Broadband boost worth millions is to benefit thousands more rural Oxfordshire homes and businesses

A £4 million boost for the Better Broadband for Oxfordshire programme means that nearly 3,000 more of Oxfordshire’s most remote households and businesses will get access to high-speed broadband.

Oxfordshire County Council, which has paired up with BT, has announced that parts of Ardington, Barford St John, East Hendred, Lockinge, Lyford and Swalcliffe are among the communities who will benefit.

The funding has come from savings made earlier in the roll-out and BT making £2.56 million available for reinvestment due to a ‘Gainshare’ mechanism in the contract, which has been triggered by strong demand for the new fibre technology from local households and businesses.

Councillor David Bartholomew, Oxfordshire County Council cabinet member whose portfolio includes responsibility for broadband, said: “While today’s announcement is more great news for people living and working in some of the harder to reach parts of our county, we are continuing to look for cost-effective ways to reach the final four per cent of county premises not yet able to access this important service. We hope our co-funding initiative will play an important part in helping Oxfordshire to have the best access to digital services, even in the very rural areas. We’ve already had interest from several small eligible communities and are keen to hear from any other communities that might be interested.”

Steve Henderson, BT’s regional director for broadband partnerships, added: “The residents and businesses of Oxfordshire have been tremendously supportive of this programme with some of the strongest demand for fibre broadband in this country. They have been quick to recognise the huge opportunities this exciting technology offers. Such high take-up of the service has enabled BT to make an early £2.56m ‘success dividend’ available to re-invest back into the Better Broadband for Oxfordshire programme to connect some of the hardest to reach properties. This builds on the funding BT has already contributed to the programme, alongside our own fibre broadband programme.

“Across Oxfordshire more than 72,000 businesses and households now have access to superfast fibre broadband as a result of BBfO. The figure rises to around 265,000 when combined with BT’s own roll-out.”