Thirsk and Malton MP visits Openreach broadband build
Thirsk and Malton MP Kevin Hollinrake, has met with Openreach chief engineers to witness first-hand the innovative engineering techniques used to deliver Ultrafast Full Fibre broadband across his constituency.
He was given a tour of the work, which has already reached thousands of homes and businesses in the local area, as well as tens of thousands more in other locations across North Yorkshire.
Engineers have been working to build the new network in the Pickering area for several months, with more than half of people living and working there now able to connect to the new network should they choose to place an order with their service provider.
Openreach is also building or planning to build the new network in fifteen other nearby communities including Easingwold, Helmsley, Kirbymoorside, Linton on Ouse, Malton, Helmsley, Scarborough, Sherburn, Thirsk and Tollerton.
Meeting with the MP, the Openreach team were able to explain how the build in market towns is happening alongside more rural work, highlighting several recent announcements across North Yorkshire covering tens of thousands of local premises that are next in line to get full fibre broadband.
Kevin Hollinrake MP visited the local telephone exchange to look at where the Openreach network starts. He was able to find out more about how full fibre is future-proofing connections for many years to come, and even got to try his hand at joining two bits of fibre cable together – a process called splicing.
Then it was on to meet some of the local engineers who are working to build Ultrafast full fibre connections across the county.
MP Kevin Hollinrake said: “Connectivity has been a longstanding issue across North Yorkshire and, throughout my time in Parliament, getting our local area better connected is something I have campaigned for, attended debates on and met with ministerial colleagues about.
“It is always great to see the progress being made on this, and it was good to visit Openreach engineers in Pickering to learn how they are bringing better and faster connectivity to the local area through full fibre broadband.”
The visit was hosted by Danny Finn, Senior Fibre Build Manager for Yorkshire and the Humber, who said: “We welcomed the opportunity to give Kevin Hollinrake MP a step-by-step demonstration of our technology. Our engineers work hard every day to keep communities across North Yorkshire and the wider region connected, and it was great to be able to share the challenges and realities of delivering this technology.”
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.
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 the end 2026.
The company plays an important role across Yorkshire and the Humber. More than 2,800 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 Midlands to full fibre. It estimated this would create a £3.8 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 here.
