22
March
2023
|
06:59
Europe/Amsterdam

Ketton: The Rutland village where Openreach passed 10 million

download
Wendy Sycamore Ketton

More than 900 homes and businesses in Ketton, near Stamford, can order some of the fastest, most reliable broadband anywhere in the UK.

Full Fibre is now available to people living and working in the Rutland village, meaning slow speeds and buffering are quickly becoming a thing of the past.

And Ketton has secured a special place in broadband history, after Openreach announced it’s made full fibre available to 10 million homes and businesses, passing the milestone during work in the Rutland village.

Ketton, Rutland

The Ketton community joined forces with Openreach, to pledge government broadband vouchers towards building a new fibre network, providing them with a wide choice of providers – including BT, Sky, TalkTalk, Vodafone and Zen.

With broadband use increasing year-on-year, having reliable and fast broadband is more important than ever, with it playing a key role in our jobs, home life and things like education and health care.

Wendy Sycamore, Openreach’s Regional Engagement Manager, said:Ketton is a rural village, in a rural area, and has been one of our more challenging builds. A huge amount of work has taken place to bring fibre cables from the nearby town of Uppingham, which is around 9 miles away. Our Chief Engineer team carried out the work, as they’re our experts in rural build, and the end result is fast and reliable broadband for homes and villages throughout this community.

“We’ve had huge levels of interest and excitement in our work already, so a group of our engineers recently spent a day in Ketton to answer any questions people had. They brought a mobile showcase along, it’s essentially one of our vans packed full of examples of how fibre works, and simple explanations around the many benefits to everyday life.

“Lots of people came to see us and they were overwhelmingly positive about being able to benefit from full fibre. We had some questions around how to order an upgraded service, and we were able to highlight the range of broadband companies that use the Openreach network, and how people could still choose who they went with. It’s as simple as calling your broadband provider to upgrade.”

Dave Phillips, who lives in Ketton, said: "It’s amazing how the village community pulled together to make this happen. Many people had to choose between working or home-schooling their children during Covid, because their connection was not able to cope. Thankfully, we’ll never need to make choices like that again.

“The increasing reach of digital services into healthcare and life in general will now be accessible to all who need it. People who want to start their own business will be able to do it from home. This is an example of the impact that Openreach’s full fibre build will have, improving the quality of many people’s lives.

“There’s also the added bonus of being able to play Call of Duty online, stream movies and talk to family and friends with no interruptions."

Openreach is building full fibre broadband that is faster, better and more affordable than ever.

With speeds reaching up to 1 Gbps (Gigabits per second), everyone can enjoy lightning-fast downloads and online gaming, crystal-clear video calls, and seamless movie streaming in high resolution.

There are no more slowdowns or buffering as with full fibre, everyone can be online at the same time, without any interruptions. Those who upgrade can say goodbye to frustrating peak-time congestion and hello to uninterrupted entertainment in 4K.

Homes and business are urged to speak to their broadband provider about upgrading to full fibre so they can experience the difference in internet quality and reliability.

5 reasons to upgrade to full fibre broadband:

1.      Faster internet speeds: Full fibre offers faster download and upload speeds, so you can do everything online at lightning-fast speeds

2.      Improved reliability: Fibre is more reliable than traditional copper, which means it’s less prone to faults and damage

3.      Multiple devices: Full fibre can handle more devices at once, so you can connect to different devices in different parts of the house without seeing your connection struggle

4.      Property boost: Being able to order full fibre is more and more desirable, so can have a positive impact if you’re looking to sell or rent your property in the future.

5.      Working from home: Having a reliable and fast connection can boost productivity for remote workers and those who rely on cloud-based services.

Openreach plays an important role across the East Midlands with more than 1,650 of our people living and working here.

This short video explains what full fibre technology is and you can find out more about Openreach’s full fibre build, latest availability and local plans here.