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Our fibre network
now covers more
than 20 million
homes and
businesses and
we’re passing over
70,000 additional
premises per week.
Demand remains strong with more than 3
million sign-ups. Around two thirds of UK
premises can now order much faster broadband
from a wide variety of ISPs using the new
network, all of whom have benefited from the
billions of pounds BT has spent on upgrading
its network. The vast majority of that footprint
has been enabled by BT under its commercial
plan, with the remainder being enabled in
partnership with the public sector across the UK.
You can read about the progress of some of our
regional partnerships in this issue of In Touch.
Openreach are expanding their workforce
and announced nationally they expect to
recruit 1,600 engineers. The creation of new
jobs is one of the many benefits associated
with the roll-out of superfast broadband.
The government recognise that for every £1
they invest in infrastructure projects, such as
the rollout of fibre, there is a £20 benefit in
return together with the employment boost
supporting long-term economic growth.
A new international report launched by BT at
the International Festival for Business revealed
that the UK’s ‘digital first’ economy’ (i.e a
ubiquitous, nationwide, high-speed internet
connection) is a ‘great help’ when expanding.
The UK is Europe’s most desirable market for
companies looking to expand their business
overseas and sits second globally, narrowly
behind the US. Also featured in this issue
is the BT Better Future Report, our annual
sustainability report. This year’s report outlines
how our new strategy will have a positive impact
on society using the power of communication
to improve lives and ways of doing business.
As new regional director I look forward to
working with you.
Dave Axam, Regional Director for the
South East dave.axam@bt.com.
Openreach Superfast fibre website update
Openreach have updated their fibre
availability map on the superfast
website to show cabinet level results
where an exchange area is enabled.
There will be changes to all the existing
categories to provide a clearer view of the
fibre availability for individual postcodes. The
website will feature a form that anyone from
the general public can use to get additional
information about superfast deployment
plans or alternative funding options. The
new system will return four possible results
once an exchange has been enabled and the
map markers will show ‘cabinet enabled’.
• Accepting orders: Great news. Superfast
Fibre is in your area and your cabinet is
enabled and accepting orders. Contact your
preferred communications provider for your
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home or business to order.
• Enabled area: Your area is enabled for
Superfast Fibre but your cabinet is not ready
yet so you can’t place an order today. It is
in our plans to be upgraded and we update
this info weekly, so please check back later.
• High demand: Your area is enabled for
Superfast Fibre but demand is high on your
cabinet right now. This means you can’t order
Superfast Fibre today but we’re working
to increase capacity as soon as possible.
Openreach Superfast fibre
 website update
 We’re festival headliners
The start-up of something
 wonderful
 Full speed ahead after fibre first
 BT’s 2020 Vision
Putting wind in our UK
 operations’ sails
Helping Internet Security ‘click’
 with everyone
Expanding our engineer force
 in the South East
 Wi-Fi has lift off at Brize Norton
Better Connected West Sussex –
 leaping into the next phase
New BT Regional Director pledges
 “huge” boost for the South East
Isle of Wight – diving head-first
 into superfast fibre broadband
• Under review: We’re in your area but
we’re still assessing whether or not we
can upgrade your cabinet. This means
you can’t order Superfast Fibre.
 Burghfield is racing ahead
More information can be found here:
http://www.superfast-openreach.co.uk/
where-and-when/.
 million fibre milestone
Kent smashes through half a
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We’re festival headliners
BT were recently lead sponsor
at the International Festival
for Business (IFB).
It’s the biggest business event of the year,
and we showcased our expertise in smarter
and creative business practices. BT provides
services to around 900,000 small and
medium-sized business (SME) customers in
the UK, so this was a great opportunity to
meet and talk with them.
Gavin Patterson
speaking at
the IFB Global
Leaders Summit.
The UK. Europe’s No.1
expansion destination
To mark the opening of the event BT
launched a new international report,
which revealed that the UK is Europe’s
‘most desirable’ market for companies
looking to expand their business overseas.
In fact, ‘The art of connecting global
business’ reveals that the UK sits second
globally – narrowly behind the US.
The report, which surveyed 1,150
business decision makers across 13 global
regions, also explored the reasons behind
international expansion: which markets
were desirable and why? What are the
effects of being a ‘digital first’ economy?
