Openreach Connect UK First Homes Under Project Gigabit Broadband Contracts UPDATE

Network access provider Openreach (BT) has this morning announced that they’ve connected, as part of their state aid funded contracts via the Government’s £5bn Project Gigabit scheme, the first remote rural premises in 38 different locations across the UK to their new gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network.

Just to recap. Last year saw Openreach being awarded a new Single Supplier Framework agreement (here), which meant they’d be delivering all of Project Gigabit’s Cross-Regional (Type C) procurements – reflecting “up to” £800m in total state aid to help upgrade c. 300,000 premises in rural areas of England, Scotland and Wales (the previous Type A [local] and Type B [regional] contracts have all gone to smaller providers).

Take note that Type C contracts typically reflect locations where no or no appropriate market interest had previously been expressed before to the Government’s umbrella Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency, or areas that have been descoped or terminated from a prior plan. Areas like these are often skipped due to being too expensive (difficult) for smaller suppliers, which is why Openreach was favoured to scoop them up.

Since the original announcement last year, the government has formally awarded all or most of the related Type C contracts for this (here, here and here) and building has thus been underway for several months. Some of the first rural communities now able to access gigabit broadband speeds under this include: Lacock and Broad Hinton, in Wiltshire; Dane End, in Hertfordshire; Castle Caereinion and Llanwrin, in Powys; and Meeth, in Devon.

In addition, it’s worth noting that these Type C areas are also among the first in the UK to gain access to Openreach’s latest symmetric speed 1Gbps FTTP broadband tier (here), although we don’t yet know of any retail broadband ISPs able to offer this (probably because it’s far too expensive for consumer packages).

Katie Milligan, Deputy CEO of Openreach, said:

“Bringing full fibre broadband to the UK’s most remote and rural homes is a monumental achievement. These communities have faced connectivity challenges for far too long, but our partnership with Project Gigabit is changing that. We want to make sure that every corner of the UK has access to the fastest and most reliable broadband technology, so this is just the beginning. We’re continuing to innovate and push the boundaries of what’s possible as we want no community to be left behind.”

Telecoms Minister, Sir Chris Bryant (MP), said:

“I’m delighted to see the first premises successfully connected thanks to this landmark contract with Openreach, which will see some 220,000 homes and businesses connected in some of the hardest-to-reach places in the UK.

Poor connectivity has kept rural communities back for too long, but through Project Gigabit we’re removing barriers to opportunity and bringing fast, reliable broadband to homes and businesses that need it most.”

The Project Gigabit scheme with Openreach currently aims to upgrade over 290,000 homes and businesses in places that would otherwise have been left behind by private companies. We have asked Openreach if they’re able to provide a list of the initial 38 locations to go live and will update once that arrives.

Otherwise, Openreach’s 1.8Gbps speed FTTP broadband network currently reaches a total of 18.3 million premises across the UK and the operator says they’re on target to reach 25 million by December 2026 – supported by private investment worth c.£15bn. After that, they also have an ambition to reach “up to” 30 million by the end of 2030, although the details of that last phase have yet to be confirmed.

The new service, once live, can be ordered via various ISPs, such as BT, Sky Broadband, TalkTalk, Vodafone and many more (Openreach FTTP ISP Choices) – it is not currently an automatic upgrade, although some providers have started to do free automatic upgrades as older copper-based services and lines are slowly withdrawn.

UPDATE 4:13pm

Openreach has now provided a list of the locations, but it comes with some caveats because Type C deployments don’t always cover whole communities and some will have a partial commercial build already etc. For example, some of the areas are repeated, such as the wonderfully named Lacock, where Openreach have worked in the village itself and also much further outside of the village, but the addresses are still classed as being Lacock.

The operator has also had to bring some areas up a level, as it would be possible to identify premises by naming a certain location. Also, there are communities served on the outskirts of larger villages or towns, which on the surface don’t look rural, but are in fact more on the outskirts of those urban areas.

The First 38 Locations

Shareshill, Staffordshire

Cheslyn Hay, Staffordshire

Essington, Staffordshire

Shareshill, Staffordshire

Dane End, Herfordshire

Great Munden, Hertfordshire

Dane End, Herfordshire

Lea Town, Lancashire

Bacup, Lancashire

Stacksteads, Lancashire

Clyffe Pypard, Wiltshire

Winterbourne Bassett, Wiltshire

Broad Hinton, Wiltshire

Broad Hinton, Wiltshire

Sevenhampton, Wiltshire

Lacock, Wiltshire

Lacock, Wiltshire

Lacock, Wiltshire

Royal Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire

Cwmtillery, Blaenau Gwent

Abercynon, Rhondda Cynon Taf

Cardiff

Bedlinog, Merthyr Tydfil

Rhiwderin, Newport

Colton, Staffordshire

Castle Caereinion, Powys

Llanwrin, Powys

Llandrillo, Clwyd

Llaithdu, Powys

Llansilin, Powys

Maerdy, Rhondda Cynon Taf

Maerdy, Rhondda Cynon Taf

Hatherleigh, Devon

Hatherleigh, Devon

Inwardleigh

Petrockstow, Devon

Meeth, Devon

Belstone, Devon