09
January
2017
|
10:04
Europe/London

Upton Park leads the way as Openreach announces more ultrafast broadband pilot areas

Summary
People living in Upton Park will be amongst the first in the UK to benefit from the new ultrafast broadband technology being developed by Openreach, BT’s local network business. The company has announced Upton Park as a pilot location for its new ultrafast technology, known as G.fast, which provides download speeds of up to 330Mbps – more than 10 times the UK national average.

People living in Upton Park will be amongst the first in the UK to benefit from the new ultrafast broadband technology being developed by Openreach, BT’s local network business.

The company has announced Upton Park as a pilot location for its new ultrafast technology, known as G.fast, which provides download speeds of up to 330Mbps – more than 10 times the UK national average.

Openreach plans to make G.fast available to more than 10 million UK homes by the end of 2020, and news of the pilot has been given a warm welcome by Stephen Timms, the Member of Parliament for East Ham.

Thousands of premises in Upton Park will be given access to the technology during 2017 with details about exactly where and when to be published shortly.

Stephen Timms, Member of Parliament for East Ham, said: “I am delighted that Upton Park has been chosen as one of the first pilot areas in London for Openreach’s new ultrafast broadband. Now we can look forward to many citizens of Upton Park being able to access broadband through this exciting G. fast technology.”

Clive Selley, Openreach’s chief executive, said: “The UK already leads the way when it comes to superfast broadband. More than nine out of ten homes and businesses already have access to superfast speeds with another 20,000 more premises being enabled each week, and we’re working hard to reach the rest, as well as starting to roll out ultrafast speeds.

“I’m pleased that Upton Park will be one of the first locations to get ultrafast speeds using G.fast technology, it’s a technology we’ve chosen because it enables us to get an affordable ultrafast service to as many people as possible in the fastest possible time.”

Early trials of G.fast have been taking place in Cambridgeshire, Newcastle and South Wales, and Openreach has just announced the 17 pilot areas – including Upton Park – to reach around 140,000 homes and businesses by the end of 2017.

Independent data from thinkbroadband shows that 96 per cent of homes and businesses in the London borough of Newham already have access to superfast broadband speeds of 24Mbps and above, whilst Openreach has announced that it will make fibre available for a further 360,000 homes and businesses in London by the end of 2017.

This latest rollout will take availability of fibre optic services for London homes and small businesses* beyond the current coverage of over 95 per cent.**.

Across the UK, more homes and businesses are now using superfast broadband than in Germany, France, Italy or Spain, and the UK outperforms the EU’s five largest economies on measures such as availability, speeds and take-up according to Ofcom[***].

You can find out more about G. Fast at openreach.co.uk/ultrafast.

Notes to Editors

* Every business property in London can already access “Ethernet” – ultrafast high-capacity broadband over tailor-made lines. This announcement concerns fibre optic connections for households and smaller businesses.

**The 95 per cent estimate is sourced from independent website thinkbroadband, using Ofcom and other information and pertains to overall coverage across Openreach and other networks.

***Ofcom’s European Broadband Scorecardshows the UK is ranked as leader of the five major EU economies - France, Germany, Italy, Spain - on a range of independent broadband measures