The Coventry City Council said that the next phase of its roll-out of “superfast broadband” around the region will be supported by £15 million worth of grants and aims to extend the network coverage to a further 8,000 local homes and businesses.
Regional state aid supported CSW Broadband project, which is mostly based around Openreach’s FTTC/P technology. It has already put superfast connectivity within reach of over 90 per cent of premises in Warwickshire, Solihull and Coventry. Work has also begun on a second phase that will aim to achieve “nearly” 94 per cent coverage of the same area by the end of 2017.
More than 334 new street cabinets have so far been installed and 53,000+ premises have benefited.
Attention is now being turned to a future Phase Three contract, which is set to be supported by a public investment of £2.55 million from the city council, another £2.55 million from the European Regional Development Fund, £4.3 million from the local Growth Deal and £1.1 million worth of private sector funds.
More than £15 million is eventually predicted to become available for the next phase, which will seek to reach an additional 8,000+ premises on top of the existing target. One-off corporate funding of £150,000 will also be invested in order to project manage the Council’s investment and work as part of CSW Broadband.
