Superfast broadband is coming to nine communities in East Cornwall at least three months early as the first major phase of the Superfast Cornwall initiative kicks off ahead of schedule.
The high-speed technology is expected to start to become available in Liskeard, Callington, Launceston, Dobwalls, Bude, Kilkhampton, Marhamchurch (near Widemouth Bay), Drakewalls (near Gunnislake) and North Hill (near Coads Green) by December. None of these areas had previously been due to 'go live' before the end of March 2012 - and Dobwalls had actually been scheduled for 2013.
The upgrading of the nine communities is just the beginning of the first major phase of the roll-out, which will see the high-speed technology becoming available to a total of 90,000 Cornish homes and businesses by the end of March.
Superfast Cornwall, the partnership between BT, the European Union, Cornwall Council and Cornwall Development Company responsible for constructing the new network, has dubbed the huge engineering operation the 'Big Build'.
The Big Build includes the laying of 130,000 kilometres of optical fibre, the upgrading of 100 telephone exchanges and the installation of about 500 new green roadside cabinets to make Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly one of the best connected places in the world.
And by the end of 2014 at least 80 per cent of premises in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly are expected to have access to optical fibre broadband with alternative technologies, such as wireless and satellite, being used to boost speeds in those locations where fibre is not currently viable.
Jon Reynolds, BT's South West regional director, said: "We are working hard to make faster broadband available to as many homes and businesses in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly as quickly as possible. As the engineering and survey work progressed we found it was possible to start in these exchange areas earlier than expected. It's a great Christmas present for the homes and businesses in these communities! Superfast Cornwall is an excellent example to other parts of the UK of the private and public sectors working together to achieve great results. Over the coming months this first major phase of the roll-out will make superfast broadband available to a further 700 Cornish homes and businesses each day."
Superfast broadband will be delivered as 'fibre to the cabinet' (FTTC) and 'fibre to the premises' (FTTP). BT's local network business Openreach recently announced that it expected to roughly double the download speeds of FTTC to up to 80Mbps next year. Upload speeds, already the fastest in the UK, will also improve with up to 20Mbps being likely. Even faster speeds of up to 110Mbps are available with FTTP. And from next Spring FTTP download speeds will be boosted to up to 300Mbps.
A pilot phase of the programme has already made super-fast broadband available in the Chacewater/Chiverton Cross, St Agnes, St Day, Portreath, Devoran, Leedstown, Stenalees and Par areas.
Up to £53.5 million of the funding is coming from ERDF Convergence, the largest ever single European investment in broadband infrastructure, whilst BT is investing up to £78.5 million.