Burnham-On-Sea is set to be included in British Telecom’s roll-out of super-fast broadband access next year, it has been announced this week.
High-speed fibre broadband will be rolled out to over 10,000 homes and businesses in the town during 2013.
Rupert Cox, Chief Executive for Somerset Chamber of Commerce, told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “This is excellent news for many people in Burnham-On-Sea. They’re the latest in Somerset who will soon have access to the next generation of internet services.”
“Reliable, fast connections can make all the difference to education and business, and give people much greater scope for interaction with the world around them. In a tough economic climate, this local investment from BT will help make the county an even better place to live, work and do business.”
In this week’s announcement, BT says its local network business Openreach is making fibre broadband available to UK homes and businesses using a mix of fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) and fibre to the premises (FTTP) technologies.
Burnham-On-Sea will get FTTC, offering download speeds of up to 80Mbps and upload speeds of up to 20Mbps.
FTTP, where fibre runs all the way to homes and businesses, would offer download speeds of 110Mbps, with 330Mbps coming soon.
The UK’s current average broadband speed is 7.6Mbps, according to the regulator Ofcom.
Jon Reynolds, BT’s South West regional director, said: “The arrival of fibre broadband is a massive shot in the arm for the local economy, creating new businesses, jobs and educational opportunities. The benefits are major and wide ranging.”
Other locations in the South West included in this week’s announcement are Pill, Bideford, Torbay, Westbury-on-Trym, Corsham, Highworth and Malmesbury.
Pictured: (left to right) Rupert Cox, CEO of Somerset Chamber of Commerce with Highbridge County Councillor John Woodman and County Councillor David Hall, portfolio holder for economic development, during a broadband meeting in Burnham-On-Sea
