Nine Lincolnshire villages risk missing out on full fibre
Openreach is working with communities across the county to secure faster broadband using free government vouchers
Nine Lincolnshire villages risk missing out on a full fibre broadband upgrade, as not enough people have pledged free government vouchers.
Openreach is working with communities across the county, encouraging them to use free vouchers to help with the cost of upgrading the network.
So far, thousands have taken advantage of the scheme including people living in villages and around Honington and North Kelsey *. They’ll be able to benefit from faster speeds and greater reliability within the next 12 months.
But there’s not been enough interest to build a new network in covering 1,700 premises in Aslackby, Dowsby, Friskney, Friskney Faudyke, Haltham, Kirkby Underwood, Mareham-le-Fen, Rippingdale and Wood Enderby.
Wendy Sycamore, Openreach’s regional engagement manager for the Midlands, said: “There’s still time for people living in these villages to pledge their voucher and secure a broadband upgrade for their community. It takes only a few minutes to do and doesn’t cost them anything. We’re hoping it’s just a case of people either forgetting or not having had time to do it, rather than not being interested. More than 1,700 homes and small business have a great opportunity.
“Everyone who pledges a voucher will be doing their bit to help make Lincolnshire one of the best-connected places in the UK.
“Openreach is investing £15 billion to build full fibre broadband to 25 million homes – and more than six million of those will be in the toughest third of the UK – but we can’t upgrade the whole country alone. This latest support from government is a vital part of that process.”
Residents can check if they qualify and pledge their voucher
on the Connect My Community website.
Using the vouchers – which don’t cost residents anything, enables Openreach to work with the community to build a customised, co-funded network.
As part of the funding conditions, residents are asked to commit to ordering a full fibre service from a provider of their choice for at least 12 months once the new network is available and confirm they are connected.
Full fibre technology provides more reliable, resilient, and future-proof connectivity; meaning fewer faults; more predictable, consistent speeds and enough capacity to easily meet growing data demands. It's also future proof, which means it will serve generations to come and won’t need to be upgraded for decades.
