Home working in Worcester just got easier

Home working in Worcester just got easier

Those working from home in Worcester will be pleased to learn that their working day just got that bit easier – with the announcement of a multi-million pound investment in high speed broadband for the area.

Thousands of homes and businesses will benefit from the new fast connections, which come following much frustration over slow internet speeds from locals. Worcestershire County Council announced its £20 million Superfast Broadband project with BT earlier this week, and confirmed that it will be implemented across more than 90 per cent of homes and businesses across the county over the coming three years.

The new broadband will be capable of delivering speeds of up to 80mbps, which is an impressive ten times faster than the speed delivered by standard connections.

Simon Geraghty, deputy leader at Worcestershire County Council, said that the new broadband project was “a good deal” for taxpayers, who would be contributing £8.5 million to the total cost of the project. The rest of the project will be funded by the Government, which will invest £3.35 million and BT, which will invest the final £8.9 million.

“In challenging financial circumstances it is fair for people to say why are you investing in broadband and is this really a priority? We know it is a fairly rural county, but we need to compete - not just locally or nationally, but internationally. And making sure our infrastructure is good and we have got good quality broadband is a number one priority for us,” Councillor Geraghty told the Worcester Standard.

Ken Wigfield, regional chair of the Federation of Small Business, highlighted the benefits that super-fast broadband will have for small businesses and home workers across the county. “We know already businesses have left and refused to come to Worcestershire because of the lack of speed, but this investment should be able to capture those…I believe it would bring huge growth to individual businesses," he told the publication.

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