And what are the barriers to expansion?
And respondents pointed to technology as
the biggest (37 per cent) barrier to making
their international ambitions a reality.
In turn, because of the perceived quality
of our IT and data security governance and
regulation, 91 per cent said that our ‘digitalfirst economy’ (a ubiquitous, nationwide,
high-speed internet connection) is a ‘great
help’ when expanding.
Accelerating growth at the IFB
Danny Longbottom, Managing Director
UK SME BT Business, also hosted an
event focussed on how SMEs can best
use social media, with the aim of inspiring
growth, motivation and collaboration
among businesses with great potential.
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Communication’s worth
talking about
Chief Executive Gavin Patterson told city
leaders from around the globe that the world
is being transformed by communications.
He was speaking at the BT Global City
Leaders’ Summit in Liverpool, where 200
Mayors and leaders from the world’s capital
cities discussed their challenges, and their
roles in driving global growth.
Gavin said: “Our world is being transformed
by communications – from how businesses
do business to how governments govern and
how communities live; from how we educate
our children and how we care for the sick to
what we do for entertainment. And our cities
are, of course, at the forefront of that.”
He told delegates that our 160 years’
of innovation m eans we understand
how communications drive growth,
prosperity and change. Addressing
the summit’s topic – the shift from
the age of austerity to prosperity – he
explained just how vital technology is
to unleashing people’s potential.
BT Chairman Mike Rake said: “Liverpool’s
changed so much. It’s a great example
of how and why Britain’s cities need to
regenerate. It highlights the importance
of maximising local potential and
driving investment; of focusing on key
geographical pockets of industry and
innovation; and why local economies must
be properly governed and supported.”
BT’s Youngest Recruits
Our BT Apprentices were also out in force
– supporting ‘The Skills Show’ at Aintree
racecourse. And more than 5,000 Liverpool
school children met up with local business
people at interactive stations to try their
hands at various jobs.
At our stand, apprentices from Openreach
and BT Business gave students a taste
of what it takes to work for BT. Students
identified the correct tones to wire a
customer’s phone line, made sure routing
was done correctly in a telephone exchange
simulator, and saw the final result: a
customer watching BT Sport on their TV.
Students checked out the equipment used by
apprentices, including a working Diablo van,
and dressed in Openreach safety kit. Mike
Blackburn, BT Regional Director for the North
West was also on hand to offer his support.
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The start-up of something wonderful
Recently, as part of our Infinity
Lab programme, we asked tech
entrepreneurs to design and present
innovative products.
The aim of this competition was to discover
unique start-up companies that have created
apps and services to help Internet users take
advantage of superfast broadband. Apps with
the potential to be used alongside our existing
products, reaching millions of UK households.
The best entrepreneurs won six months’ of
our support, including access to our very
own experts in research and development,
engineering, legal, marketing and more.
They also had the chance to become members
at the sold-out TechHub community space in
the heart of East London’s Tech City - great
news for budding innovators, as they’ll be
able to meet, work, learn and collaborate
with a huge mix of tech entrepreneurs.
For this year’s competition, our winning
start-up company was one of ten shortlisted
finalists, Sedicii. Their ground-breaking
innovation uses patented technology to
protect personal online sign-in details. In
other words, no passwords are transmitted
or stored anywhere - except in a user’s head,
that is. And we’re looking forward to working
with Sedicii and TechHub to bring their
creation to life.
Dave Axam, Regional Director for the
South East, said: “All the finalists had
a great story had a great story and are
businesses with a promising future.”
Rob Leslie, Chief Executive and founder of
Sedicii, said: “We’re absolutely delighted to
have won this award and be able to work
alongside a global giant like BT.
“For Sedicii’s identity exchange concept to
succeed we need to work closely with the
most trusted names in the business, and there
are very few companies out there which come
close to the strength of reputation and brand
trust that BT has in the marketplace.”
We’re constantly looking for innovations that
use ICT and communication technologies
to tackle current and emerging social
challenges. And you’ll probably hear about
those new innovations on these pages, first.
