Cornwall gets first taste of BT super-fast broadband
The 50 first customers get the new service
Super-fast broadband officially hit Cornwall today, when the first 50 customers were connected to the new BT network.
Funded by the EU, BT and Cornwall Council Superfast Cornwall is a £132m network, which has seen 150km of optical fibre cable installed in the county. It currently delivers speeds of up to 40Mbit/s download and 10Mbit/s upload, although extending fibre to the home could see download speeds increased to 100Mbit/s.
The network is currently available to more than 1,000 home and businesses in the Chiverton Cross and Chacewater areas, but by March 31st it will also be available to residents of St Agnes, St Day, Portreath, Devoran, Leedstown, Stenalees and Par.
This is only the pilot scheme, with further investment and optical fibre cabling due to be pushed out to South East Cornwall, while by 2014 80 per cent of homes and businesses will be connected. It will make Cornwall one of the best connected areas in the country, with the aim of attracting new businesses.
“This significant investment is aimed at placing Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly at the forefront of global digital communication and business. High speed broadband is an essential tool to further our economic ambitions,” said Carleen Kelemen, director of the Convergence Partnership Office for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.
Impressively, the network has gone live just six months after the initial investment, making this one of the fastest roll-outs of new technology (appropriate, we think you’ll agree, for super-fast broadband).
BT has warned that most homes in the pilot area will be able to get the new service, but some may not be able to do so. Those that can’t get the service will soon be able to get faster broadband speeds through a range of new technologies, including wireless, satellite broadband, advanced copper and further extensions of the network. Details of the full roll-out will be announced in May.