VALE MP Alun Cairns recently visited Dinas Powys as it became one of the first villages in the Vale of Glamorgan to enjoy high speed fibre broadband.

More than 14,000 local homes and businesses of the Vale are set to benefit from fibre broadband by spring 2015.

Vale of Glamorgan MP Alun Cairns has been learning about the technology behind the roll out of high speed fibre broadband in his constituency.

The MP visited one of the new Superfast Cymru fibre broadband street cabinet’s to go live in the Vale, in the village of Dinas Powys, and found out for himself how the technology works and why it’s essential for future success and prosperity in the area.

He urged local people to reap the benefits of this major investment in high-speed fibre broadband which is now available to the first homes and businesses in Dinas Powys.

The communities of Bonvilston, Cowbridge, Peterston super Ely, Rhoose, Southerdown, St Athan, Sully and Wick, will join them later this year with 14,000 premises in the Vale set to have access to fibre broadband by spring 2015.

This is in addition to BT’s own commercial roll-out which has already made fibre broadband available to more than 36,000 homes and businesses in Barry, Llantwit Major and Penarth.

Superfast Cymru, a partnership between Welsh Government and BT, with additional funding from Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) and the European Regional Development Fund, is taking fibre broadband to parts of the country not covered by commercial plans.

Mr Cairns said: “This is great news for Dinas Powys and something that we have been looking forward to for some time.

“Fibre broadband has an essential role to play in the stimulation of economic recovery and in building a more prosperous future for us all. It’s a major step forward that hundreds of local people can now get connected to this exciting technology.

“To ensure future success we need the right building blocks in place. One of these is having the digital technology to support our people and economy. High speed fibre broadband will transform the business sector and attract new inward investment.

“With access to fibre broadband, local firms can explore new ways of working and speed up vital operations, to boost their ability to compete.

“It’s not solely about business and industry, though; home computer users will also reap the educational and social benefits of faster internet access. Broadband speed is a subject close to the heart of many of my constituents, so it’s been fascinating to see today just how these powerful connections are carried into homes and businesses.”

Research carried out for BT by Regeneris Consulting suggests that in the next 15 years super-fast broadband could give the economy of a typical town a £143 million boost and create 225 new jobs, 140 new start-up businesses and 1,000 more homeworkers1.

Homes and businesses in rural as well as urban parts of Wales will be getting access to some of the best broadband speeds in the country via Superfast Cymru along with BT’s own commercial roll-out which has already reached more than 600,000 homes and businesses.

The high speed service will boost the competitiveness of local firms and offer new ways of flexible working, entertainment and learning opportunities for local residents.

Fibre broadband gives users the ability to run multiple bandwidth-hungry applications at the same time such as sending and receiving large amounts of data much more quickly and efficiently.

At home, fibre broadband enables a family to simultaneously download a movie, watch a TV replay service, surf the internet and play games online all at the same time. A whole album can be downloaded in less than 30 seconds and a feature length HD movie in less than 10 minutes, whilst high-resolution photos can be uploaded to Facebook in seconds.