Doncaster North MP joins local Openreach engineers to get up to speed as new £22.5m ultrafast broadband network passes 75k

He was given a tour of the work, which is currently making faster and more reliable ‘full fibre’ broadband available to homes and businesses in his constituency.

The tour started with a quick visit to the Askern telephone exchange where the MP was able to try his hand at the art of fibre splicing – where two ends of fibre optic glass cable no wider than a human hair are fused together. This delicate piece of engineering plays a vital role in Openreach’s Full Fibre network that’s already connected more than 75,000 properties across Doncaster – an investment of £22.5 million. [1]

After the exchange it was a short trip to see the ‘final stage’ of the Openreach Full Fibre network and to talk to local engineers that are delivering this game changing technology to communities across area.

Ed Miliband MP, said: ““I was pleased to see the work being done by Openreach to deliver full fibre broadband in my constituency.

“I want to thank the workers at Openreach for their hard work in all weathers to help deliver this service.

“I look forward to even more progress being made so that all of my constituents can have the best access to digital services for employment, education and entertainment, as soon as possible.”

The visit was hosted by Senior Fibre Build Manager, Danny Finn, who said: “We welcomed the opportunity to give Ed a tour of our ultrafast network and explain more about the build. Our engineers work hard every day to keep communities connected, and it was great to be able to share the challenges and realities of delivering this technology.

“I would urge everyone in the local area to keep an eye on the build locally to see when full fibre is available to them. They can visit the Openreach fibre checker, which is regularly updated with our build progress and shows when full fibre is available in specific areas.

”Switching to full fibre is easy and may even be cheaper than your existing broadband package.”

Openreach has invested around £22.5 million locally so far to build a new ultrafast, ultra-reliable Full Fibre network to more than 75,000 homes and businesses in communities across Doncaster including Askern, Balby, Cantley, Doncaster North, Hatfield Woodhouse and Thorne.

Full Fibre technology is up to 16[2] times faster than the average UK broadband connection and around five times more reliable than the old copper-based network it’s replacing. The Openreach network offers the UK’s biggest choice of Full Fibre broadband providers including the likes of BT, Sky, TalkTalk, Vodafone and Zen.

Residents will be able to enjoy a host of online services and entertainment such as seamless streaming, and smooth online gaming experiences. While businesses can operate with certainty that their broadband will support all their day-to-day, business critical tasks such as video calls, banking and customer interaction via social media platforms.

Openreach has already made Full Fibre broadband available to more than 12.5 million homes and businesses across the UK, as part of an overall plan to reach 25 million UK premises by the end of 2026.

Customers can check if the build has reached their area yet or what the latest plans are at openreach.com.