Chance to better connect communities

As BT’s regional director for the West Midlands, I welcome the Government’s pledge to bring faster broadband to rural areas.

BT has announced plans to invest £2.5 billion in rolling out super-fast, fibre-based broadband to two thirds of the UK on its own, but this isn’t the full extent of our ambition. We want to work with public sector bodies and business organisations to reach the final third, which is mainly made up of rural, less populated areas where the engineering challenges and costs are considerably greater.

I believe that BT is well placed to play a key role in the development of Warwickshire’s communications, based on our experience in upgrading all our exchanges in the county with first generation broadband and rolling out networks across the county that are both open to others and sustainable.

This experience and our proven partnership approach, which is already bringing super-fast broadband to rural areas such as Cornwall and Northern Ireland, are important factors if we are all to benefit from competition and the resulting low prices.

My regional board colleagues and I look forward to working with local communities and organisations, developing proposals to support the county vision for faster broadband services to our rural areas. - John Dovey, BT West Midlands regional director.