Member Article

Sunderland gets connected with superfast broadband

Sunderland will become England’s first city to offer total super fast broadband coverage, Sunderland City Council have announced today.

A significant commercial investment by BT has allowed extensive coverage of up to 90% of homes and businesses in the city by summer 2012.

When combined with the presence of other providers in the city, this further expansion is expected to take Sunderland to almost ubiquitous superfast connectivity.

Homes and businesses will benefit from increased some of the fastest speeds in the country as fibre to the cabinet (FTTC), and fibre to the premises (FTTP) technology will provide download speeds of up to 40Mbps, and 100Mbps respectively.

On top of this, FTTC speeds are expected to roughly double next year, whilst FTTP will deliver speeds of up to 300Mbps.

Cllr Paul Watson, leader of Sunderland City Council, said: “Sunderland is committed to regenerating and securing its future economic prosperity.

“The City Council is investing in Sunderland’s infrastructure, ensuring the city is the easiest place in the UK to do business - whether you’re a small to medium-size enterprise or an international manufacturing giant.

“Being able to announce that Sunderland will be the first city in Britain to offer wall to wall access to superfast broadband is the result of our vision, ambition and commitment.”

He went on to say that the plans were a “step in the right direction” towards the long-term vision for Sunderland, and that it represented a vital ingredient for the economic growth of the city.

Network access will be offered to service providers on an open wholesale basis, supporting a competitive market and allowing homes and businesses the choice of providers.

Bill Murphy, managing director of Next Generation Access at BT, said: “Sunderland is hitting the superfast broadband highway at full speed.

“We’re delighted to be extending the reach of superfast broadband across the city so that more homes and business can take advantage of this transformational technology.

“Sunderland City Council’s vision and ambition has created the right environment for BT to make significant investment in the City’s infrastructure.

“We now look forward to working in partnership with the City Council to extend roll-out even further.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .

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