Councillors welcome broadband upgrade works in Morpeth

The gigabit upgrade from Openreach, using full fibre technology, will see the first homes and businesses go live in spring next year if all goes to plan.

The full build is expected to be completed by the end of 2023.

More than 1,000 premises in Morpeth can already access full fibre – mainly at new-build sites – with people living in newer built homes encouraged to check their postcodes to see if they can already upgrade.

Welcoming the news, Morpeth North county councillor David Bawn said: “It is fantastic news that central Morpeth and other areas will now benefit from the roll-out of the new fibre network.

“As we have all learned in recent times, a fast and reliable broadband connection is now an essential for every household and I am glad that we are now getting this upgrade.”

Morpeth Mayor, Coun Alison Byard, added: “I had been told that Morpeth was on the Openreach Fibre First plan for delivery some time before the end of 2026, so am delighted to find it happening so much earlier.

“Many Morpeth residents will be very happy to benefit from a full fibre connection and the improvement this will bring to their online communication.”

Openreach has previously announced plans to invest in full fibre broadband for the majority of premises in towns and villages across Northumberland as a result of the both the company’s commercial build and the iNorthumberland broadband partnership with Northumberland County Council.

Mike Poole, chief engineer and member of the Openreach North of England board, said: “In communities across Northumberland people are likely to notice an increase in Openreach activity.

“Our teams work hard to make sure that we keep any disruption to local communities to a minimum by reusing our existing network where possible, but it’s not always straightforward.

“Occasionally, we do need to put up new telegraph poles or use traffic lights to enable engineers to work safely in the road, but full fibre will bring multiple benefits to people living and working across the county – as well as welcome boost to the local economy.”

The upgrade covers the Morpeth telephone exchange area. Some locations such as Lynemouth and Ulgham have their own exchange.