Broadband deal to benefit county

As war veterans living at the historic home marked the anniversary of the D-Day Landings, Cllr Secombe announced details of the technological turning point and how the county will work in partnership with BT and seven other local authorities to provide the £14.57 million CSW Broadband service to 91 per cent of premises in Warwickshire, Coventry and Solihull by spring 2016.

The project will build on BT’s on-going commercial investment in fibre across the area, which already promises to bring faster fibre broadband to more than 1.7 million homes and businesses across the West Midlands by the end of Spring 2014 as part of its UK-wide £2.5 billion programme.

As a result of the partnership some 40,000 more homes and businesses should have access to broadband speeds of 24Mbps and above by 2016. On completion of the rollout, the aim is for all premises within Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire to receive a minimum of 2Mbps - but with a vast majority achieving speeds well in excess of this. According to Ofcom, Warwickshire’s average downstream speed is currently around 12Mbps whilst approximately 13 per cent of the population receive less than 2Mbps.