Superfast broadband gives boost to rural Dorset village

Moor Crichel has become the latest Dorset village to access superfast fibre broadband, bringing the county one step closer to its target of connecting 90,000 homes and businesses by the end of 2017.

The fibre broadband cabinet was installed in the rural village in December, providing residents with speeds of up to 38Mbps in time for Christmas.

It is hoped the superfast speeds will give a major boost to local businesses, many of which assumed the rural community would miss out on the opportunity to access faster speeds.

Spanish teacher Becka Soliveres, who conducts language lessons over Skype, was particularly excited by the installation of the fibre broadband cabinet - the 400th to be installed in the county.

“I use Skype to teach Spanish and the broadband can freeze three or four times in an hour during a lesson. I thought it was inevitable for such a rural area.

"We keep hearing on the TV that superfast broadband won’t reach rural communities, so I was so excited and relieved I could get fibre broadband here. I won’t have to keep apologising for my poor broadband speed to my students.”

Having already brought superfast broadband to over 72,000 Dorset households and businesses, the Superfast Broadband partnership is currently 80 per cent of the way to achieving its target of connecting 90,000 Dorset premises by the end of 2017.

Local county councillor Steve Butler said that installing the 400th cabinet in Dorset was a "great milestone", and hopes to see hundreds more homes and businesses gain access to superfast internet in 2016.

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(Image: Kings Sutton)