BT to roll out fibre broadband in West Sussex

BT has reached a multi-million pound deal with West Sussex County Council to bring fibre broadband to 98 per cent of homes and businesses in the county within the next three years. 

The Better Connected West Sussex Broadband project hopes to build on BT’s ongoing commercial fibre deployment across the UK and will bring super-fast broadband speeds to more than 44,000 properties by the start of spring 2016. 

When the rollout is finished, it is hoped that all premises within West Sussex will receive internet speeds of at least 2Mbps, but the vast majority should be able to achieve speeds that are much faster - with top speeds nearing 24Mbps. 

Ofcom states the average downstream speed that residents currently achieve in the county is 11.7Mbps, but a significant 9.7 per cent of premises receive less than 2Mbps. 

BT was chosen to deliver the project after a thorough selection process and the telecoms giant is contributing £7.6 million towards the rollout, while West Sussex County Council is putting forward £6.26 million, with the final £6.26 million being provided by the government’s Broadband Delivery UK funds.