High-speed boost for around 380 homes and businesses in Cholmondeley thanks to Connecting Cheshire partnership
Around 380 households and businesses in the parish of Cholmondeley now have access to high-speed fibre broadband, thanks to Connecting Cheshire.Local MP, Antoinette Sandbach joined residents and local Wrenbury Councillor Stan Davies, to celebrate the latest fibre cabinet switch-on in Bickerton Road.
Four new roadside fibre cabinets have been installed by Openreach, the business responsible for the majority of the UK’s local phone and broadband network,in the area in total by Connecting Cheshire, a partnership between Cheshire West and Chester, Cheshire East, Halton and Warrington Borough Councils, BT and central Government with additional funding from the European Regional Development Fund.
Connecting Cheshire is managed by Cheshire East Council’s ‘arms-length’ Skills and Growth Company.
Antoinette Sandbach, MP for Eddisbury, said: “Residents in rural areas often feel that they are missing out on superfast so it is great to see this expansion of superfast in Cholmondeley. I look forward to BT reaching other rural areas in the constituency.”
Cllr George Hayes, chairman of the Skills and Growth Company, said: “I am delighted to see more rural areas being reached by the Connecting Cheshire project, to date we have reached over 96,000 premises with fibre; bringing superfast speeds to around 94% of homes and businesses.”
Matthew Hemmings, Openreach’s regional director for the North, said: “High speed fibre broadband helps to ensure that businesses thrive and don’t just survive, and it helps to keep communities connected. Whatever you do online you can do it better with fibre broadband.
“Across Cheshire, Openreach has made fibre available to tens of thousands of local households and businesses through its own commercial programme and its investment in Connecting Cheshire.
“People and businesses in Cheshire East are increasingly taking the great opportunities that this transforming technology offers and our engineers have worked closely with the local authority to make those opportunities as widely available as possible.”
To check availability in your area you can visit the Connecting Cheshire website and enter a postcode or a telephone number - www.connectingcheshire.org.uk/check-availability
Connection to fibre broadband does not happen automatically and people must contact their service provider – there are more than 140 of them offering fibre broadband services across the UK – to place an order.
Photo Caption
Tony Fennell, local business man, Cllr Stan Davies, Elisha Nicholls, Connecting Cheshire and Antoinette Sandbach MP.
Notes to Editors:
About Superfast Britain
Superfast Britain is a Government investment of £1.08bn in broadband and communication infrastructure across the UK. Run by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, this investment helps businesses to grow, creates jobs and will make Britain more competitive in the global race. The portfolio comprises three linked programmes:
● £780m to extend superfast broadband to 95 per cent of the UK by 2017;
● £150m to provide high speed broadband to businesses in 22 cities;
● £150m to improve quality and coverage of mobile phone and data network services.
Administered on behalf of Government by Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK), Superfast Britain is transforming Britain by promoting growth, enabling skills and learning, and improving quality of life. For further information: https://www.gov.uk/broadband-delivery-uk
About Connecting Cheshire
The Connecting Cheshire Partnership of four local authorities across Cheshire is made up of Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester, Halton and Warrington borough councils. The Partnership was established to deliver fibre broadband to areas hitherto outside the commercial deployment of fibre broadband. Our partnership with BT will see an additional 96,000 premises reached with fibre by summer 2018. For more information visit www.connectingcheshire.org.uk
About ERDF
The project is part financed by the North West Competitiveness Programme, European Regional Development Fund Programme 2007 to 2013. The Department for Communities and Local Government is the managing authority for the European Regional Development Fund Programme, which is one of the funds established by the European Commission to help local areas stimulate their economic development by investing in projects which will support local businesses and create jobs. For more information visit www.gov.uk/erdf-programmes-progress-and-achievements
About BT
BT’s purpose is to use the power of communications to make a better world. It is one of the world’s leading providers of communications services and solutions, serving customers in 180 countries. Its principal activities include the provision of networked IT services globally; local, national and international telecommunications services to its customers for use at home, at work and on the move; broadband, TV and internet products and services; and converged fixed-mobile products and services.
BT consists of six customer-facing lines of business: Consumer, EE, Business and Public Sector, Global Services, Wholesale and Ventures, and Openreach.
For the year ended 31 March 2017, BT Group’s reported revenue was £24,062m with reported profit before taxation of £2,354m.
British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group plc and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group. BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York.
For more information, visit www.btplc.com
About Openreach
Openreach is Britain’s digital network business. That means we connect homes, mobile phone masts, schools, shops, banks, hospitals, libraries, broadcasters, governments and businesses – large and small – to the world. It’s our mission to build the best possible network with the highest quality service, and make sure that everyone in Britain can be connected.
Our 30,400 people work on behalf of more than 580 communications providers like Sky, Talk Talk, Vodafone, Plusnet, EE and BT. Our fibre broadband network is the biggest in the UK, covering more than 26.8 million premises. And our technology is the basis of Britain’s thriving digital economy, which is the largest in the G20 as a proportion of GDP.
We’re working hard to give people the broadband speeds they need at work and at home. Over the last decade, we’ve invested more than £11bn into our network. And we now manage more than 158 million kilometres of cable stretching from Scotland to Cornwall, and from Wales to the east coast. But we’re not stopping there – we’re making superfast broadband speeds available to thousands more homes and businesses every week.
We’re an independently governed business within the BT Group. Our business is highly regulated, and more than 90 per cent of our revenue comes from services that are regulated by Ofcom. Any company can access our products under the same prices, terms and conditions.
In the year ending 31 March 2017, we reported revenues of £5.1bn.
To find out more about us and what we do, go toopenreach.co.uk.
