Essex’s broadband superhero, Super Sam is returning this year to continue to raise awareness about Essex County Council’s Superfast Essex programme which is enabling 144,000 homes and businesses to access superfast broadband across the county.
Super Sam will be visiting libraries across the county during the Summer Reading Challenge to meet even more people and tell them about the benefits of superfast broadband. Visits to Maldon, Chelmsford, Harwich and Basildon libraries have been confirmed for August, and more dates and locations are due to be added.
To mark Super Sam’s return, he went back to St Lawrence Church of England Primary School in Rowhedge for the school’s end of summer term celebrations to meet some of the children who helped create him last year. Children from the school helped to describe what Super Sam should look like and featured in an animated film (available at www.superfastessex.org/supersam) talking about what they use the internet for.
Essex County Councillor, Kevin Bentley, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Economic Growth, Skills, Infrastructure and the Digital Economy said: “Super Sam is helping to raise awareness of the Superfast Essex broadband programme, and how it can benefit communities and Essex Libraries are a great place to engage with residents. We are working to provide more than 144,000 homes and businesses with superfast speeds and aim to make Essex one of the best connected counties in the country.”
Super Sam said: “It’s my duty as a superhero to tell people superfast broadband is on its way and make sure homes and business in Essex know how to get connected when the new technology arrives. There are a lot of people out there who need to study, work from home, or access information online, and want to keep in touch with family, friends and colleagues by video-calling, or watch the latest films and TV shows without interruptions and without buffering. I’m here to help communities get up to speed.”
Super Sam will be visiting Maldon Library on Friday 4th August, Chelmsford Library on Friday 11th August, Harwich Library on Tuesday 22nd August and Basildon Library on Thursday 24th August. More dates to be added. For more information visit: www.superfastessex.org/supersam
So far nearly more than 85,000 properties have been enabled to access speeds of 30Mbps or above by network operators Openreach and Gigaclear under the Superfast Essex programme. To check if you can get superfast broadband at your home or business or to see if you are in plans for an upgrade please visit the Superfast Essex interactive map at: www.superfastessex.org/maps