People living and working in 20 communities across the South West will have their broadband upgraded after Openreach announced a £31.5m investment.
It means 90,000 more homes and businesses in communities including Newton Abbot, Honiton, Woolacombe, Painswick, North Curry and Trowbridge will benefit from a new, ultrafast, ultra-reliable "full fibre" broadband network.
The Ƶ's largest digital network provider, which employs more than 3,400 people across the South West, has now reached more than 6million homes and businesses across the Ƶ with ultrafast 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 Ƶ 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 ultrafast 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 Ƶ, 1.3million homes and businesses have already ordered a Full Fibre service from a range of retail service providers using the Openreach network. But this means 4.7million 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 £4.3bn boost to the economy.
Openreach engineers have been working to make the technology available to as many people as possible throughout the Ƶ – 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 Ƶ Government achieving its target of delivering "gigabit capable" broadband to 85% of Ƶ by 2025. The company, used by more than 660 service providers, plans to reach a total of 25million premises by the end of December 2026, including more than six million in the hardest-to-serve parts of the country defined by industry regulator Ofcom.
The communities that will receive an upgrade include: Newton Abbot, Honiton, Kennford, Woolacombe, Bampton, Stoke Canon, Sidbury (all in Devon), Ferndown, Wimborne, Puddletown (in Dorset), Painswick and Falfield (in Gloucestershire), Chilton Polden, Washford, North Curry and Ashcott (in Somerset), Trowbridge, Box, Idmiston, and North Trowbridge (in Wiltshire).
