Marshwood Vale Acquires High Speed Internet

West Dorset’s Marshwood Vale now has access to some of the UK’s fastest internet speeds.

21:31 23 August 2018

Following a campaign that begun over four years ago, West Dorset’s Marshwood Vale, one of the most rural parts of the UK, now has access to highspeed internet.

 

In 2014, the community worked with local councils and has successfully secured more than £1million of government funding as the area was not included in the local authority’s initial roll-out plans, which heavily focused on more densely-populated areas. 

 

Daryl Turner, Dorset County Council cabinet member for the natural and built environment, said: "The tremendous landscape in the vale made it an incredibly challenging build.”

 

Charles Somers, Chairman of the Marshwood Broadband Group, said: “We succeeded in obtaining substantial funding to support a broadband network upgrade.

 

“The choice of FTTP has meant an enormous change to people and businesses here and will contribute to maintaining the future for our very rural area for a wide range of people living, working, studying and running businesses here.

 

Emma Howarth, Programme Director for Openreach, said: “The Marshwood Vale is a beautiful part of the country and I’m delighted that our engineers have been able to bring ultrafast broadband connectivity to the area."