Full speed ahead after fibre first
Self-funded fibre broadband
has helped lots of people in rural
and remote areas get a superfast
broadband connection. However,
they’re now not the only people to
benefit; more than 60 businesses,
old and new, are currently reaping
the rewards of our superfast fibre in
a Cambridgeshire business park.
Lancaster Way Business Park has attracted
an impressive and growing number of
businesses. The owners, Grovemere
Property, recognise that high-quality, highspeed connections are a must when you’re
looking to grow your business. With that
in mind, they’ve made Lancaster Way the
first business park in the UK to fund its own
fibre broadband cabinet. Lancaster Way is
flourishing. In fact, a flexible high-quality
employment space will soon be added, and
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Grovemere expect the built-in superfast
broadband services will provide a further
boost to the tenants.
Harvey Bibby, Grovemere Property’s
Marketing and Development Director
explains: “We know that the best
connections attract the best new companies,
and our existing tenants were already eager
for superfast broadband services. When
we found out that our business park wasn’t
included in the Cambridgeshire rollout
programme, we decided we had to make it
happen for ourselves.”
Grovemere spoke directly with residents and
created a detailed picture of their needs with
our Regional Partnership Director for the
East of England, Annette Thorpe.
“It was a very good-team work approach
from both the BT organisation and the
Grovemere team on the ground, with the
support of businesses who wanted it to
happen”, said Annette.
Lancaster Way tenants now get
download speeds of just under 60
Mbps and upload speeds of around 20
Mbps. It’s a dramatic change to the
service and tenants are delighted.
Lloyd Townsend, MD of ISON Distribution
Ltd commented, “Access to high
speed broadband is becoming more
and more important to us as we send
high quality images and video back
and forwards around the world.”
Harvey Bibby is equally as happy with the
outcome. “We have 90 acres of development
land and we can design and build bespoke
facilities that are superfast broadbandenabled. Businesses on the park are already
operating more effectively and more
productively, so it is a win-win having
brought fibre optic onto the estate.”
For this and other case studies visit
http://www.btplc.com/Thegroup/
BTUKandWorldwide/BTRegions/England/
Englishregions.htm.
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BT’s 2020 Vision
Our ‘Better Future’ vision has
been unveiled in our annual
sustainability report. It’s a new
strategy that’ll have a positive
impact on society – using the power
of communication to improve
lives and ways of doing business.
We’ve already invested £27 million into
being a responsible and sustainable business
in 2012/13. This went into three main
areas, each with a goal we hope to realise by
the end of 2020. It’s also part of our drive
towards profitable revenue growth and goes
beyond just reaching sustainable practices in
our own operations. It’ll recognise and utilise
the broader value we can give society too.
The ‘Connected Society’ portion of the
strategy looks to improve global societies
through digital connections. And if more
than nine out of ten people in the UK have
access to fibre-based products and services
by 2020, then we’ll have achieved our goal.
Our investments have rocket-launched the
rollout of UK fibre broadband to around 19
million premises.
The next segment of the strategy is ‘Net
Good’. This uses our products and services
to help society live within the limits of
the planet’s ever-dwindling resources.
And it’s all centred around a 2020 goal to
help customers reduce carbon emissions
by at least three times our end-to-end
carbon impact. We’ve already achieved
our target of hitting an 80% reduction
in UK carbon emissions – three years
ahead of schedule. And despite increased
business volumes, we reduced our energy
consumption in 2012/13 by 3.3%,
saving a mammoth £33m annually.
The final ‘Better Future’ proposition is
‘Improving Lives’. As the title suggests, it’s
about using our skills and technology to
change hundreds of millions of lives around
the globe for the better. The aim is to raise
£1bn for good causes. An ambitious goal
for 2020; but last year alone we raised £59
million. This included over £25m through
BT MyDonate’s fundraising, telethons and
appeals; £2.9m through payroll giving; and
volunteering projects worth around £13m.
The BT Better Future Report 2013 is
available to download at www.btplc.com/
betterfuture.
Putting wind in our UK operations’ sails
We’ve just signed three deals
that’ll provide 100 Megawatts
(MW) of renewable wind
energy to our UK operations.
The long-term Power Purchase Agreements
(PPAs) are worth £440 million. And the
energy will come from the 48-turbine
Fallago Rig wind farm 35km southeast of
Edinburgh, Lancashire’s new Heysham South
Wind Farm, and the nine-turbine Mynydd
Bwllfa Wind farm in South Wales.
