Coverage

Superfast Berkshire is expected to increase superfast coverage to in excess of 92% of the county when combined with the commercial roll out from the private sector. The project will primarily deliver a 'fibre to the cabinet' solution (FTTC) with upgrades expected to be live between July 2014 and September 2015. There are over 130 BT cabinets that have been targeted across the county, check on the Target Cabinets and planned schedule for cabinet upgrades.

A breakdown of anticipated coverage for each Berkshire district can be found  here [6kb].

Map of Expected Superfast Broadband Deployment Plans in Berkshire to 2017

The map below represents the anticipated roll out of fibre-based infrastructure (Next Generation Access) to support superfast broadband by the end of 2017.  It will allow you to see an estimate of when superfast broadband may be coming to your area. It should be noted that the current expected coverage will be subject to change over the lifetime of the project. 

To see mapping considerations and access the interactive coverage map - please click here.

The commercial coverage areas shown on the map are informed by the market's response to the Superfast Berkshire's Open Market Review in July / August 2014.  This asked for information on where suppliers already provide or are planning to deploy superfast broadband by 2017 (defined as capable of supporting access line speeds of over 24Mbps).  Commercial NGA network suppliers currently operating in the county include BT, Virgin, and UK Broadband amongst others. These areas are shown in purple and pink.

The Superfast Berkshire is extending superfast coverage across the county with the aid of public sector funding to areas that are deemed not to be 'commercially viable' by the private sector. These areas are shown in different colours to reflect the anticipated roll out being progressed across the county through the Superfast Berkshire Project. This will be known as Phase 1.

Superfast Berkshire is now planning an additional phase (2) of activity to increase the number of homes and businesses with superfast broadband service to over 95% in each district by 2017. Match funding has been agreed by Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK), Reading, West Berkshire, Windsor & Maidenhead and Wokingham. Procurement activity is now underway to seek further expansion of superfast solutions for premises that remain at sub 24 Mbps including the areas of these districts marked in blue.

Under Superfast Berkshire's contract with BT (September 2013) it was planned to provide Berkshire premises with 100% coverage for basic broadband (in excess of 2Mbps). However, with the additional funding now secured to extend superfast broadband, we need to review each area to ensure that we deliver the best possible broadband solution. Under State Aid rules we are not allowed to provide public subsidy twice to the same area (e.g. for basic and superfast broadband) and it also make little sense to do so when trying to maximise value for money of the public purse. Affected areas will therefore be shown as Under Investigation (in blue) but this does not detract from the original intention of ensuring all premises across Berkshire will achieve the minimum basic broadband service.

Please note that the Intervention Area map is not the same as the Deployment Map. The former sets out where the public sector is able to intervene whilst the latter sets out the expected roll out plans and includes commercial coverage and coverage enabled through public subsidy. The Deployment Map is updated on a regular basis to show the latest roll out plans.

Broadband service suppliers can find out more about the location of the newly built infrastructure and how to get access to it by registering as a Communications Provider with BT Openreach at www.openreach.co.uk/orpg.