Northumberland and Staffordshire to benefit from broadband investment

Northumberland and Staffordshire are to benefit from multi-million pound broadband investment schemes, it has been announced this past week.

An initiative in the north-east, dubbed iNorthumberland, will see £4.1 million invested to provide an extra 3,000 homes and business with access to superfast fibre broadband. This second phase roll-out comes after the initial stage of the project saw £18.9 million invested to complete wholesale upgrades to internet speeds in the area.

According to Northumberland County Council, a period of detailed surveying and planning is currently taking place to determine which local areas will be targeted by this second phase investment, with more information to be released over the coming weeks.

Councillor Dave Ledger, deputy leader of Northumberland County Council, commented: "This announcement of phase two of our ambitious broadband programme is great news for more communities and businesses in Northumberland.

"Access to superfast broadband is becoming fundamental to our everyday lives and it is only right that our residents expect to be able to access faster broadband speeds no matter where they live."

Meanwhile, around 4,000 additional homes and businesses across Staffordshire are also set to get access to high-speed fibre broadband following a £2.3 million funding boost. This is the latest stage of the Superfast Staffordshire scheme, which began just over a year ago and has so far enabled 43,000 new premises gain access to superfast broadband.

Thanks to the upgrade residents and businesses will be able to get download speeds of up to 80 megabits per second (Mbps) and upload speeds of up to 20Mbps.

Councillor Mark Winnington, Staffordshire’s leader on the economy, said: "The Superfast Staffordshire project has been a huge success and is making a big difference to thousands of people across the county.

"Our target was to ensure 95 per cent of properties could connect to superfast broadband by mid-2016 and we’re on schedule to achieve that."

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