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BT eyeing Staffordshire broadband funding
The telecoms giant is aiming to secure some of the £7.44 million of broadband funding awarded to Staffordshire.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has awarded £7.44 million to the county, with the money set to be spent on bringing fast internet access to more than 178,000 properties in the area.
In a letter published by the Burton Mail, John Dovey from BT declared the announcement of government funding for Staffordshire is good news for local homes and businesses that would not otherwise have benefited from broadband improvement work.
He noted that while the company is currently engaged in a £2.5 billion project to bring fibre optic broadband to two-thirds of properties across the UK, it is also keen to collaborate with the public sector to help boost connectivity for the so-called 'final third'. This comprises largely rural, less densely populated locations where the costs and challenges related to rolling out broadband are significantly higher.
According to Mr Dovey, BT is "well placed" to play an important role in developing Staffordshire's communications infrastructure thanks to experience in deploying sustainable, open-access networks across the county in the past.
"This experience and our proven partnership approach, which is already bringing super-fast broadband to rural areas such as Cornwall and Northern Ireland, are important factors if we are all to benefit from competition and the resulting low prices," he explained.
The regional director added he and his colleagues are looking forward to "developing proposals to support the county vision for faster broadband services to our rural areas".
Earlier this year, BT announced another 143,000 homes and businesses in the West Midlands will be hooked up to its fibre optic broadband network either before the end of this year or during 2012. Some 63,000 of these properties will be located in Staffordshire.