£60m ultrafast full fibre boost for North East

Around 140,000 more homes and business premises based in the North East are set to benefit from a £56 million broadband investment boost, according to Openreach.

Areas including Sunderland, North Shields, West Newcastle and Killingworth are all set to be included in the company's national upgrade plan, with the majority of premises across the region gaining access to ultrafast, full fibre broadband.

According to Openreach, work is due to begin this year and is expected to be completed by the year 2026, with a full list of targeted locations and timescales for the work due to be published by the firm.

Commenting on the announcement, Robert Thorburn, Openreach’s regional director for the North, stated that the company is proud of its rapid full fibre rollout plan, which is expected to boost the lives and work capabilities of hundreds of thousands of properties across the region.

"Nobody in 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 engineers, alongside our build partners, are working hard to deliver some of the fastest and most reliable broadband available anywhere in the world.

"Just last month we announced tens of thousands rural and hard to reach locations across the North East were to benefit, so it’s great that we’re able to reveal another huge broadband boost for the region with these additional locations."

Ric Welsby, Managing Director of Telent Infrastructure Services, the firm chosen by Openreach to support the upgrades, added: "We are very pleased to be supporting Openreach in the build of this ultrafast and ultra-reliable full fibre broadband network. The long-term contracts we have been awarded allow us to recruit the people we need to provide an excellent service to Openreach."