Full fibre broadband boost for Lancashire homes from £11m scheme

The improved internet speeds will be thanks to an £11m investment by Openreach – the UK’s largest digital network provider, used by the likes of BT, Sky, TalkTalk, Vodafone and Zen.

When work is finished the majority of people living and working in Freckleton, South Shore, Accrington, and Turton, will be able to contact their broadband provider and upgrade to full fibre broadband.

Robert Thorburn, Openreach’s regional director for the North, said: “Nobody in the UK is building full fibre faster, further or at a higher quality than Openreach. We’re passing more than 50.000 new homes and businesses every week and installing around 800 metres of cable every minute, with our teams of highly-skilled engineers working alongside our build partners to deliver some of the fastest and most reliable broadband available anywhere in the world.

“We’ve already reached more than seven million homes and businesses across the UK with ultrafast full fibre technology including nearly 170,000 in Lancashire but we know there’s more to do and we’re committed to doing it.”

Full fibre broadband is up to ten times faster than the average home broadband connection and around five times more reliable than the traditional copper-based network, providing more predictable, consistent speeds.

Openreach engineers have been working hard to make the technology available to as many people as possible throughout the UK and the company’s plans are fundamental to the UK Government achieving its target of delivering ‘gigabit capable’ broadband to 85 per cent of UK by 2025.

The company will invest billions of pounds to reach a total of 25 million premises by the end of December 2026, including more than six million in the hardest-to-serve parts of the country defined by industry regulator Ofcom.

Openreach employs more than 3,950 people across the North West and in February announced plans to recruit a create and fill a further 540 jobs – including around 400 apprenticeships.