Broadband News

Eight rural areas in East of England to get ADSL and SDSL

The East of England Development Agency has signed a deal with BT that will see broadband services being brought to eight exchanges areas that BT otherwise would not have enabled under its normal commercial rules. More details over at Egovmonitor.com.

The exchanges to be enabled will be Broadfield, Hertfordshire; Burnt Fen, Suffolk; Higham, Suffolk; Knarr Cross, Cambridgeshire; Brandon Creek, Norfolk; Nordelph, Norfolk; Linstead, Suffolk; and Six Mile Bottom in Cambridgeshire. The exchanges are to get ADSL, and additionally will also be enabled for SDSL thus benefiting businesses in the area. The work on the exchanges is slated to begin in the next few months and completed by the end of October 2005.

An interesting quote from Peter McCarthy-Ward of BT is shown below. This quote gives some idea of the costs to date for the UK roll-out of ADSL by BT, £1.5 billion.

"BT has already brought broadband to about 97% of people who live and work the East of England by upgrading more than 500 exchanges a part of its £1.5 billion UK wide investment programme. Our plans mean that we’ll take this to 99.9% per cent of people this summer as we upgrade other exchanges in the region.

And of course, this far sighted East of England Development Agency initiative, working with ADIT, will extend the benefits of broadband even further into these very rural communities that are served by the smallest exchanges. The next challenge for the East of England is to lead the nation in the practical use of broadband technologies. BT looks forward to supporting EEDA in realising its ICT strategy"

Peter McCarthy-Ward, BT Regional Director for the East of England

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