Superfast broadband reaches 95% coverage in Rutland

Rutland has been praised for playing a leading role in the improvement of broadband internet speeds across the entire country.

BT announced on Monday that Rutland has reached 95 per cent superfast broadband coverage, with more than 17,500 homes and businesses in the county now having access to superfast speeds of 24 Megabits per second (Mbps) and above, using the Openreach network.

Richard Hall, East Midlands infrastructure delivery director for Openreach, said: “This is a great day for both the country and for Rutland.

“For a number of years, Rutland has led the way with the roll-out of this exciting technology, which is providing a major boost for the economy.

“We have some of the highest superfast coverage figures of any county, which is a tribute to the hard work of Rutland engineers and the success of the Digital Rutland programme.

“The multi-million pound scheme has been one of the largest and most complex engineering projects in the county over recent years and it’s a great example of the public and private sectors working effectively together.

“We have managed to bring new services to areas which fall outside the private sector’s commercial programme and we’re determined to go further.”

The success of efforts to improve broadband speed in Rutland has been considerably aided by Openreach’s partnership with the county council.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport revealed this week that it had reached its national target of making superfast broadband available to 95 per cent of the country. This means the vast majority of Britain’s homes and businesses can now order services capable of streaming their favourite Netflix or iPlayer shows, playing online games, responding to emails and surfing the web – all simultaneously, on multiple devices and without interruption.

Openreach says it is working hard to address the remaining ‘not-spots’ where broadband speeds are slow.

Openreach chief executive Clive Selley said: “Everyone at Openreach is determined to deliver decent broadband speeds to every home and business in Britain.

“That is our mission, and we won’t be happy until every property from Land’s End to John O’Groats has access to decent speeds.

“More than 27 million homes have been upgraded since 2009, and the UK now enjoys faster speeds, and broader coverage, than all of the major EU economies.”