Thursday 10 May 2012
Superfast fibre broadband passes 10,000,000 homes – months early
Our fibre rollout is gathering pace and we’ve just smashed through the 10 million homes passed mark – months ahead of schedule!
We’d planned to make superfast broadband available to 10 million homes by the end of 2012, so to hit that target in May is amazing.
Openreach CEO Liv Garfield said: “It just shows what a great job the planners and engineers – including the hundreds of extra engineers we’ve taken on – are doing to upgrade exchanges and cabinets up and down the country.
“Our rollout is one of the fastest in the world and our engineers deserve lots of credit.”
It all means we’re well on track to reach two-thirds of the UK by 2014. More than 60 internet providers are already trialling or offering superfast broadband for homes or for businesses, and you can check the status of exchanges near you using our interactive rollout map.
It’s a massive investment – which could top £2.5billion – but we think it’s well worth it. Superfast fibre will boost the UK economy and help kick-start the creation of tens of thousands of new jobs, with small businesses in particular benefiting from the much faster speeds – now up to 80MBit/s for fibre to the cabinet.
And we’re not stopping at two-thirds of the UK. We believe, with a bit of help, we can make superfast broadband available to 90 per cent of the country, making the UK a European leader in superfast broadband. We’re already working in partnership with BDUK to extend access to more remote areas, not included on the original rollout plans.
Useful links
Find out what superfast broadband means for you at home
See the benefits of superfast fibre for business
Find out when exchanges near you are being upgraded