Homes and businesses in parts of Basingstoke and Deane are set for an internet revolution. As part of an overview of infrastructure serving the Hampshire area, experts from Openreach, BT’s local access network division, discussed plans to start rolling out the infrastructure for super-fast broadband in the borough at the e-Hampshire conference on Thursday 8 October.
In July, Openreach announced that Basingstoke will be one of only two towns in the South East where exchanges will be upgraded with super-fast fibre-based services. Now it looks like the upgrade to next generation broadband cabling could come to the town in the next few months delegates at the e-Hampshire conference were told.
Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council Cabinet Member Cllr Keith Chapman, who is responsible for information technology and telecommunications, said: “This is very exciting news. In the future consumers will be able to download music tracks in less then 5 seconds, watch movies and sports events online in HD, and businesses, especially small to medium sized business, will be able to revolutionise their IT infrastructure and how they do business.”
Areas covered by the Openreach project could see work start in the next few months. However, it could be some time before businesses and residents can connect to the new service as internet providers will need to carry out more work to make the super-fast broadband packages available to business and home computers.
Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council has been working closely with Openreach and e-Hampshire, an organisation lobbying to improve broadband in the county, to help make these plans a reality. The group will continue to work together to improve broadband access not only in the town but more rural parts of the borough through additional technologies.
