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Leader's column: Full speed ahead for full fibre

In her latest Reporter column, Tameside Council's Executive Leader, Cllr Brenda Warrington, gives an update on plans to roll out full-fibre broadband across the borough.

Despite being a tumultuous year for the country as a whole, 2019 proved to be a year of progress and achievement here in Tameside.

I’m happy to say that as soon as the Christmas decorations were put away we’ve been working hard to build on the solid foundations of the last 12 months.

The next part of that journey began last Tuesday, when I attended a meeting of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) that finalised the details of how we intend to roll out full-fibre broadband across the city region. 

Unlike traditional copper wire broadband connections, full-fibre transmits data by pulses of light through fibre and plastic cables. 

This results in a much faster internet connection; while a good copper wire can transmit up to 66 megabytes per second of data; full-fibre averages 1,000 megabytes per second.

The deal agreed last week will give Greater Manchester the best high-speed internet coverage of any city-region in the UK. 

While this would benefit individual households hungry for more data due to the rise of streaming services, smart devices and video calls, it would have a transformative impact on businesses.

But Tameside is already ahead of the game. Since February 2018, the Tameside Digital Infrastructure Cooperative (TDIC) has allowed us to make the best use of the fibre connections that already exist here. 

The Ashton Old Baths has preserved our local history while looking to the future by providing offices and incubators for high-tech businesses. 

The Hospital and our Community Response Service have developed the award-winning Digital Health approach, which has reduced the demand on our A&E services, supported our care homes and allowed elderly and vulnerable residents to live in dignity and comfort. 

Looking at the longer term, we’ve helped to set up a number of events such as CoderDojos and Tameside Hacks to guarantee that all our young people have the chance to learn digital skills from an early age in a fun and relaxed environment.

This new deal agreed by the GMCA will allow us to both expand on what we’ve built in Tameside, and link up with the other great work that’s be done in the other local authorities that make up our city region. 

It’s my hope that this will be the first of many blogs I’ll be able to write this year about how we’re investing in our towns, our economy and our shared future.

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