A vital survey to establish the future broadband needs of residents and businesses has been launched by Essex County Council.
Running until Monday 3rd May, the Essex County Council Broadband Survey aims to better understand connectivity needs across the county and identify addresses that should be included in future state-funded broadband rollouts.
Launched by Superfast Essex, the council’s broadband improvement programme, the survey invites residents and businesses to share information about their current broadband connectivity, including their provider and download speed, as well as what they use their connection for.
To date, the Superfast Essex programme has worked with network operators Openreach and Gigaclear to extend broadband coverage to nearly 140,000 properties across Essex.
Superfast Essex is now exploring how to support the deployment of gigabit-capable networks, in line with the government’s ambition for 85% of homes and businesses to have access to ultrafast (gigabit-capable) broadband by 2025. As part of this, the government has committed to investing £5bn in the hardest to reach parts of the country, where commercial investment is not viable.
The Essex County Council Broadband Survey is designed to help Superfast Essex validate which homes and businesses can currently access a fast broadband service, and those which cannot and therefore should be eligible for future public-funded broadband investment. In parallel to this survey, the Council is also consulting broadband network operators to identify which addresses are in commercial rollout plans for a gigabit-capable service.
To find out more, visit www.superfastessex.org/broadbandsurvey