Laying fibre across the Fal

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Superfast Cornwall today announced plans to make superfast fibre broadband available to hundreds more homes and businesses in one of the most remote Cornish locations – the Roseland Peninsula.

Engineers from BT’s local network business, Openreach, have installed two new underwater fibre optic cables across the River Fal, which will give an additional 500 Roseland homes and businesses access to the high-speed fibre technology by the end of the year.

It will take fibre broadband coverage on the peninsula from the current 78% of premises to about 95%.

Not for transmission or publication without express permission of the copyright owner, Simon Burt

The job posed a number of challenges because of the way the bed of the River Fal shelves steeply, the need to safeguard the local environment and the river’s importance to shipping.

Nigel Ashcroft, Superfast Cornwall programme director for the Cornwall Development Company, the economic development company of Cornwall Council, said: “Only a few weeks ago Superfast Cornwall made national and international headlines with its pioneering plan to bring superfast broadband to the Isles of Scilly.

“It was a very exciting announcement, but we should not forget that the partnership is also working very hard to make this exciting technology as widely available as possible on the UK mainland. The work being undertaken across the River Fal and on the Roseland Peninsula is a good example of that commitment. It means that Roseland will be among the best connected rural areas in the UK.”

Among the next businesses to get superfast broadband will be the King Harry Ferry company, which operates on the River Fal and celebrates its 125th  anniversary next month.

MD, Tim Light, said: “We can see many opportunities. It will help tremendously with our plans to run a Smartcard-type system for integrated travel around the River Fal because such a system requires a great deal of data to be passed between the bus, train and ferry services.

It should also be a boost for our online ticket sales, our wifi hotspots and the part of our company, which provides marketing services for about 360 firms and organisations in St Mawes, Truro and Roseland.”

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