Effectively, we’ve purchased 50 per cent of
the Fallago Rig’s output – enough to match
our Scottish operations’ power consumption
– in a deal worth around £300 million over
the next two decades. The 15-year, £100
million Mynydd Bwllfa agreement will
provide enough electricity for 50 per cent
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of our Welsh demand. And the 15-year deal
with the new Heysham South Wind Farm in
Lancashire is worth around £40 million.
‘New to the Planet’ agreements in Wales and
Lancashire underpinning the construction of
these two new wind farms.
It’s an important investment as we’re one
of the UK’s major electricity consumers –
and used around 2 Terawatt hours (TWh)
in 2013/14. However, we’ve now reduced
the amount of energy we need for five
consecutive years, which has saved us more
than £131 million.
“At BT, we’re as focused on cutting our own
carbon emissions as we are to providing
products and services that help everyone live
within the planet’s resources. We’ve reduced
carbon emissions from our own operations
by 25.5 per cent globally during 2013/14.
Rob Williams, our Head of Energy Supply,
said: “These large-scale, long-term
agreements are a vote of confidence in
UK renewable energy and support BT’s
continued commitment to securing all its
electricity from renewable sources.
“They not only give us long-term price
certainty; but enable us to support local
economies in which we operate, with the
“These three agreements reinforce our
commitment to make a positive contribution
to society and the environment.”
Our Better Future Report for 2013/14
demonstrates our extensive work to put
responsible and sustainable business at the
heart of our operations. These three deals
are a big step in the right direction.
For further information visit www.bt.com/
betterfuturereport.
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Helping Internet Security ‘click’ with everyone
The Right Click: Internet Safety
Matters programme was launched
at the BT Tower in London,
marking the beginning of our
relationship with UNICEF UK, the
UK arm of the world’s leading
children’s organisation. The
partnership will focus on helping
parents and children protect
themselves online.
Over the course of three years, we’ll deliver
‘train the teachers’ sessions and workshops
for parents and children filled with practical
ideas that’ll help them to be safe online.
We’ll also get involved with UNICEF UK’s
Rights Respecting Schools programme,
expanding it into disadvantaged areas
across the country.
Before the launch, we conducted research
that revealed 52% of parents with school
children aged 4– 6 felt they didn’t have
enough support, or weren’t sure they have
enough support, when it came to talking to
their children about online safety. What’s
more, a further 21% lacked the confidence
to start the conversation with their children
in the first place. No surprise, then, that
75% of parents would take further support
from their child’s school if it were offered.
In practical terms, we’ve promised 600 BT
volunteers to offer technical training on
Internet safety to teachers and parents.
We’re proud to say they’ll be the first
corporate volunteers UNICEF UK has
teamed with – a decision they took after we
inspired them with our own know-how.
During the first year, we aim to help
children in 100 schools protect themselves
online and develop their potential using
digital channels. But that’s just the
beginning. Over the three years, we hope
to eventually help and train a total of 600
schools, reaching around 21,000 parents
and children. And once the teachers have
been fully trained to deliver our workshops
independently, we hope our combined
efforts will reach around 35,000 children
and parents.
Hand-in-hand with UNICEF UK – on and
offline – we’re supporting the wellbeing
of future generations. And we’re really
excited at the prospect of combining our
recognised track records to reach more
school children and teachers in some of the
UK’s most deprived areas.
Expanding our engineer force in the South East
As more people rely on the internet,
their expectations rise. That’s
why we’re hiring new Openreach
engineers in the South East, and
giving an extra boost to our UK fibre
broadband rollout.
Openreach, has already made fibre
broadband available to more than 19 million
UK homes and businesses – that’s two-thirds
of the UK – including over three million in
the South East alone.
With plans to create up to 250 new
engineering jobs in locations such as
Brighton, Portsmouth, Tunbridge Wells,
Canterbury, Ashford and Sevenoaks;
our recruitment drive aims to improve
customer services, as engineers will
install new lines and fix faults quicker
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than ever and we have had an amazing
response with over 12000 applications
across the UK in the first five days.
