Broadband is boosted
Ultra-fast speeds for Hamilton
Downloading a film and sharing or streaming content is about to become faster and more reliable for more than 30,000 homes and businesses in Hamilton.
People living in the town are set to benefit from access to some of the fastest broadband speeds available (up to 330 Mbps), providing enough bandwidth for a family of four to all stream ultra HD or 4k quality movies or TV simultaneously.
It’s after Openreach, the UK’S largest telephone and broadband network, announced the next locations to be upgraded under their ultrafast broadband investment.
Councillor John Anderson, chair of the Community and Enterprise Resources Committee at South Lanarkshire Council, said: “This is great news for Hamilton and we’re pleased to see Openreach once again investing in the area. “We know how important having fast and reliable broadband a connection is, not only now but also for the future.
“With everyone doing more and more online, it’s important our local infrastructure keeps pace, and this investment will help to make sure that happens.”
This latest work in Hamilton will use a technology called Gfast, which builds on existing infrastructure, changing the way broadband signals are transmitted to make them ultrafast without the need to dig up roads and install new cabling all the way to the property.
The rollout will see Openreach engineers building on the existing high speed broadband network across South Lanarkshire, where nearly 96 per cent of homes and businesses already have access to superfast (speeds of 24Mbps and above) broadband.
With superfast broadband, things like uploading and downloading music, films and photos all happen quickly and it’s great for studying or working from home.
As well as adding even more reliability and resilience to the network – meaning the connection is less likely to drop out – ultrafast broadband brings faster speeds and greater capacity for multiple devices and applications like ondemand video, virtual reality gaming and smart home technology. The technology also has huge benefits for small businesses and people working from home.
Andrew Hepburn, Openreach’s director of major programmes, said: “We’re delighted to be upgrading our network and extending our ultrafast broadband reach to new locations in Scotland, benefitting thousands more homes and businesses.
“The amount people are doing online is growing every year and the pace shows no sign of slowing. We understand people need to have a fast and reliable connection at home and at work, and our ultrafast broadband network is at the forefront of making that happen.
“Our engineers are working hard to extend the reach of our network as quickly as possible. We’re building the infrastructure Scotland needs to stay ahead in the global digital economy, and it’s great that Hamilton is able to benefit from our early work.”