Openreach urges businesses to talk to fibre providers

Openreach is asking North of Tyne businesses to talk to altnets about upgrades as fibre adoption sits below 20%, lagging behind the UK average.

The organisation has invested £30m into the area, providing more than 100,000 homes and businesses in the region with full fibre access.

Despite this investment, uptake compares poorly to other local communities such as Amble, Hartburn, Killingworth, North Shields and Wallsend are seeing around 50% adoption of fibre services.

A report by the Centre for Economics & Business Research shows that connecting everyone in the north east to ‘full fibre’ broadband would create a £1.7bn boost to the local economy.

Robert Thorburn, Openreach’s Partnership Director for the north east, said: “This new network will give businesses an edge as they fight back from the pandemic.

“Gigabit-capable broadband can have a huge impact on people’s lives and it’s great for the economy but upgrades aren’t automatic. People need to place an order with their chosen providers to get connected and we’ll do the rest.”