Openreach announces major new investment
PEOPLE living and working in 20 communities across the South West will have their broadband upgraded, after Openreach announced a £31.5 million investment.
It means 90,000 more homes and businesses in Devon communities including Newton Abbot, Honiton, Kennford, Woolacombe, Bampton, Stoke Canon, Sidbury will benefit from a new, ultra-fast, ultra-reliable “full fibre” broadband network. Communities in Somerset, Dorset, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire will also be boosted.
The UK’s largest digital network provider, which employs more than 3,400 people across the South West, has now reached more than six million homes and businesses across the UK with ultra-fast full fibre – more than 540,000 of them in the South West.
The plans are a further boost for the region, as they follow news earlier this year that an additional 720,000 homes and businesses in the South West would receive access to Openreach’s new network, including 440,000 in rural and harder-to-serve areas.
Connie Dixon, Openreach’s regional director for the South West, said: “Good connectivity is vital – whether it’s to work from home, access education and care services, or for gaming and streaming entertainment – and that’s why we’re investing across the UK to upgrade our network to 25 million premises.
“Nobody’s building faster, further or to a higher standard than Openreach, and we’ve already reached six million homes and businesses with ultra-fast full fibre technology, including around 540,000 in the South West. It’s proving popular as well, with nearly 30% of the population already choosing to start using it.
“Our engineers and build partners are reaching more communities every week and we’re not just building in cities and urban areas. Many rural and hard-to-reach communities are already benefitting and we plan to reach many more in the coming months and years.”
Across the UK, 1.3 million homes and businesses have already ordered a full fibre service from a range of retail service providers using the Openreach network, but this means 4.7 million more are yet to start benefiting from some of the fastest, most reliable broadband connections in the world, and have yet to upgrade.
Recent research by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) highlighted the clear economic benefits of connecting everyone in the South West to full fibre. It estimated this would create a £4.3 billion boost to the economy.
Openreach engineers have been working to make the technology available to as many people as possible throughout the UK – at times reaching 47,000 premises a week – and work will continue between now and 2026, with the full list of locations and timescales being updated regularly on the Openreach website.
The company’s plans are fundamental to the Government achieving its target of delivering “gigabit capable” broadband to 85% of UK by 2025. The BT-owned firm, used by more than 660 service providers, plans to reach a total of 25 million premises by the end of December, 2026, including more than six million in the hardest-to-serve parts of the country, as defined by industry regulator Ofcom.