Superfast Cornwall, the pioneering fibre broadband programme funded by the EU, BT and Cornwall Council, has been the catalyst for large-scale economic growth in Cornwall, bringing £186.1 million of economic benefit, according to independent research published today by SERIO at Plymouth University and Buckman Associates.

The research estimates that more than 12,000 Cornish companies are connected to the high-speed network, resulting in 2,000 new jobs being created and a further 2,500 safeguarded.

The programme, which began in 2010, has now reached its goal of making fibre available to 95 per cent of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, far outstripping the original aspiration of 80 per cent, and including 30 per cent (85,000) with access to ultrafast fibre to the premises (FTTP). It has created one of the best-connected rural economies for fibre broadband in the world.

The research involved more than 2,000 separate survey responses and is thought to be the UK’s most advanced piece of research into the economic impact of fibre broadband. It shows the full success of the programme, with a prediction that by June 2016, a year after the completion of the first stage roll-out, the impact will increase from £186.1m to over £250m.

Of those businesses connected for at least one year, 79 per cent cited performance improvements and nearly half have been able to develop new goods and services. The study also found that connected businesses demonstrated an average of more than four times more growth in revenues over the same period than non-connected businesses.

Almost half (49 per cent) reported that superfast broadband had helped their business to generate new sales and almost a quarter (24 per cent) of that group pointed to new trade overseas, showing how superfast broadband is giving Cornwall’s businesses a platform to compete in global markets.

Some 258,000 homes and businesses are covered by the open access high-speed network built by BT’s local network business, Openreach. With more than 67,000 homes and businesses now connected, through 60 different internet service providers, Cornwall is seeing some of the highest take-up of fibre found anywhere in the UK. Some areas that were upgraded early in the project are seeing take-up in excess of 40 per cent.

During the course of the project, Cornwall set a new world record for the fastest broadband speed of 10 Gbps in November 2012 at Threemilestone Industrial Estate, Truro.

Nigel Ashcroft MBE, Superfast Cornwall programme director for the Cornwall Development Company, Cornwall Council’s economic development company, said: “This is great news for the Cornwall economy and it vindicates the brave decision by Cornwall Council over five years ago to invest in partnership with BT and the EU on a superfast broadband project, far ahead of most other areas in Europe. We always had faith that faster broadband would be a catalyst for growth, innovation and prosperity – but the scale of the progress we’re making is now both unquestionable and staggering, which shows just what can be achieved through partnership and collaboration. Cornwall is attracting great investment and talent because it has the natural beauty and digital infrastructure to compete with anywhere in the world.

“Whilst 95% coverage is a remarkable achievement for Cornwall, we have not forgotten about the remaining most rural and hardest to reach 5%, which is why the council recently announced a further project that aims to bring access to superfast broadband to at least 99% of premises in the region.”