BT Openreach announces coverage of seven million UK premises

Openreach has announced that it has now covered seven million premises in the UK with its gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network. The operator has also added 36 new locations to its £15 billion rollout, which aims to reach 25 million premises by December 2026.

Clive Selley, Openreach CEO, said: “Over a whopping seven million homes can now connect to our Full Fibre network which is a fantastic achievement. We’ve come a long way – it took eight years for us to pass our first million premises, but only four months to pass our latest million."

“We believe that full fibre is the future for the UK and that’s why we want to deliver full fibre broadband to 25 million UK homes and businesses by December 2026. The shift from copper to fibre will be every bit as significant as the move from analogue to digital and black and white tv to colour. By eventually retiring analogue phone lines, we will be creating a simplified network which allows us to meet the enhanced needs of an increasingly digital society.”

The latest locations to be added to the rollout include: Accrington in Lancashire; Boldon in Tyne & Wear; Dudley in the West Midlands; Hornchurch in Greater London; Kemptown in East Sussex; Manningham in West Yorkshire; and West Houghton in Greater Manchester.

The operator is currently building at a rate of c.50,000 premises per week, which roughly equates to around 800 metres of cable per minute.

Selley commented: “We’re the UK’s leading network builder – going further and faster than all our competitors put together, and we’re still getting faster and building further every week, every quarter, And that’s important because it signals to the markets that we’re delivering what we promised. This is a life-changing technology and we’re delighted to be adding more towns and villages to our build programme today.”