Businesses in Derby are set to get some of the fastest broadband services in the UK after the city was included in a new list of locations that will receive fibre-to-premises technology.
Openreach has announced this morning that the city is one of 29 locations that will benefit from its nationwide investment programme to install full fibre broadband technology, which it says will deliver faster speeds and a more reliable network.
Full fibre broadband sees fibre laid all the way from an exchange to people’s front doors, replacing existing copper cables.
According to Openreach, full fibre broadband provides more reliable, resilient and future-proof connectivity; fewer faults; more predictable, consistent speeds and the ability to upgrade easily to meet the demands of future technology.
The firm said that its engineers will now carry out planning and survey work, ahead of starting installation within the next 12 months.
The upgrades will complement the ongoing broadband upgrades across the county by the Digital Derbyshire programme, a partnership between Derbyshire County Council, UK Government and Openreach.
Kim Mears, Openreach’s managing director for strategic infrastructure development, said: “We’re looking forward to bringing future proof broadband infrastructure to thousands of homes and businesses across Derby.
“Our engineers are about to begin a detailed survey of the city and we plan to start building the network within a years’ time. Our intention is to build quickly, efficiently and with minimal disruption to people living and working here.”
Openreach has said that the new network in Derby will benefit both residents and businesses.
The new technology will give users the ability to use and manage multiple bandwidth hungry devices at the same time; from televisions and fridges to central heating, lighting and security cameras.
In a statement, Openreach said: “Businesses can also benefit from cloud-based services, making efficiency improvements and cost savings through improved online sales and marketing and better online ordering and invoicing systems.
“Video conferencing and the ability to access company systems remotely enables more businesses to offer flexible and home working options for employees which can save money, reduce carbon footprints and improve work/life balance.”
Since the launch of Openreach’s multi-billion pound ‘Fibre First’ programme in February last year, its engineers have deployed around 2.6 million kilometres of fibre – enough to travel to the moon and back three times.
Overall, 103 locations across the UK are now part of the ‘Fibre First’ build programme, including Birmingham, Coventry, Nottingham and Solihull.
The company is making full fibre technology available to more than 22,000 homes and businesses every week and it’s on track to reach four million premises by the end of March 2021.
