An electronics manufacturer in Truro has become the 10,000th Cornish customer to take-up high speed fibre optic broadband.
ARCOL UK, based on the Threemilestone Industrial Estate, is the latest business to benefit from the pioneering Superfast Cornwall private and public sector broadband partnership.
And the high speed technology is already playing a key role in ARCOL’s growing global success. The firm, which was established in 1952 and produces and sells up to 4 million power resistors a year in more than 30 countries worldwide, has seen broadband speeds rocket 60 fold since becoming one of the first businesses at Threemilestone to connect to the latest fibre to the premises broadband technology.
Alun Morgan, ARCOL’s technical director, said: “Our experience of superfast broadband so far is really superb. The previous broadband line was giving us a download speed of around 1.5 Mbps, whereas our new fibre connection is regularly providing 92 Mbps of data throughput – a colossal difference, which is giving us the ability to do everything much more quickly.”
The company says the new fibre optic technology is helping it reduce costs, allow it to work more efficiently and flexibly and helping it build stronger relationships with its customers.
“We need to have the ability to constantly reach out to our customers,” added Morgan, “whether the medium is IP (internet protocol) telephony, video-conferencing or online chat. Superfast broadband has given us many more avenues to cement these important relationships.”
Superfast Cornwall – a partnership between BT, the European Union and Cornwall Council – expects to make fibre broadband available to at least 80% of homes and businesses in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly by the end of 2014 with alternative technologies, such as wireless and satellite, being used to boost speeds in those areas where super-fast broadband is not currently viable.
Nigel Ashcroft, programme director of Superfast Cornwall for Cornwall Development Company, which is managing the £132 million programme, said: “The 10,000th customer is another major milestone in the rapid development of the Superfast Cornwall programme. More than 100,000 Cornish homes and businesses already have access to fibre optic broadband and take-up of the service continues to grow at a very strong rate.”
