Digital Durham achieves major milestone

Pictured are (behind): Simon Roverson of BT, Phil Jackman, Head of ICT for Durham County Council, and Derek Richardson, NGA Project Manager. Pictured in front, from St. John's Chapel Primary School are Mrs. Sue Shaw, Lily Bousfield, Rowan Grieves-Bubb, George Jamieson, Kersha Cottrill, Jack Heslop, Dylan Scott , Amelia Pagan-Lever and Mrs. Anne Oliphant. — Pictured are (behind): Simon Roverson of BT, Phil Jackman, Head of ICT for Durham County Council, and Derek Richardson, NGA Project Manager. Pictured in front, from St. John’s Chapel Primary School are Mrs. Sue Shaw, Lily Bousfield, Rowan Grieves-Bubb, George Jamieson, Kersha Cottrill, Jack Heslop, Dylan Scott , Amelia Pagan-Lever and Mrs. Anne Oliphant.

Digital Durham today announced it has achieved a major milestone in its rollout of fibre-based broadband as St John’s Chapel in Weardale became the latest community to ‘go live’ with the high-speed technology.

More than 100,000 premises across the programme area now have access to fibre-based broadband as a direct result of the partnership. Engineers from Openreach, BT’s local network business, have laid thousands more kilometres of underground, fibre-optic cable and installed 447 green fibre street cabinets.

The 100,000th premises was one of more than 200 homes and businesses in the rural village of St John’s Chapel to get access to the technology. Parts of Barnard Castle, Middleton-in-Teesdale, Eggleston, Gateshead and Thornaby have also been upgraded in recent weeks.

Pat Glass, MP for North West Durham, said: “I am delighted that the Digital Durham programme has reached its 100,000 premises milestone. I continue to fully support their programme as they make progress towards giving as many constituents of mine as possible access to fast broadband.”

Thousands of orders for the newly available superfast service have already been placed since the beginning of this year and demand continues to grow as more and more local people opt for the fibre optic technology, which can see their speeds increase to up to 80Mbps1. Orders can be placed with any company offering fibre-based products on the Openreach network.

Cllr Jane Brown, Durham County Council’s cabinet member for corporate services, said: “It is really pleasing to see the programme making this positive progress and that hundreds of homes and businesses are signing up to use this exciting technology every month.

“The fact that we have brought fibre-based broadband to communities as far afield as Ryton in the north, Darlington in the south, Westgate in the west and Saltburn-by-the-Sea in the east of the programme area helps demonstrate the scale and breadth of the roll-out.”

Janice Stobbs, head teacher at St John’s Chapel Primary School, said: “Use of the internet now touches every part of the curriculum, with pupils using it every day for everything from interactive exercises to doing online research for school projects and a variety of other schoolwork. Without fast connectivity and speeds there is the risk that children will miss out on what is now an essential learning tool, so having fibre in St John’s Chapel is great news.”

Simon Roberson, BT’s regional partnership director for the North East, said: “To have reached 100,000 homes and businesses in just over two years is a huge achievement and one that the Digital Durham team should be proud of.

“The true measure of success, however, will be the benefits that communities across the programme reap from using this technology so it’s encouraging to see the vast number of local residents and businesses taking advantage of what is now on offer to them.

“Access to this technology can play a major role in building the competitiveness of local businesses and offer new education, social and entertainment opportunities for residents. And with plenty of choice of suppliers and pricing, I would urge even more local people to take advantage and get connected.”

Fibre-based broadband at home means everyone in the family can do their own thing online, all at the same time, whether it’s downloading music in minutes or watching catch-up TV; streaming HD or 3D movies in a few minutes; or posting photos and videos to social networking sites in seconds. Superfast broadband improves the quality of online experiences and supports new developments in internet services.

Benefits for businesses include faster file and data transfers, better access to cloud computing services and software, more sophisticated web-based contact with customers and support for more flexible working.

It’s an ‘opt in’ service, but because the Openreach network is ‘open’, residents and businesses wanting to upgrade have a choice of fibre broadband providers, with more than 140 companies now operating across the UK.

The Digital Durham broadband programme is delivered by Durham County Council and BT. In total, £34 million has been invested by BT, Durham County Council, Government funding from Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) and public sector partners in Sunderland, South Tyneside, Gateshead, North Tyneside, Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland and Stockton-on-Tees.

A second phase of fibre deployment is already planned to begin in July 2016. This involves a £9 million investment in the programme area. It includes £2.82 million from the Government’s Superfast Extension Plan and £4 million from BT, with the remaining investment split between the local authority partners. An additional 29,000 homes and businesses will benefit as a result. By the end of the roll-out, 97 per cent of premises within the programme area will have access to fibre-based broadband.

Apprentices helping to switch on County Durham

A team of 25 apprentices are hard at work bringing superfast broadband to households and businesses the length and breadth of the Digital Durham programme area.

The group is being trained up and given the skills to install and maintain fibre broadband, alongside gaining recognised qualifications over a two and a half year period.

Bethany Johnson joined BT’s local network business, Openreach, in September 2014 – attracted by the idea of ‘learning and earning’ on the job, whilst working towards a BTEC Level 3 Certificate in Professional Competence for IT and Telecoms Professionals. Twenty one year-old Bethany from Fencehouses, has already gained plenty of experience helping to connect up people’s homes to the new fibre enabled green roadside cabinets.

She said: “I had a job as an accounts manager before joining Openreach, but I just couldn’t see myself stuck behind a desk for the rest of my working life. I wanted something where I would be on the go and out and about working with different people every day. Working for Openreach ticked all those boxes.”

Bethany is currently learning how to connect up and maintain the network and has recently completed her training in one of the more challenging aspects of the job – detecting and fixing faults. She said: “It is not easy but I like to go in and play detective. It is especially satisfying when you do find a solution. The customer can’t thank you enough and that’s a lovely feeling.”

The job also provides Bethany with the flexibility to pursue her other passion for detective work – as a special police constable. Bethany said: “What’s great is that I can fit my hours around the time I spend doing my police work. Originally Openreach was going to be a stop gap to becoming a police officer, but the tables have now completely turned.

“There are so many different avenues you can go down once you’re qualified. If you’re far enough ahead with your studying, then you can use the time to do other things so I’ve been able to spend time working with other teams in other parts of the business to experience what they do.”

Bethany added: “I’ve really enjoyed my time so far and I’m looking forward to where this job will take me next. If you are ‘hands on’ and you like being out and about then this is for you – I couldn’t recommend it enough.”

Simon Roberson, BT’s regional partnership director for the North East, said: “Young people like Bethany are at the forefront of the fibre revolution that will drive future economic growth across the North East. Superfast broadband is changing for the better the way people communicate, learn to do business and enjoy their spare time.”

Cllr Jane Brown, Durham County Council’s cabinet member for corporate services, said: “It is pleasing to see that our ongoing support of the Digital Durham scheme has helped create fantastic opportunities such as these for local young people as they embark on their careers in the technology industry.”

The Digital Durham broadband programme is delivered by Durham County Council and BT. In total, £34 million has been invested by BT, Durham County Council, the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) programme and public sector partners in Gateshead, Sunderland, South Tyneside, North Tyneside and the Tees Valley.

A second phase of fibre deployment is already planned to begin in July 2016 benefitting an additional 29,000 homes and businesses. By the end of the roll-out, 97 per cent of premises within the programme area will have access to fibre broadband.