Chelmsford going ultrafast with futureproof broadband

Chelmsford will be one of 36 new locations in the UK to get ultrafast broadband over the coming year. This will make the city a prime location for businesses when considering where to locate and invest.

Openreach, the UK’s digital infrastructure company will build its futureproof Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband technology in Chelmsford over the next 12 months. Chelmsford is the only location in Essex to receive the new network.

Councillor Stephen Robinson, Leader of Chelmsford City Council, said: “Ultrafast broadband will dramatically improve connection speeds for people living and working here. This is particularly important for businesses, who can look forward to improved productivity and efficiency, boosting our local economy and making Chelmsford a future-proof place to invest.

“Also, we will all soon enjoy swifter access to our favourite TV shows and games, clearer video-calls to friends and family, and fuss-free research for school projects. I look forward to seeing Chelmsford become better-connected than ever before.”

Overall, 74 locations across the UK have now been included in Openreach’s multi-billion-pound Fibre First programme.

Clive Selley, Chief Executive of Openreach, said: “We’re pressing ahead with our investment and Openreach engineers are now building in communities all over the country, keeping us on track to deliver against the bigger ambitions we set out in May.

“The Government wants to see a nationwide full-fibre network and we’re keen to lead the way in helping them achieve that. We know that if it’s going to happen, Openreach will need to be at the front doing the heavy lifting, so we’re working hard to build a commercially viable plan.

“I’m convinced that prioritising investment in faster, more reliable and future-proof broadband networks will prove to be a no-regrets decision for future generations.”

Openreach recently raised its target for full-fibre connections from three to four million premises by March 2021, with an ambition to reach 15 million homes and businesses by the mid-2020s if the right investment conditions are in place. The business doubled its FTTP footprint last year and continues to ramp up the build – making the technology available to more than 20,000 new homes and businesses every week across the UK.

More than 1.5 million homes and businesses in the UK now have access to faster, more reliable and future-proof, full fibre broadband services over the Openreach network.

Since the launch of Openreach’s Fibre First build 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.

Last year the company hired 3,500 trainee engineers, at a time when many other organisations were cutting, and it has already recruited 2,600 (90 per cent) out of 3,000 trainee engineer hires announced in January for this year.  98 of these new positions are based in Essex and these trainees will receive training in Openreach’s purpose-built training centre in Peterborough; Openreach already employs over 4,700 people in the South East.

All the new locations have been published on Openreach’s website, alongside a host of information about its ‘Fibre First’ build programme. People interested in upgrading their broadband can see what’s available in their area by entering their postcode into Openreach’s online fibre checker.

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