Battle is to get high-speed broadband by late spring 2014

The town is the latest community to be included in BT’s £2.5 billion commercial roll-out of fibre broadband in the UK.

The expansion also includes a substantial investment in making fibre broadband more widely available in areas which already have the high-speed technology or are due to receive it.

Peter Jones, leader of East Sussex County Council, said the investment would help to build confidence of an economic recovery among local households and businesses.

Cllr Jones said: “This is very welcome news for Battle and we look forward to seeing other parts of East Sussex connected to the high-speed network.

“Faster and better broadband communications have never been more vital in order to succeed in an ever more competitive and connected world.

“The county council is playing its part with our go-esussex initiative and we’ll be spending millions of pounds over the next few years to support the rollout of high speed broadband.”

John Weaver, BT’s South East regional director, said: “This latest investment is a further vote of confidence in the future success of East Sussex. It will be an important part of our economic revival as we finally shrug off the effects of the downturn and create a better, more prosperous future.”

The upgrade will take the total number of premises with access to fibre broadband in East Sussex to more than 295,000.

BT’s local network business, Openreach, will be making fibre broadband available to two-thirds of UK homes and businesses by the end of 2014.

For further information on Openreach’s fibre broadband programme visit www.superfast-openreach.co.uk