Digital Cheshire Roll out

Digital Cheshire enables 3,000 new full fibre connections

Cheshire East Council's Connecting Cheshire initiative 'Digital Cheshire' has enabled an additional 3,000 full fibre connections across the county.

The initiative -- in partnership with broadband provider Airband -- allows additional properties which were once deemed unviable, to connect to commercial providers and access ultrafast broadband speeds.

Digital Cheshire is already seeing residents and businesses benefiting from the newly-installed ultrafast broadband across Cheshire, as broadband speeds and bandwidth demands continue to increase. Malpas, Hampton Heath, Wrenbury and Ridley are just some of the towns and villages to benefit from the full fibre technology.

Councillor Nick Mannion, chair of Cheshire East Council's economy and growth committee, said: "The difference ultrafast broadband makes to residents and businesses using online devices is transformational. For businesses working in rural locations or from home, it's a significant boost in operations and productivity. For residential households it enables simultaneous streaming and gaming and increases the overall ability to connect and browse.

"While recognising the great successes to date in enabling further connections, there is certainly more to come. We will continue to work with commercial providers in welcoming their roll-out plans across Cheshire. In partnership with Airband we will continue to deliver on our contracts to connect more rural properties, connecting communities through community fibre partnerships and providing access to voucher funding or those who wish to explore their own community-led scheme."

Redmond Peel, founder and director of Airband said: "We're very pleased with the progress made on this project so far and encouraged by the number of households and businesses that are already benefiting from the project.

"Many more customers have registered interest in the project, which bodes very well for the region as a whole, in terms of increased access to the benefits of ultrafast broadband as outlined by Councillor Mannion."

With the support of the remaining funding from the European Regional Development Fund, the project continues to deploy full fibre broadband across Cheshire.

This programme is in partnership with Warrington Borough Council, Cheshire West and Chester and Halton Borough Council.

If you are a resident or business who would like to find out more about broadband plans across Cheshire, visit www.digital-cheshire.co.uk Cheshire East Council, Cheshire West and Chester Council, Halton Borough Council and Warrington Borough Council with the collective aim of extending fibre broadband roll-out locally.

The current Digital Cheshire programme will reach additional areas outside of any commercial broadband roll-out using a partnership approach to ensure all communities have access to the fastest possible broadband speeds. The current deployment plan is a £4.5m contract with Airband, extending fibre coverage to an additional 4,000 premises.

The project is part funded by the European Regional Development Fund.