Local MP, Andrew Griffith, held a top level summit on rural Broadband with the Chief Executive of the UK’s largest provider of broadband connections, Openreach, in Amberley on Friday 11th February. As well as discussing the Government’s progress in rolling out faster and more reliable internet, the two saw first-hand technical work being carried out by the company to connect the village to fibre broadband.
The Arundel & South Downs MP observed the work being carried out by Openreach to connect the village of Amberley with ‘fibre-to-the-premises’ broadband, meeting that fibre optic cables will be run directly to properties from the exchange. This means that broadband speeds of up to 1,000mbp/s will be available to 350 properties in the village. Openreach is also upgrading its network to full fibre elsewhere in West Sussex as part of its plan to provide full-fibre broadband to 25 million premises by 2026.
Joined by Openreach CEO, Clive Selley, and Openreach Chief Engineer, Andy Whale, Andrew was given a demonstration by engineer apprentice, Alex, showing the local MP how fibre optics are joined to connect a premise to the exchange.
This rollout of rural full-fibre broadband by Openreach is in addition to the £5 billion Project Gigabit announced by the Government last year. This investment aims to provide 68,000 premises across West Sussex with lightning-fast broadband, worth up to £112 million. The Government plans to start the procurement to secure this investment in West Sussex later this year.
Andrew Griffith MP said:
“It was excellent to see the Government’s rollout of superfast full-fibre broadband become a reality for another 350 properties in rural West Sussex. We are making real progress in delivering the faster and more reliable connections for West Sussex but there is more to be done. That’s why I am pleased that we will soon see even more progress with the rollout of the £5 billion Project Gigabit that will benefit tens of thousands of the hardest to connect local residents.”
