11 North West areas set to get broadband boost thanks to £77m full-fibre roll-out
Thousands of more homes and businesses in the region are close to getting a broadband upgrade thanks to £77m investment by Openreach.
Around 220,000 homes across Cheshire, Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside are due to be upgraded following the company’s latest build announcement to provide “new, ultrafast, ultra-reliable ‘full fibre’ broadband” network to premises in Chatburn, Irlam, Macclesfield, Nelson, Oldham, Ramsbottom, Rossendale, Shaw, Simonswood, Tottington and Wilmslow.
Openreach – the UK’s largest digital network provider – is used by more than 660 service providers including BT, Sky, TalkTalk, Vodafone and Zen.
The network provider has reached more than 6 million homes and businesses across the UK with Ultrafast Full Fibre, with more than 765,000 of them in the North West.
The plans are a further boost for the region as they follow news earlier this year that around 900,000 homes and businesses would be getting access to Openreach’s new network, including hundreds of thousands in rural and harder to serve areas.
Robert Thorburn, Openreach’s regional director for the North, 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 billions 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 ultrafast full fibre technology, including more than 765,000 in the North West. It’s proving popular as well, with tens of thousands 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.”
