New project aims to deliver superfast broadband to wide swathe of West Midlands
A £14.57m project to transform broadband speeds for businesses and homes across Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire has been announced.
CSW Broadband, a partnership of eight local authorities project partners has agreed a deal with BT to help deliver superfast fibre broadband to around 91% of premises by Spring 2016.
The partners are Warwickshire County Council (lead partner), Coventry City Council, Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council, North Warwickshire Borough Council, Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council, Rugby Borough Council, Warwick District Council and Stratford District Council.
It is intended the project will build on BT’s investment in fibre across the area. The company has already started to bring faster fibre broadband to more than 1.7m homes and businesses across the counties of the West Midlands as part of its UK-wide £2.5bn fibre programme which will be completed by the end of Spring 2014.
As a result of the new partnership, around a further 40,000 premises should have access to broadband speeds of 24Mbps and above by the end of the project.
On completion of the rollout, the aim is for all premises within Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire to receive a minimum of 2Mbps but with a vast majority achieving higher speeds well in excess of this.
Following initial planning and survey, the CSW Broadband Project should be in a position to connect the first premises in early 2014.
Warwickshire County Council’s deputy leader, Cllr Alan Cockburn, said: “This is a major landmark in securing the future competitiveness of our area. We have been working for a long time to get to this stage and, thanks to the information provided to the team by our local broadband champions and by residents and communities we have been able to negotiate the best possible deal.”
