Lancashire in line for FTTC technology under government scheme
Lancashire in line for FTTC technology under government scheme
Lancashire will be the first UK county to receive superfast broadband funding and investment under the government’s £62.5 million Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) programme.
Under the government’s tie-in with BT, the telecoms giant will install fibre networks in the region, delivering the fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) technology to 97 per cent of Lancashire residents by the end of 2014.
The roll-out will be welcomed by the people and businesses of Lancashire, 15 per cent of whom currently receive internet speeds of just 2Mbps, according to research from Ofcom. With the addition of FTTC technology, they should soon enjoy speeds of around 80Mbps.
Although this is a vast improvement, it is still not as fast as the broadband offered through BT’s fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) technology, which could be being rolled out in a few local areas, but BT is not revealing the extent of this. Despite this news, BT insists that the roll-out of FTTC will help the region by creating some 2,500 jobs.
Lancashire County Council’s leader, Geoff Driver, stated, “Today our ambition to provide Lancashire's citizens and business with a world-class broadband service turns into a reality.
"It is important that as many areas as possible benefit, and that is why we have ensured that even the more remote areas of the county see a significant improvement in their speeds."
Meanwhile, the government sponsored BT roll-out could overlap with Lancashire’s own community project to help people get connected to faster broadband. The B4RN project intends to delivery FTTP services to some 1,500 homes across eight of Lancashire’s parishes. Those involved with the community projects are now calling for BT to clarify the level of services being offered and which local areas might be in line for FTTP services from BT, to avoid overlap.
hSo provides managed networks designed for business. To get an instant cost for a leased line at your location, visit our online leased line price checker.
