Cornwall’s Superfast Broadband programme to change face of communications in Duchy (November 2011)

Big Build will help to create 4,000 new jobs

Last week the £132 million Superfast Cornwall programme was a major winner at the World Communication Awards when it scooped the award for Project of the Year. It's wonderful recognition for the huge amount of hard work and cooperation, which has taken place since the initiative was publicly announced just over a year ago.

But away from the world of awards and bright lights what has actually been achieved so far? And how is the huge engineering programme we call the 'Big Build' progressing?

By anyone's standards, the Superfast Cornwall programme is ambitious. We are setting out to make Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly one of the best connected locations in the world.

The initiative will benefit thousands of businesses, create 4,000 new jobs and protect a further 2,000. Superfast broadband has the potential to transform our economy. Cornish businesses will be given early access to world class communications, boosting competitiveness, whilst superfast will attract new business investment into Cornwall.

Eight Cornish communities – covering more than 15,000 businesses and homes – were able to connect to superfast broadband by March 2011, just six months from the start of the initiative.

Ordinarily, it would take about a year to connect the first customers, but we managed it in six months. That is testament to work of engineers from BT's local network business Openreach, who installed more than 150 kilometres of optical fibre cable – equivalent to more than the length of Cornwall – in the first six months.

The engineers tasked with installing the infrastructure face major challenges, including the laying of 130,000 km of optical fibre cable in total, enough to circle the globe three times!

This is the largest ever build of a superfast broadband infrastructure in a rural area in Europe, with no less than 400,000 engineering man hours required to bring superfast broadband throughout the county.

I'm pleased to say that businesses in the eight pilot exchange areas are making the most of the opportunity. Nearly 2,000 businesses and homes have already connected to superfast broadband.

By March 2012, the roll-out will have achieved coverage of 90,000 premises in communities throughout Cornwall, including some of the most rural scattered villages.

Not only is it maintaining and creating jobs, superfast broadband is also building a legacy for the future.

That legacy includes a new superfast broadband training centre for engineers recently opened in Bodmin, providing training for more than 150 engineers over the next 12 months. And they will be needed. By 2014, at least 80 per cent of households and businesses in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly are expected to have access to superfast broadband with alternative technologies, such as wireless and satellite, being used to boost speeds in locations where superfast broadband is not currently viable.

Superfast broadband isn't just about providing a giant fillip to the local economy, helping businesses and creating new jobs. It is also about improving the quality of life for all, expanding horizons and opening new doors through online learning, flexible working and skills training for people of all ages and backgrounds. The programme is also being used as a testbed at the frontiers of innovation, trying out new technologies, which will benefit Cornwall and much further afield.

Superfast Cornwall is a big build with big wins for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.