Suffolk gets set for fibre

More than nine in 10 homes and businesses in Suffolk are set to have access to fibre broadband by the end of 2015 following an agreement between the county council and BT.

Suffolk County Council and BT signed the contract under the government’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) programme. This fired the starting pistol of a three-year project where both organisations will work together to help roll-out fibre across the county.

Homes and businesses that are harder to reach with a fixed fibre line will be connected using alternative broadband technologies.

The project will use public and private funds to deliver a fibre network to parts of the county not covered by commercial plans.

In a statement councillor Mark Bee, Suffolk County Council’s leader and chair of the Better Broadband for Suffolk programme broad, said: “Improving access to broadband is going to help Suffolk’s economy grow by as much as 20 per cent    and create up to 5000 new jobs. There’s a digital divide between Suffolk and the rest of the country but an even more acute disparity between urban and rural Suffolk.

“I’m delighted that we’ve come such a long way in such a short space of time. In the new year, the first properties are going to start benefiting from the programme and within three years, broadband access across Suffolk is going to be unrecognisable from what it is today,” he said.

Earlier, Norfolk County Council announced that it had chosen to work with BT roll-out fibre across the county.