Super-fast broadband a ‘shot in the arm’ for businesses

The ‘super-fast’ broadband will be rolled out to another 7,500 homes and businesses in Berkshire during 2013, including Burghfield Common and Littlewick Green in Windsor and Maidenhead, and will take the total number for the whole of the county with the high speed access to around 288,000, of which nearly 240,000 already have access.
The scheme is part of a £2.5bn BT roll-out of fibre broadband across the UK.
John Weaver, BT’s South East regional director, said: “The arrival of fibre broadband in Burghfield Common and Littlewick Green 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. As our new fibre network expands across the South East it also brings new potential for offering essential public services on-line and cost savings across the sectors.
“Local firms and households who make the switch to fibre broadband will be able to do so much more with their connection, whether they’re using it for business, entertainment, education, social networking or shopping – or all of these at once. They’re joining more than 10 million premises now passed by our fibre network and becoming part of one of the fastest roll-outs of the technology anywhere in the world.”
Recent research by Regeneris Consulting has predicted BT’s fibre broadband could boost the economy of a typical town by £143m, create 225 new jobs and 140 new businesses.
BT’s local network business Openreach is making fibre broadband available to around two-thirds of UK homes and businesses by the end of 2014.