29
September
2022
|
15:10
Europe/Amsterdam

Dr Luke Evans MP gets stuck in with Openreach’s broadband build

Bosworth MP Dr Luke Evans has visited Openreach engineers to witness first-hand the innovative engineering techniques being used to deliver Ultrafast Full Fibre broadband across his constituency.

He was given a tour of the work, which is making faster and more reliable full fibre broadband available to homes and businesses in the local area. More than 500,000 premises across the East Midlands – including 30,000 in Leicestershire - can already benefit.

Meeting with the MP, the local Openreach team were able to explain how the build in urban areas is happening alongside rural work, highlighting a number of recent announcements covering hundreds of thousands of premises that are next in line to get full fibre broadband.

Luke Evans MP visited the telephone exchange in Hinckley to look at where the Openreach network for the local area starts. He was able speak with engineers and find out more about how full fibre is future-proofing connections for many years to come.

Then it was on to a property in Netherley Road, where the MP was able to try his hand at joining two bits of fibre cable together, and witness first-hand how engineers are playing a key role by providing Ultrafast full fibre connections to lots of new homes.

Dr Luke Evans MP said: “I was pleased to meet with local Openreach engineers and discuss the work the team are doing to improve broadband connectivity across our county.

“I have worked closely with Openreach and have been pleased to see ultra-fast broadband upgrades for a number of homes in Bosworth, including more than 300 homes on the Sketchley Brook estate in Burbage and over 80 in Stoke Golding.

“This is a big piece of work for our area over the coming couple of years and I will continue to work with Openreach as they roll out upgrades to other villages in our community, such as Earl Shilton and Barwell.”

The visit was hosted by Kasam Hussain, partnership director for Openreach in the Midlands, who said: “We welcomed the opportunity to give Dr Luke Evans MP a step-by-step demonstration of our technology. Our engineers work hard every day to keep communities across Leicestershire and the wider East Midlands connected, and it was great to be able to share the challenges and realities of delivering this technology.

“I would urge everyone in the local area to keep an eye on the build locally to see when full fibre is available to them. They can visit the Openreach fibre checker, which is regularly updated with our build progress and when full fibre is available in specific areas.”

Openreach is building full fibre faster, at lower cost and higher quality than anyone else in the UK.

With download speeds of 1 Gbps, it’s up to 10 times faster than the average home broadband connection. That means faster game downloads, better quality video calls and higher resolution movie streaming.

You can also use multiple devices at once without experiencing slowdown – so more people in your household can get online at once. Even if the rest of your family are making video calls, streaming box sets or gaming online, all at the same time – you won’t experience stuttering, buffering or dropouts.

Full fibre is also less affected by peak time congestion – so you can enjoy your Saturday night blockbuster in 4K without the dreaded buffering screen.

Through its Superfast Leicestershire project, Leicestershire County Council has delivered superfast broadband to more than 75,000 premises across Leicestershire and Leicester City, taking the total superfast coverage to 97 per cent – and is working with Building Digital UK to roll out Gigabit broadband.

Councillor Pam Posnett, Leicestershire County Council cabinet member for broadband, said:We live in a digital world so it’s great to see the progress that’s being made. Access to fast and reliable broadband helps us connect with our families, communities and more than ever, provides greater flexibility in how we work and learn.

“We understand that some parts of Leicestershire still face challenges in connecting digitally and we will continue to work with partners including Building Digital UK and providers including Openreach to secure Leicestershire’s digital future.

Openreach is working to build and connect customers to the company’s ultrafast, ultra-reliable Full Fibre broadband network - which is on track to reach 25 million homes and businesses by December 2026.

Openreach employs more than 1,600 people across the East Midlands and in February announced plans to recruit a create and fill a further 160 jobs.

This short video explains what Full Fibre technology is and you can find out more about our Fibre First programme, latest availability and local plans here.