13
March
2017
|
09:15
Europe/London

One in ten million: Kent business is first in the country to order new ultrafast broadband technology

Summary
Gillingham based book keeping firm connects to Openreach’s new G.fast broadband technology Family run business Temiz book-keeping Ltd has become the first of ten million homes and small businesses to benefit from a major expansion of ultrafast broadband by Openreach, the UK’s leading digital infrastructure provider.

Gillingham based book keeping firm connects to Openreach’s new G.fast broadband technology

Family run business Temiz book-keeping Ltd has become the first of ten million homes and small businesses to benefit from a major expansion of ultrafast broadband by Openreach, the UK’s leading digital infrastructure provider.

The accountancy firm is now using the latest ultrafast technology, known as [1]G.fast, a service capable of delivering download speeds of up to 330Mbps* – more than 10 times the UK national average.

It follows an earlier announcement that Openreach would make G.fast available to more than 10 million UK homes by the end of 2020, as part of an overall plan to reach 12 million premises with ultrafast speeds of more than 100Mbps in the same timeframe.

Gillingham was one of the first trial sites for G.fast (along with Huntingdon and Cherry Hinton in Cambridgeshire and Gosforth in Newcastle) and around 12,500 Kent households and businesses were able to take part in the trial which began in April last year.

Openreach has since announced a total of 17 G.fast pilot areas which are being built around the country and will mean thousands more homes and businesses will be able to connect to the service during 2017.

Mehmet Uzum, who runs the bookkeeping business with his wife Gulcihan, explained how the new ultrafast speeds are helping them devise plans to expand into new markets and grow the business. He said: “All our client data is stored in the Cloud. Having ultrafast speeds means we can download and upload that data instantly – however many client accounts we are working on at the same time.

“Uploading heavy data files could take a couple of hours with the speeds we had before but now we can achieve the same in a matter of minutes – it is a big time saver.”

Mehmet added that having ultrafast speeds had given them the confidence to expand their operation and to offer new services to clients.

“We are in the process of building a website for the business which will allow clients to log into their own accounts and use the book keeping facilities. We are also looking to open another office in London to help us attract new clients in the City and take on another partner so that we can offer an auditing service. It is a new and exciting time for us and having ultrafast broadband provides the platform to do all this on. It has given us the confidence to go ahead and invest in the future of the business.”

Gillingham and Rainham MP Rehman Chishti, who visited the business to help celebrate the milestone, said: “I’m delighted that Gillingham is at the forefront of such an important advance in broadband technology. Temiz book-keeping are a great example of how ultrafast broadband can give small businesses new and more effective ways to compete in the digital world.

“From children doing their homework to caring for our elderly population and from social media to e-commerce and home entertainment – high-speed broadband is the critical enabler, and I look forward to many more businesses and residents in Gillingham being among the first to enjoy the benefits of ultrafast broadband.”

Clive Selley, CEO of Openreach, said: “Making ultrafast speeds available to up to 12 million homes and businesses by the end of 2020 will be another boost to the UK’s thriving digital economy. We want to improve the personal and professional lives of people up and down the country, and delivering high speed G.fast services at scale and pace means we can reach more of them. It’s great to see our the first customers being switched on and already reaping the benefits, and we’re looking forward to delivering ultrafast speeds to the largest number of people in the fastest possible time over the coming months and years.”

Mark Spells programme director, London & South East, Openreach, added: “Every day the number of services delivered to us online, whether designed to entertain, educate or meet our daily needs, is growing. Content and applications will only get more sophisticated until ultrafast speeds will become vital for doing all your essential tasks online, so it is important that communities take advantage of the technology as it arrives. ”

The new network is available on an open wholesale basis to all internet service providers thereby ensuring that households and businesses benefit from competitive pricing and products.

People wanting to take advantage of the new ultrafast technology can find out more about which providers offer this service by visiting www.openreach.co.uk/buyultrafast

To date, Openreach has built the largest fibre broadband network in the UK – largely using Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) technology – which covers more than 26 million premises.

[1]G.fast is a cutting edge technology that allows us to deliver Ultrafast speeds over existing copper lines. It builds on our existing network, so it allows us to upgrade areas very quickly with minimal distruption and cost, and will evolve over time to offer even faster speeds.