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Sheffield set to benefit from the UK’s fastest broadband speeds

openreach employees
openreach employees

In Sheffield, new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) technology, where fibre is laid all the way from the exchange to people’s front doors, is heading over the next 12 months.

Tens of thousands of residents and businesses are expected to benefit with work to build the new network will start early next year following a period of planning and surveying.

The work by Openreach, the UK’s largest telephone and broadband network, will complement the ongoing fibre broadband roll-out by the Superfast South Yorkshire programme, a partnership between the four South Yorkshire local authorities, UK Government and Openreach.

Councillor Olivia Blake, deputy leader of Sheffield City Council, said: “Sheffield is well covered by superfast broadband, over 96% of homes and businesses can access broadband with speeds of over 30Mbps. However, we want our residents and businesses to be able to access the next generation of technology as soon as possible.

“This announcement by Openreach will soon help our businesses to be more productive and more competitive and it will mean our homes can access the connectivity they need for modern living – such as home working, video streaming and computer gaming.

“Sheffield has an ambition that no one is excluded from the digital age and the socio-economic benefits of being online. Openreach will install full fibre broadband across the city, including council-owned social housing, meaning that everyone will have the chance to benefit from the best networks available.”

John Mothersole, chief executive of Sheffield City Council, added: “Sheffield has an ambition to be recognised as one of the best connected cities in the country: where coverage, choice and speed of communication stays ahead of demand; and where connectivity enables residents and businesses to use digital solutions to improve their lives and to sustain, grow and create new business.

“This announcement by Openreach goes a long way towards helping us achieve this, as it will mean that tens of thousands of Sheffield homes and businesses are connected to the very best broadband services available.”

Openreach recently raised its target for full fibre connections from three to four million premises by March 2021, with an ambition to reach 15 million homes and businesses by the mid-2020s if the right investment conditions are in place.

The business doubled its FTTP footprint last year and continues to ramp up the build – making the technology available to more than 20,000 new homes and businesses every week across the UK.

More than 1.5 million homes and businesses in the UK now have access to faster, more reliable and future-proof, full fibre broadband services over the Openreach network.

Since the launch of Openreach’s Fibre First build programme in February last year, its engineers have deployed around 2.6 million kilometres of fibre – enough to travel to the moon and back three times.

Kim Mears, managing director for Strategic Infrastructure Development for Openreach, said: “It’s great news that Sheffield is included in today’s announcement and we’re looking forward to bringing full fibre technology to tens of thousands of premises across the city. Our engineers will shortly begin a period of surveying and planning to ensure that when we start to build early next year we can do it quickly, efficiently and with minimum disruption to people living and working in Sheffield.

“We’re looking forward to continuing to work closely with Sheffield City Council to deliver this future proof technology which will undoubtedly open up countless opportunities for both residents and businesses to exploit all the benefits faster, more reliable broadband can offer.”

Openreach’s commitment to South Yorkshire extends far beyond making faster broadband available. Around 600 of our people live and work in the City Region and in the past 15 months we have recruited around 70 new fibre engineers.

Last year, the company hired 3,500 trainee engineers nationwide and it has already recruited 2,600 (90 per cent) of the 3,000 trainee engineer hires announced in January this year.

The new locations have been published on Openreach’s website alongside a raft of information about its ‘Fibre First’ build programme. This short video explains what full fibre technology is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfXgR1ojgeA

Find out more about our Fibre First programme here. People interested in upgrading their broadband can see what’s available in their area by entering their postcode into Openreach’s online fibre checker.

Openreach has committed to publishing information on its website detailing its build plans for the next 12 months - including the total number of exchange areas to be reached in each location over the next 24 months. It will also publish details of the specific exchanges where FTTP is currently being built, has already been built, or it intends to start building within the next three months. The company will update this information every three months