Through its partnerships with CityFibre and Openreach, Vodafone can now reach 15.3 million households with full fibre broadband.
GoFibre has been awarded a £6.6m contract by the UK government to upgrade broadband for more than 4,000 hard-to-reach Teesdale premises.
The altnet will work with the DCMS and Durham County Council to connect villages and hamlets across the region including premises near to Barnard Castle and Bishop Auckland, subject to further survey completion.
The contract with GoFibre’s parent company Borderlink has been signed and planning is now underway, with construction due to begin in Spring 2023.
Chris Jagusz, Chairman of GoFibre, said: “Closing the digital divide and helping local communities to thrive at the heart of everything we do.”
Digital Infrastructure Minister, Julia Lopez, added: “Teesdale will be one of the first places to benefit from the dozens of multi-million-pound contracts we will be signing over the coming weeks and months to make sure people in ‘hard-to-reach’ areas across the UK get the broadband they deserve.”