With my Digital Connectivity Review ongoing, it was good to meet Openreach engineers in Banbury to learn more about the progress they are making in the constituency.
The Openreach team are bringing Full Fibre to more than 15,000 homes and businesses, representing a £4.6 million investment in Banbury. This infrastructure upgrade will provide our community with faster and more reliable broadband, in line with local priorities highlighted to me through my survey.
Complementing this commercial rollout, the Government recently launched procurement for the delivery of Full Fibre broadband in North Oxfordshire through Project Gigabit. This national mission, backed by £5 billion, aims to connect 85% of homes by 2025 – with 76% of premises already connected, up from just 6% in 2019. £11.2 million worth of investment will deliver gigabit-capable broadband to a further 4,900 hard-to-reach homes in our community.
I am also aware that over 117,000 vouchers worth up to £4,500 have been issued as part of the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme. I would urge constituents to check their eligibility for this and other schemes using my directory.
Speaking on the visit, Openreach's regional partnership manager, Kasam Hussain said:
“We welcomed the opportunity to give Mrs Prentis a step-by-step demonstration of our technology. Our engineers work hard every day to keep communities across Oxfordshire and the wider region connected, and it was great to be able to share the challenges and realities of delivering this technology.”
