Published at 10:29, Monday, 30 July 2012

Another 26,000 homes and businesses in Cumbria can now get faster broadband, BT announced today.

Appleby, Cleator Moor, Egremont and Sedgwick are the latest communities in the county to benefit from upgrades as part of the roll-out of BT’s next generation broadband service delivered over copper lines.

The BT investment will make available download speeds of up to 20 megabits per second (Mbps) – more than double the fastest speed previously available from BT.

The faster broadband is already available in Burton-in-Kendal, Carlisle, Kendal, Penrith, Whitehaven, Wigton and Workington.

John Grainger, managing director of Invest in Cumbria, said: “The announcement today from BT further underlines their commitment to Cumbria. Having already announced substantial upgrades in our major towns it is therefore exciting to see that BT is now enabling some of our more rural communities as well as important employment hubs in the west of the county.

“This development using copper wire will allow a greater speed for business and domestic users on the broadband network. The laying of fibre at some of our largest towns sends a signal that Cumbria is moving towards a superfast broadband solution. It is now up to providers to allow take-up to be maximised.”

Fibre-based broadband is already available in Penrith, with Carlisle to follow shortly, Dalton-in-Furness and Kendal to follow later this year. Barrow-in-Furness, Whitehaven and Workington are earmarked for upgrades next year.

Published by http://www.in-cumbria.com