Member Article

£3.8m broadband deal equips Newcastle with high speeds

Newcastle City Council and BT have announced a £3.8m deal to extend high-speed fibre broadband to 97% of homes and business in Newcastle.

The Go Digital programme will build on work already completed in West Newcastle, Gosforth, Jesmond, Lemington and Wideopen.

Bill Murphy, BT’s managing director for Next Generation Access, added: “This project aims to make faster and more reliable broadband available to everyone in Newcastle, making the city one of the best connected in the UK.

“Not only that, it will have among the fastest broadband speeds of any major city in Europe, helping businesses reach new markets and products and compete on both a national and international scale.”

“It is also great news for residents who will be able to access new job opportunities, and shop around for cheaper services. Fibre is transforming the way we use the internet at home, from communicating with family and friends to entertainment, shopping and online gaming.”

BT was awarded the contract following a procurement exercise through the Broadband Delivery UK framework and will contribute £1.89m in “non-commercial” areas. Newcastle City Council will invest £970k, plus its £970k share of BDUK funds.

Cllr Nick Forbes, leader of Newcastle City Council, said: “Given that the internet is integral to how we live our lives now, from shopping online to playing games to watching films, ensuring all homes have fibre broadband access will put Newcastle at the forefront of ensuring that residents are fully connected.

“In addition, high speed reliable broadband access is an essential modern day business tool, and we are determined that we will have the best connectivity of any European city to make Newcastle a natural home for businesses to grow in the future.”

Sarat Pediredla is the managing director of Newcastle based Hedgehog Lab, a company which designs, develops and markets apps and digital solutions for post-pc devices such as mobile phones, tablets and TV.

He said: “Fibre is absolutely crucial for our day to day work which often involves both downloading and uploading huge files. It is vital that we have a rapid internet connection as it enables us to deliver to our customers in minutes rather than hours.

“Newcastle is a great location to set up business. It has a vibrant technology community, access to skilled labour and business costs that are significantly lower than other major cities. Adding fibre to that list enables us and other business to compete further afield. Although around 90 per cent of our customer base is in London fibre we can give them a top quality, speedy service from our North East base.

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