George Freeman has welcomed the announcement by BT that Dereham is to be one of eight East of England market towns to be included in the next phase of BT’s roll-out of super-fast fibre broadband.

Over 9,500 premises served by Dereham exchange should be able to access super-fast broadband speeds of up to 40Mb/s from Spring 2012.

George Freeman said:
“This is excellent news for Dereham and the other market towns in our region. Access to a fast broadband connection is becoming an essential requirement for businesses and from school homework to shopping, so much of our life now involves the internet. Finally in Dereham residents can look forward to a consistently fast service that is worthy of a great town in the 21st Century.”

“However whilst I am delighted for Dereham and the other towns we should not overlook the large section of our region that are still without adequate broadband coverage. We must continue to put pressure on BT to deliver more investment and search for alternative solutions like Norfolk County Council’s pilot to provide broadband to the community using schools.”