excellent work in the community,
including: Kettleburgh Green Trust in
Woodbridge, Lawford Junior Football
Club, 356 Felixstowe Squadron RAF Air
Cadets, Ipswich Canoe Club and Hi Tension
Trampoline Club in Ardleigh.
Dave Hughes, BT Regional Director, said:
“BT has a long history of working with
good causes to help improve lives. We
see volunteering as a two-way benefit as
there are many development opportunities
when new skills are brought back into the
workplace. Some of these experiences can
only be gained by playing such an active role
in the local community.”
For more information, and a complete list of
the latest award recipients, go to
www.btpeopleawards.co.uk.
To find out more about BT’s wider portfolio of
activities please see our new brochure at
www.bt.com/charityportfolio