High speed broadband for half a million Staffordshire homes and businesses
Nearly 500,000 homes and businesses across Staffordshire will have high speed broadband within two years, it has been revealed.
Some 12,000 properties have been switched on to the service since April - and now bosses have revealed thousands more will benefit as £15 million is ploughed into the project.
Burntwood, Cannock and Stafford are among the first areas to get the new 24 megabits per second service.
By 2016 some 95 per cent of households in the county will have the 'superfast' broadband, with council leaders saying it will bring a huge boost to the economy.
The network being rolled out by BT's local network business, Openreach, is available on an equal basis to all fibre broadband service providers, of which there are now more than 140 in the UK.
More than one million metres of fibre optic cable and around 500 new street-side cabinets will be installed to connect people to the new network across the county.
Staffordshire County Council's economy chief Mark Winnington said: "It means they can access fast broadband speeds for the first time and opens up opportunities in education, employment, leisure and more.
"The Superfast Staffordshire project is enabling us to reach communities which previously had no access to superfast broadband. Connecting people through faster speeds is as important as road or rail and means we'll be ahead of many other areas of the UK and Europe. People should not have to miss out because of where they live or where their business is located."
Steve Henderson, BT's regional broadband partnerships director, said: "The arrival of fibre broadband means families are better connected and able to do much more online - and faster - than ever before. At the same time it enables local small businesses to compete on an equal footing with larger firms by becoming more competitive and attracting new customers."
