Superfast broadband has arrived in rural East Cambridgeshire with the first of many high speed fibre cabinets going live in towns and villages.

New green cabinets have gone live with high speed fibre in parts of Ely, Haddenham, Littleport, Little Thetford, Mepal, Soham, Sutton, Wilburton and Witchford, with more to follow as the countywide broadband roll-out programme gather momentum.

More than 5500 homes and businesses linked to these cabinets will be able to receive faster broadband speeds of 24 Mbps and higher by upgrading to superfast broadband with their chosen service provider.

The first 34 fibre cabinets for East Cambridgeshire will be going live between March and June 2014 under the roll-out programme with many more areas being connected in subsequent phases, including rural communities.

The high speed connections will be welcomed by many local residents and businesses, who have strongly supported the Connecting Cambridgeshire campaign for better broadband encouraged by local Broadband Champions. 

Residents can find out when they can expect to get fibre broadband and see when their local cabinets go live on an interactive map on the ‘my area’ pages of the Connecting Cambridgeshire website at http://www.connectingcambridgeshire.co.uk, which also has useful information about the benefits of superfast broadband, and how to get it.

Businesses in East Cambridgeshire can get help to make the most of faster broadband and digital technology through the new Destination Digital project, offering free business support and 40% grants of up to £4,000 towards digital products and services. Find out more at www.destinationdigital.info