Thousands more Rutland homes and businesses to benefit from broadband boost

Thousands of people living and working in both Thistleton and Uppingham are next in line for faster and more reliable full fibre broadband.

They’ll join more than 4,500 other homes and businesses across Rutland who already have access to the UK’s most reliable broadband technology, thanks to Openreach’s work.

The response so far has been overwhelmingly positive, with more than half of eligible residents and businesses in towns and villages across the county already upgrading.

Communities already benefitting include Ketton, Manton, Wing and Whissendine. Work to reach most of the Oakham exchange area is due to get underway next year.

Kasam Hussain, regional director for the Midlands, said: “This huge infrastructure success story is making such a difference, especially here in Rutland. No company is building faster or further in Europe, that we’re aware of. And we won’t be stopping either, with plans to reach more cities, market towns, and our most rural communities.

“Openreach’s fibre checker has the latest information about our work in Rutland. It’s also worth noting that upgrades aren’t automatic. Once full fibre is available where you live, you’ll need to place an order to get connected and we’ll do the rest!

“Our network offers the widest choice of providers such as BT, Sky, TalkTalk, Vodafone, and Zen – which means people have lots of choice and can get a great deal.”

Both Thistleton and Uppingham were included in recently published updated plans to build full fibre broadband to a record 517 more locations – covering a further 2.7[1] million homes and businesses across the UK.

Councillor Paul Browne, Cabinet Member for Planning, Property and Economic Development at Rutland County Council, said: “This is good news for the local area. We all know how important full fibre is to everyday life and welcome Openreach’s news that further building will soon be getting underway. More and more services that are important to everyday life are now online, so having greater reliability and faster speeds is a welcome boost.”

The work is all part of Openreach’s £15 billion project to upgrade the UK’s broadband infrastructure - making gigabit-capable technology available to 25 million homes and businesses by the end of 2026, including 6.2 million in harder to reach more remote and rural areas.

Openreach has also refreshed its online map and postcode checker to give a clearer, regularly updated view of its plans and progress between now and 2026.

The map now shows the levels of current and future expected full fibre coverage as of today, taking data from all of its build programmes, whilst the postcode checker continues to offer the most personalised view of the connectivity available to an individual home or business.

Further updates will be provided as any additional locations are added in future.

[1] Fig refers to expected build in these exchange areas