2007, New National Broadband Network Complete
By 2007, BT had hit an important milestone.
Not only had 18,000 NHS sites been connected to the broadband network it had been asked to build in 2003, it’d all been done ahead of schedule.
More than a million NHS staff and almost all hospitals and GPs have access to the network, giving them vital medical information at their fingertips.
BT has since upgraded the network to allow NHS sites to make cheap telephone calls over it and also to mobile phones.
All of this is being delivered at just 40% of the cost of the old network, and has saved the NHS nearly £200 million so far, with more than £90 million more savings predicted every year.
