Vale of Clwyd MP Dr James Davies has commended some of the innovative work that is being carried out to upgrade Denbigh and the wider community with the next generation of fibre broadband technology, after witnessing it first-hand during a recent visit.
Last month, James met up with Openreach engineers in Denbigh to see how, through an innovative process, they are building a brand new ‘full fibre’ network directly from the Denbigh exchange. This will serve more than 4,000 properties in the town and surrounding communities with more reliable, ultrafast internet connections.
The Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP or ‘full fibre’) infrastructure will future-proof Denbigh homes and businesses for decades to come and bring with it access to some of the fastest broadband speeds in Europe.
James also visited Commscope in Bodelwyddan, who produce fibre broadband cabling to Opereach, and other network providers, and are expanding and taking on more local people to meet demand.
Following both visits, James, who has raised poor internet connections in the Vale of Clwyd in Parliament on several occasions, said:
“The pandemic, with more people working and being educated at home, has demonstrated the desperate need for more reliable and faster broadband connections.
“Residents and businesses in Denbigh, and surrounding areas, have struggled for years with poor and slow internet connections. They will therefore be pleased to hear of the progress which is being made by Openreach to address these issues.
“The work will result in people having download speeds of 1 Gbps, which is up to 10 times faster than the average home broadband connection, resulting in faster game downloads, better quality video calls and higher resolution movie streaming.
“Openreach are making great progress and I thank them for minimising public disruption during the build and for ensuring that the work will be completed on time.”
He added:
“I also wish to commend Commscope in Bodelwyddan for the instrumental role they are playing in the project, producing the cabling for Opereach.”
The Openreach visit was hosted by Suzanne Rutherford, the company’s Chief Engineer’s Lead in Wales.
She said:
“At Openreach, we’ll never be just a city fibre builder.”
“We’re very proud to be able to say that nobody in Wales or the rest of the UK is building full fibre faster, further or at a higher quality than Openreach. We’re reaching more communities than ever and our team of highly-skilled local engineers, are working hard to deliver some of the fastest and most reliable broadband available anywhere in the world.
“We were delighted to be able to show what’s being done to build and connect Denbigh to our full fibre network and outline the benefits that full fibre offers.”
“People also need to remember that upgrades are not automatic, so I’d encourage residents of Denbigh and the wider community to see if they can take advantage of this new technology by visiting our fibre checker website - www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband.”
In addition to building an ultrafast full fibre broadband network in Denbigh itself, Openreach recently updated its build plan across Wales and the rest of the UK which will be fundamental to the UK Government achieving its target of delivering ‘gigabit capable’ broadband to 85 per cent of UK by 2025.
Communities in Denbighshire that will benefit from Openreach’s full fibre build include: Trefnant, Corwen, Llangollen, St Asaph, Ruthin, Dyserth, Rhuddlan, Rhyl, Kinmel Bay, Denbigh, Henllan, Gronant and Prestatyn.
