£25m BT broadband deal for Shropshire

More than 130,000 premises in the county should have broadband speeds of up to 80Mbps by the summer of 2016.

A contract was being signed between the telecoms giant and Shropshire Council in Shrewsbury this morning.

Under the terms of the deal, high-speed fibre broadband is set to become available to 93 per cent of Shropshire homes and businesses within the next three years.

All premises will receive a minimum of 2 mega bits per second (Mbps) as a condition of the deal. According to Ofcom, the county's average downstream speed is currently 8.2Mbps whilst 17.1 per cent of premises receive less than 2Mbps.

At the moment, more than 70,000 properties in the county have no access to speeds of more than 24Mbps, with almost 4,000 unable to get speeds of even 2Mbps.

Officials from BT and Shropshire Council were at Shrewsbury Library today to sign the contract. The £24.64m deal will see BT contribute £8.6mtowards the roll-out, with £8.2m coming from Shropshire Council and a further £7.84mprovided through the Government's Broadband Delivery UK funds.

The move was welcomed today by Communications Minister Ed Vaizey, who said: "Shropshire is one of the most rural counties in England, but access to fast broadband speeds is just as important here as it is in major cities," he said. "This will deliver a tremendous boost to the local economy."

Bill Murphy, managing director of next generation access for BT, added: "This is fantastic news for Shropshire. As communications technologies evolve it is important that communities are able to evolve with them, which is fitting since Charles Darwin is surely Shropshire's most famous son."

George Candler, commissioning director for Shropshire Council, said: "We look forward to working with BT to ensure people start seeing the benefits of faster broadband even in the remote parts of our county."