Openreach will be supported by increased investment from BT Group and now expects to accelerate towards its target of reaching 25 million premises by December 2026, upping its build rate by 20% to up to five million premises passed during the year to March 2026.
Wed, 13/12/2023 - 12:18
Over 115,000 extra Hampshire premises have been addressed by a ten-year, £40m superfast broadband programme which has just concluded.
Over one million metres of fibre optic cable are now in place and 1,200 new network points have been installed in 260 parishes
Hampshire County Council’s Cabinet state that the scheme exceeded targets by boosting speeds for 98% of regional premises that would have missed out on upgrades from service providers without public subsidy.
Councillor Rob Humby, Leader of Hampshire County Council, said: “There’s still work to be done to improve speeds for around 20,000 Hampshire properties (the remaining 2.2%) who are still only accessing speeds below 24Mbps.”
The Hampshire Superfast Programme has worked with Project Gigabit to define the areas that need a subsidy for gigabit broadband and the Government has confirmed £118m of direct investment for the county.
This has been distributed via contracts won by Wessex Internet and CityFibre.
Additionally, BDUK has set up a voucher scheme worth £4,500 per property, for residents and businesses not covered by these contracts to be able to work together and collectively commission broadband providers to install gigabit broadband where it is urgently needed.
