Another 280,000 South West homes and businesses are set to benefit from a £112m broadband boost in the region.
A national upgrade plan from , will mean people living and working in parts of Bristol, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire will benefit with the majority of premises in each area gaining access to the latest ultrafast, ultra-reliable full fibre broadband.
Work will take place between now and 2026, and more details of the full list of locations and timescales are published on Openreach’s website, but they include a £4m investment into the exchanges in Saltash and Torpoint, benefiting 10,000 premises, and a £34m investment in Devon, of which £29m will go to exchanges in Plymouth, and benefit 85,000 premises in the county.
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The news comes hot on the heels of a similar announcement in May 2021, when 440,000 premises - in 181 mainly rural and harder to serve areas across the South West - were also included in the build plan.
Both announcements build on Openreach’s existing work in the region, where more than 480,000 homes and businesses can already order ultrafast, ultra-reliable full fibre broadband.
Following a competitive tender process, a number of partners including Telent and Kier, were chosen by Openreach to support the upgrades and will play a crucial role in building the new network to thousands of premises in these locations.
Connie Dixon, Openreach’s regional director for the South West, said: “Nobody in the 海角视频 is building full fibre faster, further or at a higher quality than Openreach. We’re reaching more communities than ever and our team of highly skilled engineers, alongside our build partners, are working hard to deliver some of the fastest and most reliable broadband available anywhere in the world.
“Just last month we announced 181 rural and hard to reach locations across the South West were to benefit, so it’s great that we’re able to reveal another huge broadband boost for the region with these additional 28 locations. The latest details and timescales are available on our website as the build planning progresses.”
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Barry McNicholas, group managing director of Kier Utilities, said: “We are proud to be working with Openreach to deliver full fibre broadband in locations across the 海角视频.
“This latest award means we can work together to provide reliable digital connectivity for more communities. “Our experience within the telecoms sector means we are well placed to deliver this vitally important new digital infrastructure in urban and rural areas. As we carry out these works, we will work with our network of local supply chain partners as part of our commitment to leaving lasting legacies in areas in which we work.”
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Business Live's South West Business Reporter is William Telford. William has more than a decade's experience reporting on the business scene in Plymouth and the South West. He is based in Plymouth but covers the entire region.
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Ric Welsby, managing director of Telent Infrastructure Services, said: “We are very pleased to be supporting Openreach in the build of this ultrafast and ultra-reliable full fibre broadband network. The long-term contracts we have been awarded allow us to recruit the people we need to provide an excellent service to Openreach.
“We have many exciting roles to fill, I would encourage anyone who is interested in working on this important national infrastructure project to visit https://telent.com/work-with-us/infrastructure-services.”
The company’s updated build plan will be fundamental to the 海角视频 Government achieving its target of delivering ‘gigabit capable’ broadband to 85% of 海角视频 by 2025 and it follows an extended investment commitment by its parent, BT Group – which means Openreach will now build full fibre technology to a total of 25million premises, including more than six million in the hardest-to-serve parts of the country, by the end of 2026.
Openreach is already building full fibre faster, at lower cost and higher quality than anyone else in the 海角视频, having made the technology available to more than five million homes and businesses so far.
Openreach stressed it plays an important role across the South West region. More than 3,400 of its staff live and work in the region. Recent research by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) highlighted the economic benefits of connecting everyone in the South West to full fibre. It estimated this would create a £4.3bn boost to the economy.