Our journey
The Better Broadband for Suffolk (BB4S) programme started in 2010, when at that point there had been several commercial broadband upgrades in Suffolk.
However, these services were generally constrained to Suffolk’s urban areas, and there wasn’t a commercial business case for upgrades for around a half of Suffolk - and this is where BB4S started from.
Funding
The BB4S Programme receives public funding to make fibre broadband available
in areas that are not expected to be covered by commercial upgrades.
The funding is from:
- Suffolk County Council
- Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)
- New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership (NALEP)
- Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA)
- and other local councils
Delivery
Openreach are contracted to deliver the work.
Although challenged by the rurality of Suffolk, we have consistently been in the lead among other counties in the extent of our contracted deployment plans, progress on roll-out, and levels of take-up.
In 2013, we had achieved 50% superfast broadband coverage in Suffolk.
In 2015, we reached 85% coverage.
In 2020 the Better Broadband for Suffolk programme reached it's 100,000 customer.
In 2021, phase 3 of the Better Broadband for Suffolk programme started and by the completion of this phase (December 2022), there is now 98% coverage (with speeds of 24Mbps or greater) in the county.