Nationally, we expect to recruit 1,600
engineers, many of which we expect
to welcome from the UK Armed Forces
– we’ve worked with the Civilian Work
Attachment scheme for some time,
helping ex-service-men and women
back into civilian life. But we’re also
particularly interested in encouraging
women into the world of engineering.
Prime Minister, David Cameron, said:
“Supporting business, creating jobs and
providing a better future for hardworking
people is a crucial part of our long-term
economic plan. So I‘m delighted that BT is
launching this major recruitment drive for
1,600 engineers across the UK, providing
financial security for families and delivering
a world class infrastructure for Britain.”
Dave Axam, our South East Regional
Director, said: “BT is leading the economic
recovery of the South East as one of the
region’s largest investors. Not only are we
building a superfast broadband network,
which is giving a major boost to the region’s
households and businesses, we are creating
highly skilled local jobs offering exciting
careers, such as those announced today.
Working with our partners in the public
sector we are determined to ensure that the
South East is in the best position possible
to take full advantage of the superfast
broadband revolution. The region should be
really positive about its future. Exciting times
lie ahead for both BT and the South East. The
opportunities for businesses to grow and for
households to benefit from enhanced online
learning and entertainment are immense.”
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Wi-Fi has lift off at Brize Norton
Continuing our longstanding
relationship with the UK Armed
Forces – we’ve provided a major
communications boost for the UK’s
busiest military base.
RAF Brize Norton has become the first in
England to land a new high-speed wireless
network – the largest of its kind at an
MOD site.
We know how important it is for servicemen
and women to enjoy a reliable, high-speed
connection when they’re contacting family
members. This military-owned network
cost around £885,000 to install and
will provide enough bandwidth for the
6,000 people based at RAF Brize Norton
to communicate at the same time.
For the next five years, we’ll be providing
access to the WiFi network in the main airport
terminal and Gateway House. Around 600
Wireless Access Points (WAPs) have been
installed across the vast site. They all connect
to one of 57 main wireless control points,
creating a truly comprehensive network.
Covering permanent accommodation blocks
and communal areas across the station,
it’ll be free for our users, and to a number
of monthly pay-as-you-go customers.
He added: “Supporting our servicemen and
women and their families by bringing wi-fi
access to RAF Brize Norton is something we’re
really proud to be doing.”
Squadron Leader David Riley said: “Whatever
we can do to make our servicemen and
women feel more comfortable and valued is
vitally important to us. Providing WiFi access
is certainly going to improve the quality of life
for everyone at RAF Brize Norton.”
Peter Cowen, BT’s Regional Partnership
Director for Oxfordshire and the South East,
believes staying connected is important if
you’re returning from or going on tour with
the armed forces.
Bill Holford, BT Gobal Services, with Group
Captain Stephen Lushington, station commander
RAF Brize Norton and some of his team.
Better Connected West Sussex – leaping into the next phase
We’ve given 5,000 homes and
businesses access to better, faster
broadband – part of our initative
with West Sussex County Council
to tie in with the government’s
Broadband Delivery UK.
This means high-speed fibre broadband is
now available in the region. Great news for
internet service providers in West Sussex
who’ve had over 40 new green cabinets
connected in areas such as Ashington,
Billingshurst, Bosham, Fittleworth, Graffham,
Petworth, Pulborough, Selsey, Sidlesham,
Storrington and West Chiltington.
And the engineering won’t stop there. After
completed surveys of exchange areas ahead
of schedule, we’re pushing on with more
exchange areas included in phase two. So if
you’re in Birdham, Bracklesham Bay, Burgess
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Hill, Chichester, Crawley, Eastergate or
Haywards Heath – stay tuned.
Lionel Barnard, Cabinet Member for
Residents’ Services at West Sussex County
Council said: “Our exciting project to bring
better, faster broadband to the majority of
the county is now gaining real momentum.
We‘re delighted that the first 5,000 premises
to be able to be connected to high-speed
broadband enabled by the Better Connected
project can now access the technology.”
Bill Murphy, our Managing Director of Next
Generation Access, said: “This is great news
for West Sussex. Faster broadband will help
local businesses grow, attracting inward
investment and boosting the local economy.
