Plymouth Sutton and Devonport MP Luke Pollard has met the engineers who are bringing ultrafast Full Fibre infrastructure to the city.

He visited Plymouth telephone exchange where he connected dozens of live customers using the fibreoptic technology which is transforming the city’s digital capability.

More than 60,000 homes and businesses in the Plymouth area can already order some of the fastest, most reliable broadband in Europe thanks to a £30 million commercial investment by Openreach.

Thousands more properties across the city will soon be able to upgrade to ultrafast broadband in areas like St Budeaux, Plymstock, Crownhill, Plympton and Devonport. Locals can use the Openreach fibre checker to find out if they can already make the switch through a provider of their choice.

The new technology is up to 16 times faster than the average UK broadband connection and around five times more reliable than the old copper-based network it’s replacing – but thousands of residents have yet to upgrade, with just 21 per cent of people adopting the service where it’s available, lagging behind the UK average of 34 per cent.

Martin Williams, Openreach’s Partnership Director for the South West, said:

“Research shows that this new network will give businesses an edge and provide families and home-workers with future-proof connectivity.

“Our investment across Plymouth continues at pace, and we’re determined to deliver a great service which helps this community thrive and supports people to work from home easily, keep in touch with their loved ones and build connections and opportunities.

“Ultrafast broadband can have a huge impact on people’s lives and it’s great for the economy but upgrades aren’t automatic. People need to place an order with their chosen provider to get connectedand we’ll do the rest. Our network offers the widest choice of providers such as BT, Sky, TalkTalk, Vodafone and Zen – which means people have lots of choice and can get a great deal.

“Even if you already have a decent enough service, it’s worth checking if you can upgrade, because Full Fibre is the future, and it provides the best broadband experience at great value for money. There’ll be no more worrying that your video call might freeze, or your files are failing to upload when everyone’s at home competing for bandwidth at the same time”.

Luke Pollard, MP for Plymouth Sutton & Devonport said:

“Faster internet is good for everyone, and Plymouth needs faster internet. It was good to see the work of the Openreach team, in rolling out faster internet on the Barbican and hear about their plans to roll this out across the whole city.”

Residents will be able to enjoy a host of online services and entertainment such as seamless streaming, and smooth online gaming experiences. While businesses can operate with certainty that their broadband will support all their day-to-day, business critical tasks such as video calls, banking and customer interaction via social media platforms.

Openreach has announced plans to invest in Full Fibre broadband for the majority of premises in all six telephone exchange areas of the City. In March this year, the Company announced the top ten best locations for Full Fibre in the South West; and in May it announced an additional 79 locations across the South West. More than one million homes and businesses across the region can already upgrade to Full Fibre. It’s part of the Company’s plans to reach 25 million UK homes and businesses with ultrafast Full Fibre by the end of 2026.

You can find out more by visiting openreach.co.uk/ultrafastfullfibre.