Ketton in Rutland was the location of the 10 millionth build, taking Openreach up from 9.6 million at the end of December, with the company passing over 700,000 premises in the fourth quarter of 2022.
The roll-out of Full Fibre broadband across the country is part of an ambitious £15bn infrastructure project to provide reliable, fast broadband to 25 million homes and businesses across the country by the end of 2026.
Since the pandemic, the UK’s internet usage has soared, doubling in 2020 and increasing year on year with more data downloaded last year than ever before. The rise in usage is set to continue as technology becomes more sophisticated and integral to people’s daily lives, with social changes such as working from home and the boom in online learning.
Today marks a significant milestone in our transformation of the UK’s broadband. Not only will access to Full Fibre technology improve the speed and reliability of the internet connections used by people, businesses and public services, it also provides us with the infrastructure we need to meet the demands of an increasingly digital world. With this upgrade, we can improve the lives of people in the UK, offering economic opportunities, alleviating social challenges and creating the foundation for life-changing technology.
Now we’re focused on the next phase of our build. Our engineers are building rapidly across the country and we already have plans in place that will see Full Fibre broadband reach over 25 million premises. We’re excited for the future that Full Fibre will create for everybody across the UK.
As well as improving the broadband that people use on a daily basis, the upgrade is set to improve the quality of UK public services. Openreach has already made Full Fibre available to over 9,000 medical facilities including GP surgeries, hospitals and research labs across the country. Ultrafast broadband will benefit health services by improving connections with experts, remote monitoring of patients, easier access of records and faster appointments. The future applications are also exciting, such as the use of AI to achieve better health outcomes by helping review, triage and refer patients based on diagnostic scans and data.
Openreach has also made Full Fibre available to over 13,500 educational facilities such as nurseries, schools and universities, improving online learning facilities for students nationally.
The network transformation could also play a role in helping to tackle a range of social challenges - improving the lives of people across the country by bringing better technology and local services to areas which would benefit from them. Openreach has so far made Full Fibre broadband available to more than 3 million premises in the hardest to reach, typically very rural, parts of the country - and over 3 million in areas identified by the Government as a priority for levelling up. Openreach has also made Full Fibre available to the top 25 areas identified by the Social Mobility Commission as least socially mobile, providing Full Fibre availability to 409,000 premises in these areas.