Fibre broadband is also a huge boost for local
households whether they use the internet for
on-line training and development, shopping or
entertainment.”
Ed Vaizey, Communications Minister, said:
“This fantastic news marks the next stage of
a remarkable transformation of broadband
in West Sussex and we’re on track to deliver
access to superfast speeds to 44,000
homes and businesses by spring 2016.
We understand how important access to
superfast broadband is – the UK already
does more business online than any other
European country, and the widespread
access to superfast broadband that this
scheme will deliver will provide a tremendous
boost to the West Sussex economy.”
The Better Connected West Sussex project
will provide more than 44,000 homes and
businesses with fibre broadband by spring
2016. We’re also looking into using alternative
methods such as fibre to the premise, (FTTP)
broadband at exchanges in Ashington,
Billingshurst, Petworth and Pulborough. It’s
another big step towards our goal of providing
more than 300,000 homes and business access
to high-speed technology across the region.
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New BT Regional Director pledges “huge” boost for the South East
The new regional director for BT
in the South East has pledged
the company will make “a huge
contribution” to the future success
of the region.
Business development director Dave Axam,
49, will be leading the BT South East
regional board and directing BT’s activities
to ensure the company remains one of the
region’s leading investors and employers.
Among the company’s achievements in the
South East is the creation of a high-speed
fibre broadband network already available
to more than 3 million homes and businesses
which is still growing rapidly.
Axam said: “We have a huge contribution to
make to the region. BT has made a multimillion pound commercial investment in
fibre broadband and has already brought
high-speed internet access to more than 3
million South East homes and businesses.
“And there’s a lot more to come. Working
with our partners in fibre broadband across
the region, we’re going much further and
making this exciting technology available to
even more communities.
“As the South East Regional director,
I’m determined to help everyone in
our region enjoy the benefits of faster
broadband speeds. Faster broadband will
help local businesses grow, attracting
inward investment and boosting the local
economy, and offer new training and leisure
opportunities for households.
“BT is also a major employer in the region –
employing more than 10,000 local people
and boosting the area’s economy by millions
of pounds every year.”
Axam added: “BT also has a long history
of supporting worthy causes. Last year
we helped South East communities by
investing £13m in charity and voluntary
programmes spread around the region.
This year, BT also announced that it
intends to recruit 250 more engineers
in the South East and to create 40 new
places for apprentices and graduates.
Axam started as a BT transmission engineer
more than 30 years ago and has had a
varied career working in sales, product
development and as a former director
of transformation for BT Design. He’s
particularly passionate about improving
education and is the Chair of Governors at
Ash Manor secondary school in Ash, Surrey
with over one thousand pupils.
He’s keen to combine his knowledge of
business and technology to benefit the
South East, where he lives with his wife and
three children.
Isle of Wight – diving head-first into superfast fibre broadband
Get ready Isle of Wight – highspeed fibre broadband has landed.
That’s great news for homes and
businesses in the rural areas of
Shalfleet, Gurnard, Whippingham,
Brighstone, Shorwell and Merstone.
They’ll be the first to benefit from the
upgraded network. That’s some 20,000
premises across the island accessing fast
fibre broadband by autumn 2015.
This is all thanks to our multi-million pound
partnership with the Isle of Wight Council,
investing £2.4m into the project, matching
the funding given by the government’s
Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) programme.
Bill Murphy, our Managing Director of
Next Generation Access, said: “This is
great news for the Isle of Wight. BT has
committed £2.7m to build and operate the
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network across the Isle of Wight for the
lifetime of the contract. This announcement
builds on BT’s commercial investment,
which has already made fibre broadband
available to around 49,000 premises,
mainly in the Island’s towns. Faster
broadband will also help local businesses
grow, attracting inward investment
and boosting the local economy.”
A better connected Isle of Wight has a
multitude of benefits. Technology will
improve online experiences for those using
the internet at home, especially people
who use multiple devices at the same time.
And local businesses will feel a boost too,
as connectivity gives them the power to be
more competitive and efficient.
Councillor Shirley Smart, Isle of Wight
Council Executive member for economy
and tourism, said: “This is an important
investment for the council in supporting the
Island’s connectivity to the mainland and
indeed the world and as a springboard from
which the Island’s economy can grow.
