New multi-million pound deal will bring faster broadband to thousands more homes and businesses in Hereford, Cheltenham and Gloucester

15th February, 2018

Gloucestershire County Council and Herefordshire Council have awarded a contract to BT Group to deliver phase two of the Fastershire broadband rollout in parts of Hereford, Cheltenham and Gloucester.

The £5 million deal, which includes around £908,000 from Gloucestershire County Council, Herefordshire Council and the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) programme and just over £4 million from BT Group, will see around 7,200 further homes and businesses able to benefit from superfast fibre broadband by the end of 2019.

Cllr Lynden Stowe, Gloucestershire County Council Cabinet Member for Economy, Skills and Growth, said, “Access to a fast and reliable digital connection is becoming more and more important for families and businesses here in Gloucestershire.

“A faster broadband connection remains a priority for our economy, education and supporting our communities, so I’m delighted that Fastershire will now be extending faster broadband further into our urban areas as well as covering some of the hardest to reach premises across the county.”

Councillor David Harlow, Herefordshire Council Cabinet Member for Economy and communications, said, "We are striving to enable as many properties in Herefordshire to access faster broadband. By working with BT in Hereford, Fastershire will ensure that more homes and businesses will be able to benefit from superfast speeds."

The upgrades will be carried out by engineers from Openreach, the business responsible for Britain’s largest telephone and broadband network.

Steve Haines, Openreach’s managing director of next generation access, said: “This major expansion of the Fastershire programme means more great news for people living and working in Cheltenham, Gloucester and Hereford and we’re delighted to be playing such a key role.

“Just two years ago, Britons used less than half the data they do now on their home broadband and this pace shows no signs of slowing. Consumers are doing more and more online and at the same time, from streaming high definition movies and TV, gaming, online shopping to using mobile devises over wireless broadband.

“Every day the number of services delivered to us online, whether designed to entertain, educate or meet our daily needs, is growing. Content and applications will only get more sophisticated making high speed broadband vital for doing all your essential tasks online, so I hope that communities take full advantage of the technology as it arrives.”

Phase two of the Fastershire project is building on the phase 1 rollout, also delivered by BT Group, which has already given around 110,000 premises in Gloucestershire and Herefordshire access to faster broadband speeds over 30Mbps.

Further contracts to cover other parts of Gloucestershire and Herefordshire under phase 2 have been awarded to Gigaclear, which will deliver ultrafast broadband to nearly 38,000 additional homes and businesses by 2020.

Residents can use the address checker at the top of the page check if faster broadband availability for their property.