BT have announced this week that super-fast, fibre-based broadband is now available to the first homes and businesses in Wilmslow.
More than 66,000 householders and firms in Greater Manchester are poised to join the high-speed revolution as engineers complete the local upgrades over the next few weeks.
People living and working in Wilmslow, along with those in Denton, Hyde, Swinton and Urmston, are among the first in the UK to benefit from BT's roll-out of fibre-based broadband.
Once the upgrades are completed locals will be able to get download speeds of up to 40Mb/s, potentially rising to 60Mb/s in the future, and upload capability of up to 10Mb/s.
While BT estimates that the great majority of premises in upgraded areas will be able to access fibre-based broadband, it is likely a minority will not initially be able to receive services for a variety of technical and commercial reasons. BT's local network business Openreach, which is deploying the technology, is actively looking at alternative solutions for these locations.
Mike Blackburn, BT's North West regional director, said "This is an exciting development in the region's fast-moving broadband story. Households and businesses switching to super-fast broadband will soon be experiencing the internet as they have never experienced it before.
"The advent of BT fibre-based broadband in Wilmslow will support local jobs and the local economy and is a vital part of BT's broadband plans for the region."
Super-fast speeds allow users to run multiple bandwidth-hungry applications at the same time. For example, some members of a family could be watching different high definition (HD) movies or 3D TV, while others play online games or work on complex graphics or video projects.
Further roll-out plans are due to be announced later this year. Householders and businesses can contact their broadband service provider to place an order or register their interest.
