Shropshire Star

More than 43,000 homes in Shropshire can now connect to superfast broadband

More than 43,000 homes in Shropshire can now superfast broadband, new figures have revealed.

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The rollout of superfast broadband – offering connection speeds greater than 24Mbps, enough for people to watch or download high definition films in seconds – is bringing improved internet services to areas not covered by commercial networks, according to officials at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Figures out today show more than three million homes and businesses across Britain have been given an improved service as part of the rollout by Broadband Delivery UK, including 220,624 in the West Midlands region.

It comes after the recent announcement that BT will make up to £129 million available to extend the Government-led rollout of superfast broadband across the country. The additional funding will be made available to local authorities to reinvest the money in providing further superfast broadband coverage to even more homes and businesses, and much earlier than originally planned.

In Shropshire, the project is being co-ordinated by the Connecting Shropshire team, which started work installing fibre-optic cables to take broadband to some more remote areas about 18 months ago.

In Shropshire, 43,334 homes and businesses can potentially access superfast broadband after being connected to the fibre network. Neighbouring counties have also received significant support – in Staffordshire the figure is 54,767, in Worcestershire 35,883 homes and businesses have been reached, and in Hereford and Gloucestershire 46,985 premises have received an upgrade.

Culture Secretary John Whittingdale said: "Our rollout of superfast broadband is transforming lives up and down the UK as every day thousands more homes and businesses are gaining access to superfast speeds.

"It's fantastic to see that the rollout of superfast broadband in West Midlands is now delivering for customers and for the taxpayer.

"The levels of people taking up superfast broadband in areas where we invested public money are beyond our expectations, and BT is now reimbursing the public purse to deliver further coverage across the UK."

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