Around 15,000 more homes and businesses in Nottinghamshire will be able to get high-speed fibre broadband, following the announcement of a new £6.3 million deal – part funded by the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership – to extend one of the county’s most ambitious infrastructure projects.
The new deal, between Nottinghamshire County Council and BT, is an extension to the £20 million Better Broadband for Nottinghamshire (BBfN) contract, which first made faster fibre broadband available to homes and businesses in June 2014.
The first BBfN contract has already made fibre broadband available to more than 42,000 properties across 100 different towns, villages, industrial and residential areas. New communities are being connected at the rate of two a week. By the time the overall rollout is completed in Spring 2018, more than 80,000 properties will be covered by BBfN which – combined with the private sector’s commercial coverage in the county – means 97% of Nottinghamshire homes and businesses will have access to fibre broadband.
Simon Gray – Chief Executive of Nottingham Means Business, feels the benefit of increased business productivity thanks to the BBfN deal
Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK), the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership and BT are funding the latest £6.3 million BBfN contract. D2N2 – the Local Enterprise Partnership for Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire – is fully committed to the delivery of superfast broadband across its area, investing in it through its Local Growth Fund.
As with the initial contract, the extended programme is being rolled-out in areas which are not served by commercial providers such as BT or Virgin Media – giving homes and business access to fibre broadband for the first time. A second phase of contract two will see Nottinghamshire County Council and BDUK commit a further £1.3m to the programme, extending the reach of fibre broadband to a further 2,000 properties and bringing the total to 17,000. The extra funding has been earmarked to connect communities in the Bassetlaw and Newark and Sherwood districts, where fibre broadband availability is lowest in the county.
David Ralph, Chief Executive of the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership, said: “High speed broadband is a key tool in business operations. The extended rollout of high speed broadband will help businesses in the area connect, grow and create jobs.”
Councillor Diana Meale, Chair of Economic Development Committee at Nottinghamshire County Council, added: “Digital connectivity is vital to future economic prosperity and the success of our partnership with BDUK, D2N2 and BT is testament to our shared ambition to ensure Nottinghamshire businesses and communities realise the benefits of the digital age.”
Benefits of fibre broadband include faster download and upload speeds, the ability to access the internet via multiple devices without experiencing a slow connection, faster downloads of films and music, a better online gaming experience, improved file sharing for businesses, solutions based on Cloud computing and being able to work more flexibly.
Residents and businesses can find out more about the benefits of broadband and check if their property falls within the BBfN roll out areas at www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/broadband
For further information on this news story contact Sean Kirby, Communications Officer, on 0115 9578749 or email: sean.kirby@d2n2lep.org
