Matt Sandford, managing director of Pure Telecom, based on Shrewsbury Business Park, has welcomed the announcement that high speed broadband is being extended.
Connecting Shropshire, a Shropshire Council programme aimed at improving broadband coverage, has started work on installing the technology needed for a faster network in 25 new areas.
“This is excellent news for the county and will make life very much easier for small and medium sized Shropshire businesses, as well as larger companies who want to encourage home working,” said Matt.
Areas chosen for the first phase of network improvements include Much Wenlock, Craven Arms, Church Stretton and Shawbury.
“These towns and some smaller villages will all be able to take advantage of high speed broadband this summer and then work is starting in a selection of other locations – many of them much smaller villages – later in the year, meaning that they will get access to fibre-based broadband by the spring of 2015.
“Shropshire is a very enterprising county, with a huge range of businesses based in rural areas. As communications specialists we deal with many of these small and medium sized firms and one of the real issues they face is slow broadband speeds so I am delighted that this is being resolved.
“Cloud-based technology is also making it far easier for employees to work from home and access all the information they need to operate successfully so superfast broadband will be a huge benefit for larger firms too,” Matt added.
The exchange areas are: Bayston Hill, Bomere Heath, Broseley, Bucknell, Chirk, Church Stretton, Cleehillstone (Clee Hill), Cleobury Mortimer, Clun, Craven Arms, Cross Houses, Dorrington, Hadnall, Hanwood, Highley, Much Wenlock, Pipegate, Prees, Quatt, Queens Head, Shawbury, Shifnal, Tenbury Wells, Wem and Whixall.
The high-speed technology is expected to start going ‘live’ in Bayston Hill, Bomere Heath, Bucknell, Church Stretton, Craven Arms, Cross Houses, Dorrington, Hadnall, Hanwood, Much Wenlock and Shawbury from this Summer.
At the same time fibre broadband will be extended in the parts of Bridgnorth, Ludlow, Market Drayton and Oswestry not already covered by any commercial rollout. Work to connect the remaining exchange areas will begin in the second half of this year, with the majority completed by the end of Spring 2015.
For more information on the rollout of faster broadband see: http://connectingshropshire.co.uk
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