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Balfour Beatty completes Burgess Hill's full fibre digital network

Balfour Beatty New SK

16/06/2021

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A gigabit capable Full Fibre digital network in Burgess Hill is now ready to use and will bring dramatically improved broadband connections to homes and businesses within the town.

In 2018, Mid Sussex District Council (MSDC) secured £2.2million from the government to stimulate the market by making the delivery of gigabit-capable Full Fibre more commercially viable. Installation began in September 2020 and since then Balfour Beatty has laid over 25km of ducting across Mid Sussex, including the creation of a dedicated fibre network within Burgess Hill.

This is fantastic news, not only for Mid Sussex District Council, but for our communities right across the District. The Full Fibre network has always been a long-term objective for this Council.

Councillor Jonathan Ash-Edwards, Leader of MSDC

The Full Fibre network will be operated and maintained on behalf of the Council by a co-operative, sharing the digital infrastructure for the benefit of businesses and the community. Cooperative Network Infrastructure (CNI) will be working closely with the council to raise awareness of the network and promote the new opportunities available in Burgess Hill. Residents and businesses will be able to gain access to the network through commercial Internet Service Providers who are members of co-operative and are able to offer a wider choice of services at reduced market rates.

In addition, work is continuing to expand the fibre network into our rural communities north of Haywards Heath and south of Burgess Hill thanks to £3.2million of investment secured from the Government by MSDC and the Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership. Digital infrastructure in rural areas is often left behind that of large cities because it is a much less profitable area for private companies to install the latest gigabit capable full fibre broadband. This Government investment will help to stimulate the market in rural areas.

The expansion of Full Fibre infrastructure to rural areas of Mid Sussex is due to be completed by early 2022. Mid Sussex District Council are working with the telecoms market to coordinate the commercial roll-out around East Grinstead and link to the fibre network installed by West Sussex County Council between Haywards Heath and Crawley.