Good news on broadband in Somerset today as Matt Warman MP, Minister for Digital Infrastructure, announced that the Connecting Devon and Somerset team have now signed contracts with three separate suppliers across the six procurement lots within the region.
These contracts will provide connectivity to 56,396 premises across Devon and Somerset. Whilst this has been procured through a Superfast programme, the contractual commitment from these suppliers is for Full Fibre which is Gigabit capable. This means that even if you only require a Superfast (30Mbps) connection today, from day one it is capable of supporting Ultrafast (100Mbps) or even Gigabit (1,000Mbps) speeds.
Rather than relying on a single larger supplier, the fair and open process across six lots will promote speed and competition. Delivery will be in phases between 2021 and 2024. Now the contracts have been placed, the CDS team will be able to share further detail in the New Year relating to the phasing and sequencing of the work.