Openreach Start Project Gigabit Broadband Rollout for Worcestershire
The Worcestershire County Council (WCC) in England has today announced that Openreach have connected the first homes to their new full fibre (FTTP) broadband network as part of the £41m (public subsidy) Project Gigabit contract, which currently aims to cover 22,600 premises across the county’s hardest-to-reach (mostly remote rural) areas.
The first live connections under the contract, which was first announced back in January 2025 (here), are now serving properties in Lower Broadheath, Hallow, Powick and Callow End, while network build activity is also underway in and around Knightwick.
The latest data from the Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency indicates that Openreach has so far covered 170 premises under the contract (here), but this is now expected to ramp-up. Further work is also said to be “underway to explore opportunities to bring additional premises into the contract“.
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Councillor Adam Kent, Deputy Leader of the WCC, said:
“This is a brilliant moment for Worcestershire. The first homes and businesses in Lower Broadheath, Hallow, Powick and Callow End are now plugged into some of the fastest broadband in the country – and the diggers are already moving on to the next communities.
Worcestershire is a county that means business, and this £41 million investment makes sure no village or rural enterprise is left behind. Whether you’re running a company from a converted barn, studying from home or streaming with the family, gigabit broadband puts world-class connectivity right on your doorstep. This is Worcestershire building the infrastructure of the future, today.”
Back in 2023 the WCC announced that they’d committed to help ensure that 90% of premises across the county will be able to access a gigabit-capable broadband ISP network by 2027 (here).
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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It took 3 years 10 months to sign off a contract (from the OMR to the signing date), ultimately with Openreach.
The plan during this period seemed to be inertia, and waiting for commercial providers to eventually build instead of the subsidised Project Gigabit scheme. Because there were issues with procurement.
Basically, we had to wait until after the July 2024 general election, for anything to get done. Which is funny, considering that it was a flagship policy for the then Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.
When a contract was finalised in January 2025, it apparently took more than a year to yield any FTTP connections there were built and ready for service. And now, the build rate is also one of the slowest rates of any of the contracts agreed nationally.
I’d just like to point out that 170 premises built to is still less than 1% of the 22,600 planned premises.
I hope things can finally get going!
There were two more prime ministers between Johnson and the 2024 general election.
If it makes you feel better, I’m in a suburban commercial build area and there is no FTTP (or 5G) here yet.