Berwick-upon-Tweed MP Anne-Marie Trevelyan has met Openreach’s chief engineers to witness first-hand the engineering techniques used to deliver Ultrafast Full Fibre broadband across her constituency.
She was given a tour of the work and an update on the build, which has already reached more than 28,000 homes and businesses across Northumberland including more than 7,000 in the north of the county with ultrafast, ultra-reliable full fibre broadband. This is a result of the both the company’s commercial build and their iNorthumberland broadband partnership with Northumberland County Council.
Locations such as Alnmouth, Alnwick, Bamburgh, Berwick, Lesbury, Longhoughton, Rothbury and Scots Gap are just some of the areas already benefitting from the new technology with work ongoing to reach even more homes and businesses.
Openreach has also announced that Amble, Longframlington, Lynemouth, Otterburn, Seahouses, Shilbottle and Ulgham have been added to their commercial build plans. Holy Island is also going to be upgraded.
Speaking of the visit, Anne-Marie said:
“I am delighted to see for myself the huge progress being made by Openreach to deliver full fibre to our rural communities. I have been campaigning for years for Northumberland to be able to reap the full benefits of these amazing technologies, and the importance of ensuring our harder-to-reach communities are connected, not just those areas that are easier and cheaper to reach.”
North Northumberland is one of the first areas to benefit from Project Gigabit, the Government's £5billion project to connect the million hardest to connect homes and businesses to full fibre broadband.
Procurement for the Northumberland project is ongoing, and is work is projected to start in August 2022 to connect an estimated 3,900 properties.
