Coastal town revealed as Kent's number one Full Fibre hotspot

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A coastal town on the Isle of Sheppey has the best ultrafast broadband coverage in Kent, Openreach has revealed.

More than half of homes and businesses in Kent – over 480,000 - are able to access Full Fibre broadband through Openreach’s network, with engineers working to reach more properties throughout the county.

To mark the milestone, the UK’s biggest broadband network provider has revealed the location in Kent with the highest level of fibre coverage.

In coastal town of Minster, almost nine out of every 10 residents are able to upgrade to ultrafast, ultra-reliable Full Fibre broadband. The nearby town of Sheerness is second on the list, with Hawkinge third and Sevington fourth.

Innovation helped bring better broadband to Sheppey – and avoided months of disruption. Openreach deployed ‘SHE’ (Subtended Headend) technology for two of the island’s exchanges, installing ultrafast broadband optical signal boosting equipment.  

It meant a new fibre ‘spine’ didn’t have to be built over the Sheppey Crossing – work which would have taken months to complete and required traffic management.

Openreach is continuing build new and expand existing Full Fibre networks throughout Kent – with engineers working in 20 locations around the county, including Folkestone, Canterbury and Dartford.

Andy Whale, Openreach Chief Engineer, said: “Our amazing engineers did a brilliant job using innovative, cutting-edge technology to bring ultrafast broadband to Sheppey with minimal disruption.

“This Full Fibre upgrade is a huge boost for Kent. We’re adopting a balanced build, bringing ultrafast speeds to the county’s biggest cities and most rural communities.

“We’re not stopping our build – and people in Kent should visit the Openreach website to see if they can upgrade to Full Fibre already, or see when we’re coming to their area.”

People can visit openreach.co.uk/ultrafastfullfibre to register for updates and check their postcode to see if services are available from their chosen provider. They can then contact their provider to upgrade to Full Fibre.

The Openreach network offers the widest choice of providers, such as BT, Sky, TalkTalk, Vodafone and Zen, which means people have lots of choice and can shop for the best deals.

You can find out more about the benefits of an upgrade to Full Fibre broadband on the Openreach website.