17
October
2017
|
13:55
Europe/Amsterdam

Openreach delivers a lesson in superfast broadband for East Lothian village

Summary
Villagers in an East Lothian village have signed a partnership with Openreach, Scotland’s digital network business, which will deliver superfast broadband to homes and businesses in the community, including the local primary school.

Villagers in an East Lothian village have signed a partnership with Openreach, Scotland’s digital network business, which will deliver superfast broadband to homes and businesses in the community, including the local primary school.

Openreach engineers will upgrade the local broadband network to provide superfast speeds to more than 100 households in Stenton. The new fibre network, when complete, will provide internet speeds up to 10 times faster than the community has access to today. Speeds of up to 80Mbps will be available from many service providers over Openreach’s open network.

Moya Ramsay, chair of Stenton Community Association, said: “People expect fast broadband nowadays and we’re pleased that our community will have some of the fastest broadband speeds available when the upgrade is complete next year. From working at home to the kids’ homework, we know this will be brilliant for our village.

“The backing of Openreach, together with the choice of many service providers over their network, helped to influence our decision. With the grant from Openreach providing 75% of the funding for the work, we’ve only had to find a small amount to fund this upgrade. We’re very grateful to Dunbar and East Linton Area Partnership who have agreed to give us a grant for the final amount we need.”

Ellen Seago, principal teacher at Stenton Primary School, said: “As tech literacy becomes an increasing part of the curriculum, knowing that the children will be able to access what they need at superfast speeds is fantastic. Whether it’s watching a live video from the International Space Station or looking up information for projects, the internet is an important tool in how children learn today.”

Robert Thorburn, digital partnership director for Openreach in Scotland, said: “We know how important fast internet is to communities. Whether it’s streaming TV in the home, doing homework online or downloading large files in the office, superfast broadband makes doing anything online faster. With a choice of many broadband providers and the variety of services and prices they offer, the Openreach network provides real choice. It’s great to know that when it goes live next year, this new internet connection will be helping to improve the quality of life for residents in Stenton.”

“I’d appeal to any community which isn’t part of any current fibre plans to get in touch with us to see what we can do for them.”

The grant from has been made possible thanks to a £2 million fund created by BT Group. It means communities can apply for a match-funded grant of up to £30,000 toward the cost of their new fibre infrastructure - as long as that new infrastructure also serves the local school which also doesn’t have a superfast connection.

Across the UK, more than 350 Community Fibre Partnership (CFP) contracts have been signed and more than 150 are now live.

More than nine out of ten premises in Scotland can access superfast broadband speeds. For more details on the roll-out visit openreach.co.uk/whereandwhen. People struggling with broadband speeds who are not included in a plan can visit communityfibre.openreach.co.uk to find how to help bring superfast broadband to their local area.