There’s some very good news for homes that have their broadband supplied by firms such as BT and Sky. The next set of streets that are getting faster full fibre have just been revealed with the upgrade set to boost over 180,000 homes and businesses. In fact, once complete, the update will see users being able to blast the web around their homes at speeds in excess of 900Mbps – that’s over 10 times faster than the current UK average.
The enhancement is all thanks to Openreach who has confirmed it is installing faster cables across more parts of its vast network. This firm, which is owned by BT, supplies broadband infrastructure to a number of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) including Sky, TalkTalk, Zen and of course… BT.
That means all of those providers will be able to offer customers much faster downloads once the upgrade is complete.
So who is next on the list to get the boost?
Openreach has confirmed that it will be updating its broadband across many parts of London including Bayswater, Chiswick, Finchley, Holborn, Kensington Gardens, South Kensington, Leagrave, Pimlico, Skyport(inc. the area around Heathrow) Stratford and Wembley. The village of Healing in East Lincolnshire is also set for faster speeds.
Once complete it will mean that fast Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) technology will be available in over 9 million homes.
Openreach remains confident that it’s on target to bring this vital boost to 25 million homes and businesses with Full Fibre by December 2026.
Speaking about the boost, Clive Selley, Openreach CEO, said: “As the nation’s leading network builder we’re building full fibre pretty much everywhere so we’re regularly adding new build locations and giving more clarity around timings.
“Despite the economic challenges, we’re now building this transformational technology to well over three million homes a year – and we expect to get to even more over the next 12 months. We’re going faster than any builder I’m aware of in Europe.”
If you weren’t already aware, FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) improves things significantly as it means the best possible broadband is brought right into homes.
A vast number of properties might have fast cable in their street but the final journey to the router uses ageing copper cables which can only cope with maximum downloads of around 70Mbps. That’s compared to over 1Gbps using full fibre technology.
As a quick guide, downloading a full HD movie using copper lines will take around 10 minutes. Switch to the very best fibre and that will be reduced to just 40 seconds. Along with being fast, FTTP can also cope with more traffic running through which means things don’t drop to a snail’s pace at busy times of the day.
Want to know if your home is connected to better speeds? You can use the Openreach Fibre broadband checker here.