Shefford set for UK’s fastest broadband
Wednesday, 29 January 2020
We've welcomed plans to extend the fastest-possible internet access to Shefford, Clifford and Henlow by Openreach.
The Council’s Deputy Leader and ward member for Henlow, Clifton, Stondon and Arlesey, Councillor Richard Wenham, said:
This is only made possible by our long-standing investment to bring fibre-optic internet across Central Bedfordshire – a project we began back in 2012.
The key to the upgrade is to allow homes and businesses to be connected using all fibre-optic cable. Currently the final part of the broadband connection for premises is through BT’s copper telephone wiring which imposes a ceiling on download speeds.
Taking full fibre optic will allow the highest speed directly to your house to the internet, allowing super quick downloads of films, and also no perceptible delays for gamers. It means laying a new, separate fibre-optic cable to your premises from the nearest part of the existing fibre-optic network.
Openreach says it has been able to reduce the cost of bringing broadband to rural areas following recent national trials, including the rollout of fibre to Cranfield. OpenReach is continually developing new tools, skills and techniques to bring more cost effective fibre deployment to the UK. Central Bedfordshire Council actively supports these trials and is often selected for pilot works; in 2017 Campton and Meppershall benefitted from very early FTTP trials.