Extension to at least 95% of Hampshire

Hampshire County Council’s commitment to investing in superfast broadband across the county has been reinforced by signing a second contract with BT to make superfast broadband available to an extra 34,500 properties.

This means that, once work is complete, superfast broadband will be available to 95 per cent of premises in Hampshire, and that at least 94,000 additional premises will be able to access Superfast services at a speed of at least 24Mbps.

Wave one, to ensure 90% of premises in Hampshire have access to superfast broadband by the end of 2015, has been completed and brought access to a further 63,000 premises not covered by the commercial market.

Hampshire County Council is also working hard with District and Borough Councils, housing developers, BT, Virgin Media and other potential suppliers of superfast broadband to make it possible for more new homes, especially on large scale developments, to be able to access superfast broadband from the day they are first sold.

The Department of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS), together with the County Council and other local government partners, invested £10m in the first Wave of the programme to reach 90 per cent of premises by the end of 2015. BT invested £3.8m towards the cost of installing the new infrastructure. The County Council and DCMS have provided additional funding totalling £18.4m, along with a further £3.8m from BT to extend coverage to at least 95 per cent of premises by September 2018. Work on the delivery of the second contract, known as Wave 2, started in January 2016.