Government deal will see 'lightning fast' broadband rolled out in Cornwall and Isles of Scilly

Thousands of homes and businesses in rural Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly are set to get access to "lightning fast" broadband following a government deal with a local internet provider.

South West-based Wildanet has been awarded a £41m contract to carry out the work in East Cornwall, West Cornwall and the island of St Mary’s. The funding will come from the government's £5bn Project Gigabit programme.

The agreement will see the roll out of new connections to some 16,800 properties in the region. Towns and villages set to benefit stretch from Bude to Looe in the east of the county, and from Portreath to the Helford River in the west.

Initial work on network planning and surveys is expected in the coming weeks, while installation works are set to get under way in autumn this year.

Gigabit broadband is capable of delivering speeds of up to 1,000 megabits (or one gigabit) per second - up to 30 times faster than super-fast connections which rely on traditional copper cables. Gigabit speeds mean households can download a high-definition film in under one minute, stream and download entertainment, and shop online across several different devices at once.

The deal follows an investment of £36m by the government last year which saw Wildanet awarded two contracts to connect up to 19,250 homes and businesses in South West and mid-Cornwall.

Digital infrastructure minister Julia Lopez said: "Government-backed gigabit broadband for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly promises lightning-fast connectivity for remote communities, making tasks like uploading files and streaming content quicker and more reliable, while also boosting local businesses and sparking new job opportunities."

Helen Wylde-Archibald, Wildanet chief excutive, added: "The latest investment through Project Gigabit and the awarding of this contract is excellent news for Cornwall and for its many remote and hard-to-reach communities. It will help to bridge the digital divide, rectifying the historic imbalance in rural broadband provision whilst furthering the government’s ambition to grow the economy by rolling out first-class digital infrastructure."

Work is already under way by Wildanet to connect hard-to-reach rural communities in the region. Householders in Mullion (South West Cornwall) and Lanivet (in mid-Cornwall) were among the first 1,000 homes to see the new service go live.

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Ellen Morris, who lives in the village of Lanivet with her partner Michael and their two-and-a-half-year-old son, said the new broadband service had been transformational for the family.

“My partner is self-employed and has to file regular returns with HMRC, including uploading documents and receipts to the HMRC website. Uploads could take up to 15 minutes with our old service but are now completed in seconds and the stability of the service makes completing online forms and filing this information much easier," she said.