Residents and businesses in Alnmouth and Lesbury urged to pool vouchers to secure ultrafast broadband
The company is urging both communities - and particularly small businesses and sole traders - to consider pooling Gigabit broadband vouchers available from the UK Government to help build a new, gigabit-capable network, where fibre is run directly from the exchange all the way to each property.
Those who don’t already have access to a 100Mbps broadband service can check if they qualify and pledge their voucher on the Connect My Community website.
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Hide AdSome premises, where speeds are less than 30 Mbps, may also be eligible for additional funding via the Digital Borderlands Voucher Scheme.
Utilising the vouchers enables Openreach to work with a local community to build a customised, co-funded network and bring full fibre broadband to areas not included in any existing private or publicly subsidised upgrade schemes.
By working with Openreach in this way more than 120,000 homes and businesses across the UK can already benefit from ultrafast, ultra-reliable broadband.
Robert Thorburn, Openreach’s partnership director for the north, said: “This is a really exciting opportunity for both Alnmouth and Lesbury to bring full fibre infrastructure to their community but while we’ve had a huge amount of interest in Alnmouth there’s been very little in Lesbury.
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Hide Ad“For the upgrades to go ahead in Lesbury we need residents to pledge their vouchers, but we know there are also lots of small businesses and sole traders who haven’t yet pledged their vouchers and who would benefit hugely from this faster, future proof technology.
“Everyone who pledges a voucher will be doing their bit to help the villages become some of the of the best-connected places in Northumberland. Pledging couldn’t be simpler, but we need residents and businesses to act quickly – as the scheme closes in March 2021.”
To claim vouchers which contribute towards the cost of building the new network, residents are asked 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.
Eligible residents qualify for up to £1,500 for rural homes and up to £3,500 for small and medium-sized businesses under the UK Government’s Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme.