Stephen Crabb MP has been out meeting Openreach engineers who are currently installing the next generation of broadband technology up and down Pembrokeshire.
During his tour the MP for Preseli and Pembrokeshire saw a full fibre network which has been built directly from the exchange in Haverfordwest to serve properties in the surrounding areas – including the picturesque seaside village of Nolton Haven.
Residents of Nolton Haven can now enjoy some of the fastest and most reliable broadband speeds in Europe thanks to Openreach’s ultrafast, ultra-reliable full fibre broadband network.
With the fibre now being run directly from the exchange to their property, customers can potentially get speeds of up to one Gigabit per second (1Gbps), which dwarfs their previous speeds of around 1-2 Megabits per second (Mbps).
Speaking during his tour with Openreach engineers, Stephen Crabb MP said:
“The pandemic has shown how important high quality broadband has become in all of our lives – especially for those of us living and working in rural communities across Pembrokeshire.
“Openreach engineers have been going to extraordinary lengths to ensure as many homes and businesses as possible in Pembrokeshire are getting access to ultrafast fibre broadband and it’s making such a huge difference to communities such as Nolton Haven.”
Nolton Haven resident David Canton runs a popular holiday cottage business in the village and has experienced first-hand the significant impact that ultrafast broadband can have on both family and business.
He said:
“Having ultrafast broadband is completely life-changing.
“During the pandemic my children were able to learn from home and my wife, who’s a teacher, could teach children using technology that simply wasn’t possible before we had full fibre broadband.
“From a business perspective we can now extend our holiday season and guests can take a break but still work from our cottages and enjoy our beautiful views. It’s a game-changer.”
Openreach has made a number of announcements on its latest build plans across Wales. In addition to locations across Wales, such as Nolton Haven, that can already access ultrafast broadband a further 415,000 homes and businesses – in 140 mainly rural and harder to serve areas across every single Welsh local authority area – will get access to full fibre broadband. The company is also working in partnership with the Welsh Government to reach those in the final 5%.
Openreach plays an important role across Wales with more than 2,500 employees, mostly engineers, living and working in every part of the country. 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 local economy.
Further afield Openreach is investing £15 billion to build its ultrafast full fibre technology to a total of 25 million premises across the UK, including more than six million in the hardest-to-serve parts of the country by the end of 2026.
This short video explains what Full Fibre technology is and you can find out more about our Fibre First programme, latest availability and local plans here.
