Cotswolds internet speeds overtake cities after £10 million plan
Villages in the Cotswolds countryside are set to gain access to fast broadband services than many cities across the UK courtesy of a new £10 million plan.
Ultra-fast broadband of up to one gigabit per second will be delivered to Guiting Power, Chedworth, Whelford, Bibury and Icomb by 2017 after Gloucestershire County Council agreed to the plan. This will see these rural villages have access to faster internet connections than the majority of UK city centres.
According to Mark Aveline, who is a broadband campaigner in the area, the Cotswolds' broadband network will be "the envy of all". More than 6,000 premises - residential and commercial - stand to benefit from the multi-million pound investment, which will see broadband speeds increase by around 10 times.
The Cotswolds roll-out represents the second phase of the council's expansive 'Fastershire' project, which is aiming to deliver great connectivity across Gloucestershire and Herefordshire. BT is laying 2,500km of optical fibre cable in the two counties as part of the project with a view to supplying 90 per cent of homes and businesses in the region with superfast broadband by the end of 2016.
Geoffrey Clifton Brown, MP for the Cotswolds, said: "The announcement that 6,495 homes in some of the harder to reach areas of The Cotswolds will receive a good broadband service sounds like wonderful news.
"During the election I campaigned on the theme that I would work to deliver a good broadband service for most people in The Cotswolds. This announcement looks like it will go a long way to fulfil that pledge."
In the most recent Budget, Chancellor George Osborne promised broadband speeds of at least 100 megabits per second to nearly all homes. The government has committed to delivering superfast broadband to 95 per cent of the UK population by 2017, acknowledging how imperative fast internet is to businesses and homes.
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