Openreach asks for residents' support to get full fibre broadband installed in Seaton Sluice
Openreach has said it wants to install full fibre broadband in Seaton Sluice, but that it needs residents to apply for funding before the roll out can take place.
If enough people living in the village apply to the government’s Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme then the firm, a subsidiary of BT, will receive financial support to install the internet infrastructure.
As part of the funding conditions, residents will have to commit to ordering a full fibre service from a provider of their choice for at least 12 months once the new network is available.
Full fibre involves connecting properties to the internet exclusively using high-speed fibre optic cables, instead of slower and less reliable copper cables.
Louise Thompson, Openreach’s regional engagement manager, said: “This is a really exciting opportunity for the people of Seaton Sluice to bring all the benefits of ultra-fast, ultra-reliable, full fibre broadband to their community.
“Building out the network to harder to reach locations is still challenging, which is why it is only possible with everyone working together.
“Everyone who pledges a voucher will be doing their bit to help make Seaton Sluice one of the best-connected places in the UK.
“We are investing £15bn to build full fibre broadband to 25m homes and more than six million of those will be in the toughest third of the UK, but we cannot upgrade the whole country alone.”
According to Openreach, up to 1,400 homes and businesses in Seaton Sluice could get access to full fibre under the scheme and the network could be up and running within 12 to 18 months of work starting.