Great news! We’re more than three-quarters of the way through phase one of our Digital Derbyshire programme.

It means even more homes and businesses across the county can now access better, faster broadband.

Work to lay hundreds of miles of fibre optic cable has progressed well throughout the summer and we’re on track to achieve our goal of providing access to 88,000 properties in Derbyshire by the end of 2016 – around 95%.

There’s good news for harder to reach areas too -- further funding has been made available to increase coverage to more than 100,000 premises across the county by the end of 2018.

If you’re not sure whether you can access fibre broadband from your home or business you can check using the postcode checker on our new-look website, together with useful information about how to order fibre broadband and how it could benefit you.

Keep checking our website for all the latest information.

Councillor Dean Collins
Derbyshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Highways, Transport and Infrastructure

More than 70,000 homes and businesses can now access fibre broadband.

Fibre is faster and more reliable than old-style copper connections and ordering it is easy. Simply follow these five steps:

1. Check if fibre broadband is available in your area by visiting our new-look website.
2. Check your current broadband contract to see if you’re tied in for a period of time.
3. Do your research to find out what broadband packages are available from different providers.
4. Decide which provider you want to go with.
5. Contact your chosen provider to place your order and find out how and when your broadband will be installed.

Visit our website for more information.

Even more homes and businesses are set to benefit from the Digital Derbyshire programme now a further £7 million has been set aside to take fibre broadband to particularly hard-to-reach places.

This second phase of work builds on the original programme that is bringing better, faster broadband to more than 88,000 homes and businesses across the county by the end of 2016.

The additional funding from central government, BT and the D2N2 local Enterprise Partnership will extend overall coverage to more than 100,000 premises by the end of 2018 and take the total investment for Digital Derbyshire to £34 million.

Steve Henderson, BT’s regional director for next generation access, said: “Our work with the council in Derbyshire has already made fibre broadband available to tens of thousands of homes and businesses. Across the county, the way people use the internet is being transformed. We’re delighted that the council have chosen to work with BT to help them extend that reach even further in the coming years.”