THE first high speed fibre broadband cabinet launched in Brentwood this week as the town joined the Superfast Essex broadband programme.

The cabinet on Hutton Industrial Estate is one of three that has been made live across the county so far.

Together the cabinets have enabled more than 230 connections for fibre broadband services for residents and businesses in their surrounding areas.

A further 22 cabinets are due to be introduced in the Borough later in the programme providing more than 5,300 additional connections.

In Brentwood, the programme is working to increase superfast broadband coverage from 68 percent of the borough up to 85 percent by 2016.

Councillor Barry Aspinell, leader of Brentwood Council, said: “Anything that helps our businesses has got to be a good thing and I hope that more businesses and residents in the borough will soon benefit from the Superfast Essex Broadband Programme.”

Brentwood and Ongar MP Eric Pickles, who was also at the unveiling, added: “Superfast broadband is a great equaliser for Brentwood. Companies like Schwartz Printing and The Style Works, which rely on the ability to send and receive huge files of material by email, will benefit immeasurably, and this will be good for business in Brentwood.”

*Superfast Essex, part of the national Superfast Britain programme being coordinated by Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK), is a £24.6 million programme to deliver the county’s biggest ever broadband transformation