“Homes and businesses in some of our
towns are already seeing the benefits
of superfast broadband and we’re
delighted that work’s starting to connect
the largely rural parts of the Island.”
Councillor Shirley Smart inspects one of the
new cabinets with Peter Cowen, BT Regional
Partnership Director.
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Burghfield is racing ahead
Burghfield and Burghfield Common
are under starter’s orders to become
the first West Berkshire communities
to be supported by the Superfast
Berkshire project.
Broadband speeds of up to 80 Mbps
are now available to 2,500 properties
in the two villages; 500 are due to the
Superfast Berkshire project and 2,000
to our own commercial roll-out. The
investment will offer local businesses,
community and voluntary groups, and
individual households all the online
benefits fast broadband can bring.
To celebrate its arrival, dignitaries from
West Berkshire Council and BT visited the
first fibre broadband cabinet in the village.
Members of the community watched
children from Mrs. Bland’s infant school in
Burghfield Common take part in a ‘superfast’
sprint race at Burghfield recreation ground.
Superfast Berkshire is a partnership
between the six Berkshire unitary councils,
the Local Enterprise Partnership, BT and
the government’s Broadband Delivery UK
(BDUK) scheme. It’s so that 91 per cent of
Berkshire homes and businesses have access
by September 2015.
Paul Baird, Director at Local Berkshire
firm Pink Tomato, said: “Previously our
broadband service was only giving us a
speed of around 1Mbps. Now we have
superfast broadband installed, we used
it to deliver a high definition video file to
a client in the USA. What would before
have taken hours, sometimes overnight,
now only takes a matter of minutes. We
supplied a client with over 2GB of video
within an hour of our superfast broadband
being turned on in our premises. Frankly,
it’s a real game changer to our business.”
Bill Murphy, our Managing Director, Next
Generation Access, said: “This investment
in fibre broadband will boost the local
economy and help to create and protect
local jobs across the whole of Berkshire,
including rural communities like Burghfield
Common. It’ll be of enormous benefit to
local businesses which can use the faster
speeds to improve their competitiveness
both within the UK and abroad.”
The high-speed service will provide a
major boost for local firms, helping them
attract new business and opening the
door to new ways of flexible working.
Local residents will benefit from better
entertainment and online learning
opportunities. It’ll improve the way
community groups promote, manage and
engage with local people about their work.
School children race to mark the arrival of
high-speed broadband in their community.
Kent smashes through half a million fibre milestone
Kent’s the latest county to benefit
from our nationwide broadband
expansion. High-speed fibre
broadband is now available to more
than 550,000 Kent homes and
businesses – that’s around twothirds of premises.
It’s part of our £2.5bn commercial roll-out
of fibre broadband across the UK. And this
number is set to rise.The roll-out is pushing
on at a rapid pace to places such as Ashford,
Maidstone, Folkestone, Broadstairs, Dartford,
Thanet, Gillingham, Sittingbourne, Ramsgate,
Gravesend and Tunbridge Wells.
Peter Cowen, our Regional Partnership
intouch South East | Summer 2014
Director for the South East, said: “Our fibre
network is expanding rapidly across the South
East, bringing a boost for local economies
wherever it goes. Research suggests that
within 15 years fibre broadband could bolster
the economy of a typical town by £143m
and create 225 new jobs, 140 new start-up
businesses and 1,000 more homeworkers.
As millions of households and businesses
have already discovered, fibre broadband
opens up a whole new world to internet users.
The arrival of fibre in more parts of Kent can
really help local firms in these economically
challenging times, opening up new ways of
working and speeding up vital operations,
such as file and data transfers, conferencing
and computer back-up, all of which may also
help cut costs.”
Our open fibre network currently passes
more than 19 million homes and businesses.
This means around two-thirds of UK
premises can order much faster broadband
from a wide variety of internet service
providers. On top of this, we’ve announced
plans to invest a further £50m into our
commercial fibre broadband programme
over the next three years. The money will
benefit more than 30 cities, helping to
make high speed broadband available to
more than 400,000 additional premises.
In total, we’re spending more than £3bn on
deploying fibre broadband across the country.
This includes £2.5bn on our commercial
fibre footprint and further funds that go
towards rural fibre broadband projects.
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