Businesses and households in the Marlborough’s rural hinterland have missed out on the rollout of a £35.6 million superfast broadband scheme.
Instead, Royal Wootton Bassett and neighbouring Purton, along with the Salisbury villages of Alderbury and Downton, will be the first to benefit from a multi-million pound partnership between Wiltshire Council, BT and South Gloucestershire Council, and will be able to order fibre broadband from spring 2014.
But the authority has promised that 91 per cent of premises in Wiltshire will be connected to superfast broadband of 24Mbps and above by the end of March 2016.
Once complete, nearly 1,500 kilometres of fibre cabling will be laid across the county, and more than 300 new fibre cabinets.
Although Marlborough’s exchange is earmarked for upgrade by the end of 2013, all of the exchanges around the town – Aldbourne, Avebury, Broad Hinton, Burbage, Chiseldon, Colingbourne Ducis, Great Bedwyn, Lockeridge, Ogbourne St George, Oxenwood, Pewsey, Ramsbury, Upavon, Woodborough – are currently listed as ‘not currently in rollout plans’.
At St John’s Academy in Marlborough, superfast broadband cannot come fast enough for its tech-savvy students.
The school has its own dedicated fibre optic broadband, but principal Patrick Hazlewood said improved connectivity would be advantageous for students.
“An increased broadband speed would have a significant impact on the students’ ability to access online resources to assist in homework, revision and research tasks.
“Currently students and staff are hindered by excessive waiting times when streaming or downloading digital content; the increase in speed would enable them to work more effectively and efficiently,” he told Marlborough News Online.
Businesses are also frustrated by slow broadband speeds. Tim Ashton, director of Marlborough-based web and video production company Mole Productions said: “As a digital media company we use a huge amount of bandwidth for uploading client videos and sharing large files.
“Having fibre broadband would make this process a lot easier and enable us to turnaround client work more quickly.”
This week’s announcement marks the beginning of the roll out of fibre broadband by the partnership. More than 10,000 homes and businesses in Wiltshire will be able to connect to fibre broadband by June 2014 under the project as it rolls out to other areas in the county.
The £35.6 million project is one of the first in the country to deliver broadband to communities and businesses thanks to a partnership between the two councils and BT, along with funding from the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) programme.
John Thomson, Wiltshire Council cabinet member for broadband, said: “Wiltshire Council has invested £15.5m into this project, so I am delighted we have reached another milestone to deliver this much needed service.
“These are just the first of many of our communities who will benefit from high speed broadband access. As well as communities, this will provide a huge boost to existing businesses in our county and attract those looking to move in.”
Bill Murphy, managing director next generation networks for BT Group, said:“ The arrival of high-speed fibre broadband will be a major step forward for these communities. Whatever you do online you can do it better with fibre broadband.
“The fact that rural communities, such as Royal Wootton Bassett, Purton, Alderbury and Downton will be among the first to benefit from this partnership demonstrates our collective determination to get this exciting technology to more challenging locations, which fall outside the private sector’s commercial plan.”
Communications minister Ed Vaizey said: “Today’s announcement is brilliant news for the people and businesses of Wiltshire. Widespread access to superfast broadband will provide a tremendous boost to the local economy and these plans will see 91 per cent of properties benefiting from all that superfast speeds have to offer.”
- This article and its headline were amended at 5pm on June 26 to reflect the fact that the Marlborough exchange is due to be upgraded independently to the Wiltshire Council initiative. Readers can check their exchange upgrade status at www.superfast-openreach.co.uk/where-and-when
