Rebecca Evans MS and Tonia Antoniazzi MP recently joined up with some of the Openreach engineers that have been busy building a new Ultrafast Full Fibre broadband network across their Gower constituency.
They were given a tour of the work, which is making faster and more reliable ‘full fibre’ broadband available to homes and businesses in the local area. More than 40% of premises across their constituency can already benefit from Openreach’s £5 million* investment which is bringing some of the fastest and most reliable broadband speeds to the area.
Both politicians visited the telephone exchange in Gowerton to look at where the Openreach network for a large part of their constituency starts. They were able speak with engineers and find out more about how full fibre is future-proofing connections for many years to come.
Rebecca Evans MS and Tonia Antoniazzi MP get out and about with engineers
At the exchange, both MS and MP were able to try their hand at real-life fibre splicing – where two ends of fibre optic glass cable are fused together – that helps connects the ultrafast network to Three Crosses. Then it was on to Three Crosses to see how local Openreach engineers are delivering this game changing technology to communities across Gower.
Rebecca Evans MS said:
“This investment is good news for Gower and good news for Wales.
“It was great to see how local Openreach engineers are installing Full Fibre broadband – a technology that is providing our communities with faster and more reliable internet, supporting businesses and residents across our constituency.”
Tonia Antoniazzi MP said:
“I‘m delighted to see the progress being made by Openreach to deliver full fibre in my constituency.
“This significant local investment is great news for people living and working across Gower. Openreach is playing a significant part in getting gigabit capable broadband to harder-to-reach homes across Wales which is vital as this infrastructure will help stimulate local economies and provide new opportunities.”
Rebecca Evans MS and Tonia Antoniazzi MP get out and about with engineers
The visit was hosted by Ashlee Thomas, Specialist Fibre Manager, Openreach, who said:
“We welcomed the opportunity to give Tonia and Rebecca a step-by-step demonstration of our technology. Our engineers work hard every day to keep Gower communities and the rest of Wales connected, and it was great to be able to share the challenges and realities of delivering this technology.
“I would urge everyone in the local area to keep an eye on the build locally to see when full fibre is available to them. They can visit the Openreach fibre checker, which is regularly updated with our build progress and when full fibre is available in specific areas.”
Openreach is leading the charge in building full fibre broadband that is faster, better and more affordable than ever.
With download speeds of 1 Gbps, it’s up to 10 times faster than the average home broadband connection. That means faster game downloads, better quality video calls and higher resolution movie streaming.
You can also use multiple devices at once without experiencing slowdown – so more people in your household can get online at once. Even if the rest of your family are making video calls, streaming box sets or gaming online, all at the same time – you won’t experience stuttering, buffering or dropouts.
Full fibre is also less affected by peak time congestion – so you can enjoy your Saturday night blockbuster in 4K without the dreaded buffering screen.
About Openreach in Wales
Openreach is on track to reach 25 million UK homes and businesses with access to Full Fibre ultrafast broadband and has already reached more than 650,000 properties across Wales.
With a workforce of around 2,300 in Wales, Openreach already employs the nation’s largest team of telecoms engineers and professionals.
Across Wales more than 195,000 homes and businesses have already ordered a full fibre service from a range of retail service providers using the Openreach network. But this means that thousands more could be benefiting from some of the fastest, most reliable broadband connections in Europe and have yet to upgrade.
Recent research by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) highlighted the clear economic benefits of connecting everyone in Wales to full fibre. It estimated this would create a £2 billion boost to the Welsh economy.
