Openreach and Superfast Essex celebrate partnership
MP for Saffron Walden, Kemi Badenoch visits Great Dunmow to inspect new ultrafast broadband build
The Rt Hon Kemi Badenoch MP visited Openreach engineers in the historic market town of Great Dunmow to celebrate the completion of a partnership with Openreach and Superfast Essex and to witness first-hand the innovative engineering techniques being used to deliver ultrafast Full Fibre broadband across her constituency.
She was given a tour of the work, which has reached an additional 3,559 rural homes and businesses. This work has been made possible by funding from The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)'s Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE), the South East Local Enterprise Partnership (SELEP) and the Getting Building Fund (GBF).
This is in addition to the work being done by Openreach through its commercial investment in Essex, which has now brought ultrafast Full Fibre infrastructure to more than 320,000 homes and businesses across the County.
Meeting with the MP, the Openreach team was able to explain how build in urban areas is happening alongside rural and coastal work.
Ms Badenoch visited the local exchange to look at where the Openreach network starts. She learned more about fibre optics and how Full Fibre is future-proofing connections for decades to come. She then went to a rural location nearby to see how the new infrastructure is making a positive impact on local people.
Kieran Wines, Openreach’s Partnership Director for the East of England said: “We’re really proud of what we’ve achieved in partnership with Superfast Essex and we welcomed the opportunity to give Ms Badenoch a step-by-step demonstration of our technology. Our engineers work hard every day to keep communities across Essex and the wider region connected, and it was great to be able to share the challenges and realities of delivering this technology. This work, in addition to the work we’re doing with our commercial investment, now means that more than 320,000 homes and businesses across the County can order an ultrafast broadband service from the provider of their choice. I encourage anyone wanting faster, more resilient broadband to check their address on our website.”
Cllr Lee Scott, Cabinet Member for Planning a Growing Economy, Essex County Council said “This collaboration with Openreach is a remarkable accomplishment, as we’ve worked together to deliver gigabit-capable broadband to addresses in the most remote, rural regions of our county.
‘’Residents and businesses will now have the opportunity to access the advantages of this upgraded connectivity, promoting economic growth and elevating the quality of life for all.’’
Openreach is building Full Fibre faster, at lower cost and higher quality than anyone else in the UK. With download speeds of 1Gbps, 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.
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.
Residents and businesses can use Openreach’s fibre checker to see what infrastructure is available at their address. Once they’ve put their address in, they’ll be able to see a list of providers working in their area and choose the package that works for them.
Openreach plays an important role across the East of England. More than 3,500 of our people live and work here. Recent research by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) highlighted the clear economic benefits of connecting everyone in the East of England to Full Fibre. It estimated this would create a £5.4 billion boost to the local economy.
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 at www.openreach.co.uk/ultrafastfullfibre.
