Suffolk's £41m plans to build a super fast broadband network across the county have received strong financial backing from the Government.
The £11 million investment pledged by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport means Suffolk can move forward with its ambitious goal to create a broadband network fit for the twenty first century.
It follows a decision by Suffolk County Council to invest up to £10 million in the project - a move which almost certainly proved crucial in securing the backing from Government.
Councillor Mark Bee, Suffolk County Council's Leader, said:
"I'm ecstatic. From the day I was elected Leader I've wanted this and have worked hard with all our partners to make it happen. Today is an important milestone in our ambition to create for Suffolk a broadband network fit for the twenty first century. We can now crack on with the project and turn our ambition into a reality."
The Suffolk target is to have 85% of Suffolk premises with access to superfast (20Mbps or greater) fibre optic broadband. The remaining 15% of premises will be served by fixed wireless broadband.
Suffolk is hoping to complete the procurement phase (to secure a supplier to install the infrastructure) of the project by Q3 (July-Sept) 2012. Deployment should therefore commence before the end of 2012.
It is envisaged that the infrastructure will take up to 2.5 years to complete. The target date for completion is March 2015.
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