Ipsley, Kidderminster, Milford and Redditch are included in latest phase of BT’s £2.5 billion super-fast fibre broadband programme.  Another 34,000 homes and businesses in the West Midlands are set to benefit from super-fast broadband, BT announced today.

Ipsley, Kidderminster and Redditch Old Town in Worcestershire and Milford in North Staffordshire are among the latest places included in BT’s £2.5 billion roll-out of fibre broadband. The latest upgrades are due to be completed by Autumn 2012 and will take the number of homes and businesses in the West Midlands able to access the technology to more than 855,000.

BT’s local network business Openreach expects to make super-fast fibre broadband available to two-thirds of UK homes and businesses by the end of 2015*. It is building the new network using a mix of fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) and fibre to the premises (FTTP) technologies. Both provide much faster speeds than those previously available to many UK homes and businesses. FTTC, delivered to street cabinets, currently offers download speeds of up to 40Mbps and upstream speeds up to 10Mbps. Openreach is planning to roughly double these speeds next year. FTTP, where the fibre goes directly to homes and businesses, will offer speeds of up to 100Mbps.

John Dovey, BT’s West Midlands regional director, said: “BT’s roll-out of super-fast broadband is marching on at a rapid pace. Residents and businesses in these latest locations can look forward to choosing a high-speed connection over a network offering an unrivalled choice of suppliers, which keeps competition thriving and costs down. “Our latest investment in the West Midlands will propel internet users at home and at work into the 21st century fast lane, and marks another milestone in the development of the region’s next generation communications. We have plans to take super-fast broadband to two-thirds of the UK by the end of 2015 but we don’t want to stop there. We have long said reaching the largely rural and remote ‘final third’ will require a partnership approach and we welcome the fact that the UK government has recently allocated funding of hundreds of millions of pounds for next generation broadband initiatives for these more challenging areas. BT has the strength and the commitment to deliver large-scale broadband projects and we want to play a leading role in bringing faster technologies to our rural communities. As today’s investment demonstrates, BT is playing its part in delivering faster broadband across the UK – but there needs to be a collective effort to ensure no part of the West Midlands is left behind.”

Internet users with a fibre broadband connection can do much more online, all at the same time. For instance, a family could be downloading a movie, watching a TV replay service, surfing the internet and playing games online. A music track can be downloaded in about two seconds, a whole album in 30 seconds and a feature length HD movie in 10 minutes. Upload speeds are the fastest in the UK, allowing large videos and data files to be sent almost instantly and activities, such as uploading hi-resolution photos to Facebook, to be completed in seconds. Unlike other companies, Openreach offers network access to service providers on an open, wholesale basis, supporting a competitive market. For further information on Openreach’s super-fast broadband programme visit www.superfast-openreach.co.uk

Karen Lumley, MP said “I am delighted to hear of the new Superfast Broadband program from BT. I’m sure that this new technology will have a positive impact on home owners and businesses alike in the area allowing them faster access to Broadband and all the benefits associated with this – A fantastic step forward for the area”.

Local MP, Karen Lumley was keen to visit her Redditch B&Q to learn more about their Forest Friendly achievements and about how the UK’s leading home improvement and garden centre retailer works.

Whilst being shown around the store, Karen was told the great news that B&Q now only buys timber from proven, responsible, legal forests and is supplying its customers in Redditch with sustainable timber products, at no extra cost.  She was also told about B&Q’s 16,000 different products which contain timber which can be traced back to legal forests and that no other retailer of its size is even close to achieving this.

Karen was particularly interested to hear that the retailer was placed 18th in The Sunday Times Green Companies List earlier this year, one of only four retailers in the top 50. This was due to changes to the way stores operate which has reduced their carbon output. For example all stores now have roof shafts to increase natural light into the store which in turn has reduced electricity consumption.

As well as this, Karen learnt about the company’s diversity policy, which means a quarter of B&Q’s workforce is over the age of 50 years, with a similar percentage under the age of 25.   She was delighted to meet Lawrence Smith aged 84 and Danielle Armstrong aged 16, the store’s oldest and youngest employees.

Employees told Karen how they are being skilled up. B&Q has invested more than £1 million into nationally recognised apprenticeships and City and Guild’s qualifications for its staff nationwide. Karen was given the opportunity to see what this means in Redditch when she met with employees who have recently received their Retail NVQ.

David Ponting B&Q Redditch Store Manager says: “We’re really proud of our timber achievement and are delighted that Karen was keen to visit our store and hear all about our Forest Friendly programme. It’s been a 20 year journey for us to reach this milestone but we now want to let all our customers know that all the timber we sell is ‘Forest Friendly’ and when people buy timber products from us, they can be assured that their purchase isn’t contributing to deforestation.”

Karen added: “It was great to meet so many enthusiastic and positive staff at B&Q today and to learn about why buying only Forest Friendly timber is so important.  It’s good to see a business working hard to operate more sustainably and I hope this inspires other companies to follow their lead.”

Karen is pictured with Dave Ponting B&Q Redditch Store Manager.