200,000th Ultrafast Full Fibre customer connected in NI
Openreach Northern Ireland (NI) has marked a significant milestone in its network build as its 200,000th customer has been connected to Ultrafast Full Fibre broadband.
This milestone comes less than a year after Openreach NI announced it had connected its 100,000th customer to Full Fibre broadband in December 2021. Now, double the number of properties in Northern Ireland have been upgraded to the next generation of the network.
With demand for online services continuing to rise, Openreach NI is leading the charge in ensuring the region has a future-proof broadband network capable of meeting these demands - now, and for decades to come.
The company’s 1000-strong team has been proceeding at pace with the build of the region’s largest Ultrafast Full Fibre network, playing an important role in keeping people and businesses connected.
Today, 200,000 customers in Northern Ireland are connected to the expansive Openreach platform and can access an even faster, more reliable, and future-proof broadband connection essential for everyday life. With a connection up to twelve times faster than the average broadband, households and businesses can enjoy better quality video calling, higher resolution movie streaming and gaming, and the ability to connect more devices at once without experiencing any slowdown, buffering or dropouts.
The Barber Collective, a barber shop located in Ballymena, was recently upgraded to the latest broadband technology.
Speaking about the upgrade, Barry Johnston, Co-Founder and Barber at The Barber Collective said: “We’re already seeing first-hand the difference Ultrafast Full Fibre broadband has made to our business and it’s great to see so many others across Northern Ireland have similarly benefitted.
“At The Barber Collective, we rely heavily on a decent broadband connection to operate our business. From client bookings made via our app, to social media to promote our business, and using our online system to schedule our barbers – our previously poor broadband speeds made everyday tasks such as these a lot more challenging.
“Openreach is building Full Fibre broadband to not only cities but also towns and villages across the country. I would encourage all local businesses to check their eligibility for an upgrade and take advantage of the wide-spread availability of Full Fibre technology.”
Openreach NI continues to invest in the economic future of Northern Ireland with more than 80% of homes and businesses now able to get its next generation Ultrafast Full Fibre broadband – that’s 4 out of 5 properties.
Commenting on the 200,000th customer milestone, Garret Kavanagh, Director of Openreach in Northern Ireland, said: “I am immensely proud of the engineering workforce who have carried out Openreach’s build programme across the length and breadth of the country. We have hit this significant milestone thanks to their hard work, professionalism, and dedication to connecting the people of Northern Ireland to Full Fibre broadband.
“The past few years have been challenging for us all but Full Fibre broadband has been life-enhancing to so many people and businesses during this time, and we love to hear the stories about the positive difference this technology has made and continues to make to those living in Northern Ireland”.
For more information on Ultrafast Full Fibre broadband, visit openreach.co.uk/ultrafast.
