02
December
2019
|
12:00
Europe/Amsterdam

Ultrafast full fibre broadband unveiled in Kilmarnock

Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley MSP Willie Coffey today met Openreach engineers building a new ultrafast broadband network for Kilmarnock, with hundreds of residents now able to connect.

The MSP visited the town’s Flotta Place, one of several locations where engineers are building the new network using the latest full fibre technology. Fibre optic cables capable of Gigabit* speeds are laid all the way from the local telephone exchange directly to people’s front doors.

Also known as Fibre-to-the-Premises or FTTP, the technology offers more reliable, resilient and future-proof connectivity; fewer faults; more predictable, consistent speeds and greater capacity to easily meet ever-growing data demands in the future.

Kilmarnock is one of the first locations in Scotland to be included in Openreach’s rollout of full fibre technology. Around 1,700 local homes and businesses can now connect to the new network. Local people can check what services are available on the Openreach fibre checker.

The build will future-proof the town’s connectivity for decades, helping local businesses to compete and grow. New research from Cebr predicts that full fibre for everyone in Scotland by 2025 would generate an economic impact of £4.55 billion and boost the workforce by 37,400.

Willie Coffey MSP said: “It’s brilliant that Kilmarnock will be ahead of the game when it comes to future-proof connectivity. Fast, reliable broadband is vital for a strong local economy.

“Full fibre will help to give local businesses a competitive edge as well as making a big difference to residents’ broadband use. It will open up new ways of providing social care and give people access to online educational and healthcare resources.”

Openreach plans to bring full fibre broadband to four million premises by the end of March 2021 and ultimately the majority of the UK, if the conditions are right to invest.

Brendan Dick, chair of the Openreach board in Scotland, said: “We know good broadband is really important to local people and we’re delighted to have started work on building full fibre for Kilmarnock as one of our first large-scale builds in Scotland.

“Our team welcomed the chance to show Willie Coffey MSP some of the engineering that goes on behind the scenes and discuss the challenges and realities of delivering a big, local rollout. We’re working hard to keep disruption to a minimum, using our existing poles and ducts to avoid digging where possible.”

According to the independent Think Broadband website, which tracks industry progress, 94 per cent of Kilmarnock and Loudoun can already connect to superfast broadband at a speed of 30Mbps* and above. Openreach’s existing fibre-to-the-cabinet footprint passes more than 2.6 million homes and businesses in Scotland.

Notes to editors

*These are wholesale speeds available from Openreach to all service providers; speeds offered by service providers may vary. FTTP is capable of delivering the fastest residential broadband speeds in the UK – up to 1Gbps – fast enough to download a two-hour HD movie in 25 seconds or a 45-minute HD TV programme in just five seconds.