110,000 more homes in Cornwall are set to benefit from ultrafast broadband
Openreach has laid out plans for major upgrade to boost 52 exchanges in the Duchy, from the Lizard to Launceston
Openreach has outlined plans to build ultrafast, ultra-reliable Full Fibre broadband to at least three million more homes and businesses across the UK.
440,000 of those will be across the South West, including 110,000 in Cornwall!
The company says that means fewer homes and businesses will require taxpayer subsidies to upgrade.
A total of 52 exchanges across the Duchy will be upgraded, from the Lizard to Launceston and Penzance to Polperro.
Openreach says its updated build plan will be fundamental to the Government achieving its target of delivering 'gigabit-capable broadband' to 85% of UK by 2025: Read more.
It follows an extended investment commitment by its parent, BT Group, meaning 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.
What is 'Full Fibre'?
Openreach is already building Full Fibre in the UK, having made the technology available to 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!
Connie Dixon, Openreach's Regional Director for the South West, said: "Building a new ultrafast broadband network across the South West is a massive challenge and some parts of the region will inevitably require public funding.
"But our expanded build plan means taxpayer subsidies can be limited to only the hardest to connect homes and businesses.
"And with investments from other network builders, we'd hope to see that shrink further.
"This is a hugely complex, nationwide engineering project - second only to HS2 in terms of investment.
"It will help level-up the UK because the impact of Full Fibre broadband stretches from increased economic prosperity and international competitiveness, to higher employment and environmental benefits.
"We're also delighted to continue bucking the national trend by creating more jobs in the region, with apprentices joining in their droves to start their careers as engineers.
"We'll publish further location details and timescales on our website as the detailed surveys and planning are completed and the build progresses.
"In the meantime, don't forget that you can also check what's already available on our website - tens of thousands of homes and businesses across the South West can already access Full Fibre".
Connie Dixon, Openreach
The plans also include an extension to the company's biggest ever recruitment drive, with a further 1,000 new roles being created in 2021 on top of the 2,500 jobs which were announced in December 2020; around 200 of those were in the South West.
This means that by the end of 2021, Openreach will have created and filled more than 9,000 apprenticeship roles since 2017/18.
You can check your availability for Ultrafast Broadband and read more about the plans here.