Suffolk broadband campaign takes leap forward
Friday, June 29, 2012
4:15 PM
Suffolk’s better broadband campaign reached a major milestone today as Suffolk County Council invited companies to bid for the contract worth more than £40 million.
British Telecom and Fujitsu now have until September 7 to make their case for winning the contract to create for Suffolk a broadband network fit for the twenty first century.
The aim of the programme is to extend access to broadband to the areas of the county which currently have slow speeds.
By 2015, more 90pc of premises in the county will be able to access superfast broadband. The remaining 10pc will have had a significant increase in available speed and reliability.
Suffolk County Council will hold a special cabinet meeting on September 20 where leaders of the county’s seven district and borough councils, Suffolk’s MPs and business and voluntary group representatives will be invited to discuss a recommendation on selecting a supplier. The contract will be awarded on 8 October 2012.
By the end of the year, the first businesses and homes should be connected.
Mark Bee, Suffolk County Council’s leader and chairman of the Better Broadband for Suffolk campaign, said: “This is a hugely significant milestone in the Better Broadband programme.
We’ve got the public funding in place, overwhelming public support behind us and now we’re one of the first four counties to actively go out to the market and invite bids.
“I’m thrilled by the progress we’ve made and look forward to seeing the results of all the hard work begin to materialise in the coming months.”
The latest milestone comes after an overwhelmingly positive response from more than 12,000 Suffolk businesses and residents. This smashed the 10,000 target set by Mr Bee.
Suffolk County Council has pledged £10 million towards the total cost of the project. The government is investing £11.6 million.
The public funding will be matched by an equal amount of private funding from the successful broadband supplier.
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4 comments
AJC is absolutely right. Lowestoft will be unable to attract the important creative industries as well as manufacturing and services without proper broadband. Surely decent broadband is just another utility these days - like mains water or electricity. There shouldn't be a need to campaign for it, or register one's support (although I did!). There are many everyday tasks which can be done only on line now. Cable is the way to go in my experience.
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point du jour
Saturday, June 30, 2012
RickWaghorn - unfortunately that is about the level of interest or involvement in many things in Suffolk, however well or badly the case is made or the message sold. It always seems that Suffolk people want someone else to do the "heavy lifting" for them; and I speak as an old-ish Suffolk chap.
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T Doff
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Lowestoft has always been the last to get anything, so on that I say we will be the 10pc that will have to wait till 2015 to get the slightly faster speeds then we have now, because they are running out of money to get it to us. By then whilst everywhere else will have much faster speeds, we'll have 50mb speeds. Just like we are still waiting for cable in Lowestoft since 1997! It's no wonder no one wants to live here.
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AJC
Friday, June 29, 2012
According to a very cursory piece of research, the population of Suffolk in 2005 was 692,000. Of whom 12,000 business and residents backed the bid; 'smashing' the target of 10,000... It might be my sums, but Suffolk are marching forward with a mandate handed down by a bit less than 2% of the county's population...? A triumph for selling the message.
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RickWaghorn
Friday, June 29, 2012