South Gloucestershire Council

Published: 31/03/2014

New green street cabinets which serve around 2,200 residential and business premises in Wick, Pucklechurch, Badminton, Tormarton, Barrs Court and Warmley are live and ready for service. The project is on track to enable more than 5,000 premises in South Gloucestershire to connect by the summer.

To order the new fibre service, residents and businesses need to contact an ISP of their choice and select a suitable broadband package. Further details are on our website at www.southglos.gov.uk/howtoorder

As well as the first communities to ‘go live’, we can also announce today that Severn Beach is the next area to benefit from the rollout of superfast broadband. Residents and businesses in this part of the district will be able to order the service direct from an ISP of their choice in the autumn.

The £35.6 million Great Western Broadband (GWB) project is a partnership between South Gloucestershire Council, Wiltshire Council and BT. The GWB project recently benefitted from funding from the Government’s Superfast Britain programme which is rolling out superfast broadband to more challenging areas that fall outside the private sector’s commercial plans. Nationally, the Government has set a target to achieve 95 per cent broadband coverage by 2017. The councils received a £4.97 million boost from the Government’s Superfast Extension Programme following an overall £250 million funding package to extend broadband coverage.

Cllr John Goddard, Chair of Resources Sub Committee, said: “Our superfast broadband project is celebrating two great milestones today. While residents and businesses in Severn Beach are the latest to be announced as part of the rollout, our first communities in Wick, Pucklechurch, Badminton, Tormarton, Barrs Court and Warmley are now able to order the service from an ISP of their choice.

“Broadband remains a key priority for South Gloucestershire Council; having already invested over £2 million into this complex infrastructure project we have just agreed a further £350,000 of funding to help extend the coverage.”

South Gloucestershire Council is also working with Business West to promote the benefits of superfast broadband to businesses in the district. South Gloucestershire companies will be at Filton BAWA Club tomorrow (Tuesday 1 April, from 8.30am) for a practical session on how to make the most out of superfast broadband. To book a place visit www.southglos.gov.uk/broadband4business

Other events in the programme took place at the Science Park in Emersons Green and the Armadillo in Yate.