Openreach step in to bring ultrafast full fibre broadband to long suffering Bynea housing estate
Openreach call for full fibre to be made mandatory on all new housing developments
Residents of a Bynea housing development in Llanelli are soon to become the latest to benefit from the ultrafast, ultra-reliable full fibre broadband that Openreach engineers are currently installing up and down the country.
A number of residents in the estate on Yspitty road along with some adjoining streets had been left without decent connectivity after developers failed to plan for fibre broadband. While some properties were connected as a result of the successful Superfast Cymru (a partnership between Openreach and the Welsh Government) a number of residents missed out as that programme came to an end.
Working closely with Lee Waters MS, Nia Griffith MP and local Councillor Derek Cundy (Bynea ward) Openreach are now stepping in to connect those properties that have been forced through no fault of their own to sit in the digital slow lane and bring them some of the fastest broadband speeds in Europe.
Using Fibre-to-the-Premises (‘full fibre’), where the fibre is run all the way from the exchange in Llanelli direct to the property, this technology will future-proof Bynea homes and businesses for decades to come.
With download speeds of 1 Gbps, it’s up to 10 times faster than the average home broadband connection which means faster game downloads, better quality video calls and higher resolution movie streaming.
During his tour of the new full fibre network in Llanelli, Lee Waters MS, said:
“We take for granted when we want to download a film or send a photo that it just happens by magic but of course it takes a lot of planning, investment and hard graft to make that happen.”
“What’s been fascinating about seeing this new Openreach infrastructure is how many different parts there are that have to line-up and how much work goes on to co-ordinate that build in order to give us the fibre broadband service that we all need and take for granted.”
Nia Griffith MP said:
“It’s been really interesting to see how Openreach are working to bring proper broadband that the Bynea residents deserve and how the engineers are absolutely determined that full fibre broaband will be delivered to every property on the estate.”..
Welcoming the work of Openreach, Cllr Deryk Cundy, said:
“We are now well on the way to having the fibre infrastructure from Llanelli exchange to Bynea installed.”
“Seamlessly linked by light, soon your internet provider will be able to offer you the speed you need. I would like to thank the huge efforts of the Openreach engineers who are helping to get the area into the 21st century and well into the future in the world of communications.”
The visit was hosted by Connie Dixon, Openreach’s Partnership Director for Wales. Connie said:
“At Openreach we’re very proud to be able to say that nobody in Wales or the rest of the UK is building full fibre faster, further or at a higher quality than Openreach. We’re reaching more communities than ever and our team of highly-skilled local engineers, are working hard to deliver some of the fastest and most reliable broadband available anywhere in the world.
“As part of our full fibre build plans we’re working hard with housing developers to make sure that they engage with us at the very earliest stage so that new build sites have the type of broadband connectivty that home owners now expect.
“We’ve made huge strides on that front which will hopefully help avoid similar new build sites having the fibre broadband issues that Bynea has had to experience but making it mandatory through legislation from both Welsh and UK Government will make sure that 100% of all new builds benefit from ultrafast, ultrareliable full fibre broadband.”
In addition to building an ultrafast full fibre broadband network in Bynea itself Openreach recently made a number of announcements on its latest build plans across Wales where more than 415,000 additional homes and businesses – in 140 mainly rural and harder to serve areas across every single Welsh local authority area – will get access to ultrafast fibre broadband. The company is also working in partnership with Welsh Government to reach those that are in the final 5%.
Among those communities across Carmarthenshire to benefit from Openreach’s huge build plans include: Abergwili, Bronwydd, Burry Port, Carmarthen, Cwmffrwd, Capel Hendre, Carmel, Cwmgwili, Cefneithin, Cross Hands, Croesyceiliog, Drefach, Hendy, Idole, Llanedi, Llannon, Penygroes, Pembrey, Tumble, Ammanford, Llangennech, Llandeilo, Llandybie, Trimsaran, Kidwelly, Llandovery, Amman Valley, Swiss Valley and Dafen.
Openreach plays an important role across Wales. More than 2,500 of our people live and work here. 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.
