Gedling MP Tom Randall has visited Openreach engineers in Arnold to witness first-hand the innovative engineering techniques used to deliver Ultrafast Full Fibre broadband across the Gedling constituency.
Tom Randall MP was given a socially-distanced tour of the work, which has already reached more than 20,000 homes and businesses across Gedling, as well as tens of thousands more in other locations across Nottingham.
Gedling was the first location in the East Midlands to be included in Openreach’s full fibre build, back in November 2018. Since then, engineers have been working there and in other places including Sherwood, West Bridgford and Wollaton.
Meeting with the MP and a local broadband champion, the Openreach team were also able to explain how the build in city areas is happening alongside rural work, following last week’s announcement of a further 22,000 premises in 11 Nottinghamshire locations being next in line to get the technology.
Tom Randall, MP for Gedling, said: “I enjoyed meeting Openreach engineers in Arnold to learn more about the challenges they face installing ultrafast broadband after being contacted by a constituent who was experiencing broadband connection issues.
“The extension of full fibre broadband to large parts of Gedling, Nottingham and the wider county is very positive news. I am determined to do what I can to ensure as many residents as possible have access to fast, reliable broadband, no matter where they live.”
The visit was hosted by Kasam Hussain, regional partnership director for Openreach in the Midlands, who said: “We welcomed the opportunity to give Tom Randall MP a step-by-step demonstration of our technology. Our engineers work hard every day to keep communities across Nottingham, Nottinghamshire 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, having reached more than 4.7 million homes and business so far.
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.
The company’s updated build plan will be fundamental to the UK Government achieving its target of delivering ‘gigabit capable broadband’ to 85 per cent of UK by 2025 and it follows an extended investment commitment by its parent, BT Group – which means Openreach will now build Full Fibre technology to a total of 25 million premises, including more than six million in the hardest-to-serve parts of the country.
Openreach plays an important role across the East Midlands region. More than 1,600 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 £3.5 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.
