Openreach maps out fibre plans for the next 18 months

BT’s fixed line wholesale division has created a new website that allows everyone to see how its fibre roll-out is going.

The website devoted to banging on about Openreach’s Fibre First programme features a map showing every bit of the US that either already has FTTP, is in the process of acquiring it, or is in Openreach’s immediate plans. 29 more places have today been added to those immediate plans, taking the total over 100.

“Full-fibre broadband provides a reliable, future-proof, consistent and dependable service that will be a platform for economic growth and prosperity throughout the UK for decades to come,” said Openreach Chief Exec Clive Selley.

“We’re now building at a massive scale. Every 28 seconds we pass a home or business with our new future-proofed full fibre network. This has given us ever greater confidence in the level and accuracy of whatever we announce – which is why we’ve now laid out our build plans right up to the target delivery date of four million premises by March 2021.

“We also want to ensure we give our stakeholders – like council leaders, planners and MPs – the best view of where and when we intend to build so we can work together to build as rapidly as possible and help encourage people to take up the technology when it arrives.”

You can see the site, with its handy map, here. One possible reason Openreach has decided to be more transparent about its plans and progress is the political elevation of fibre under the Johnson premiership. Better broadband for everyone seems to be one of his key bits of propaganda and the company will want to be seen to be entering into the spirit of it all. Openreach expects to have connected four million homes and businesses to full-fat fibre by April 2021.

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