Fastest broadband in the UK speeds towards new Oxfordshire housing developments

Around 3,500 new homes and flats across major new housing developments in Oxfordshire will be able to get some of the fastest broadband speeds in the UK following a deal between Openreach and housing developers.

Openreach, the business responsible for Britain’s largest phone and broadband network, is answering a call to build fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) technology capable of ultrafast speeds up to one Gigabit per second (Gbps) for properties on sites in locations including Banbury, Bicester, Carterton, Didcot, Grove, Oxford and Wantage.

The agreements are part of an Openreach initiative agreed with the UK Government and the Home Builders Federation to connect all new UK housing developments of 30 properties or more with ultrafast fibre broadband.

As well as the schemes in Oxfordshire, Openreach has made FTTP technology available to more than 2,000 new developments nationwide, covering more than a quarter of a million premises, since the partnership launched last year.

Kim Mears, managing director of infrastructure delivery at Openreach, said: “An ultrafast broadband network will be a major boost for these sites by ensuring that people living and working there have quick access to some of the fastest speeds available.

“It reflects our commitment to ensuring that Oxfordshire and the UK has a first-class network, capable of delivering the latest communication services for households, businesses and other organisations.

“We know that people are passionate about the speed and reliability of the broadband service their communication provider can offer them and that, for some, the availability of ultrafast speeds will strongly influence their decision on which new property to buy.”

Craig Ferrans, technical director for the Home Builders Federation, added: “The amount consumers are doing online and at the same time, from streaming high-definition moves and TV, gaming, online shopping to using mobile devices over wireless broadband, is growing every year and this pace shows no signs of slowing. That’s why it’s great to see developers across Oxfordshire teaming up with Openreach to provide future-proofed ultrafast full fibre access to thousands of new homes in the county. With housing supply increasing at unprecedented rates, and more people purchasing newly built homes, improving connectivity for new homes will help to accelerate the country’s digital revolution.”

As part of ambitious plans to make ultrafast broadband speeds available to 12 million homes and businesses by 2020 – Openreach will now build an FTTP network for free to all new housing developments with 30[1] or more homes. This is dependent on developers registering their site with Openreach and working together early in the building process. Openreach has promised to connect new homes within nine months of contracting with a developer.

Any developments with two or more homes will have access to the company’s existing or planned fibre infrastructure, either funded entirely by Openreach or, where necessary, with the help of co-funding from the developer.

Ends

For more information please contact Emma Tennant in the Openreach regional press office on 0800 085 0660 or email: emma.tennant@bt.com

Twitter: @EmmaTennantBT

All Openreach news releases can be accessed on our web site.

Notes to Editors:

For each new development, Openreach’s dedicated New Sites Reception team will work with developers to check the options for a particular site, and give a clear recommendation on the infrastructure that should be built. Once contracted, a dedicated field based co-ordinator will work with the Developer to lead them through the plan and build process.

To find out more about the new build scheme go to: https://www.ournetwork.openreach.co.uk/property-development.aspx

About Openreach

Openreach is Britain’s digital network business.

We’re 30,400 people who connect homes, mobile phone masts, schools, shops, banks, hospitals, libraries, broadcasters, governments and businesses - large and small - to the world.

Our mission is to build the best possible network, with the highest quality service, making sure that everyone in Britain can be connected.

We work on behalf of more than 580 communications providers like SKY, TalkTalk, Vodafone, and BT, and our fibre broadband network is the biggest in the UK, passing more than 26.5 million premises. We’re also the platform for Britain’s thriving digital economy, which is the largest in the G20.

We’re working hard to give people the speeds they need to run and enjoy their daily lives. Over the last decade, we’ve invested more than £11 billion into our network and we now manage more than 158 million kilometres of cable stretching from Scotland to Cornwall, from Wales to the east coast. And we’re continuing to take that network further - making superfast broadband speeds available to thousands more homes and businesses every week.

Openreach is a wholly owned and independently governed division of the BT Group, and it is a highly regulated business, with more than 90 per cent of our revenues generated from services that are regulated by Ofcom.

Any company can access our products under exactly the same prices, terms and conditions.

For the year ended 31 March 2017, we reported revenues of £5.1bn.

For more information, visitopenreach.co.uk

[1]Construction of Fibre to the Premises infrastructure (the ducting, poles and wires) will be carried out for free on developments of more than 30 premises. Standard connection and ongoing service provider charges will apply and excess construction charges will continue to apply where the site is more than 4.5 kilometres from Openreach’s existing fibre network.