Openreach connects first customers under Project Gigabit partnership

The UK’s leading broadband provider Openreach has connected the first premises in 38 different communities in “hard-to-reach remote and rural locations” across the country with full-fibre as part of its Project Gigabit partnership with the UK government.

The £5bn Project Gigabit programme was introduced in 2021 with the aim of accelerating the UK’s recovery from Covid-19, boosting high-growth sectors such as tech and the creative industries, and levelling up the country by spreading wealth and creating jobs.

At its launch, the previous UK government said the scheme would prioritise areas with slow connections that would otherwise be left behind in commercial broadband companies’ plans and give rural communities access to the fastest internet on the market, helping to grow the economy.

Project Gigabit specifically targets places typically regarded as too expensive for commercial providers to reach in their build and which would otherwise be left with poor digital infrastructure. It was designed from the outset to help meet the growing demand for reliable connectivity, stimulating local rural economies and reducing regional disparities by enabling remote working and attracting new businesses.  

One of the first acts by the new Labour administration that was elected in July 2024 was to reconfirm the original objectives to build a broadband infrastructure that would see 85% of the UK have gigabit-capable connectivity by the end of 2025 and full nationwide coverage by 2030.

A month later, the UK government announced that it was investing up to £800m to modernise broadband infrastructure in rural areas of England, Scotland and Wales and hit the Project Gigabit targets.

Explaining why it was ramping up the broadband access scheme, the UK government said hundreds of thousands of rural homes and businesses were still struggling to fulfil basic online tasks due to outdated infrastructure, making it necessary to obtain major internet speed upgrades and narrow the existing digital divide.

Part of the move saw Openreach engaged to deliver access to gigabit-capable broadband to 290,000 homes and businesses across the nation. Rural UK communities now able to access ultra-fast broadband speeds, include: Lacock and Broad Hinton in Wiltshire, Dane End in Hertfordshire, Castle Caereinion and Llanwrin in Powys, and Meeth in Devon.

Other regions that Openreach is working to upgrade broadband infrastructure under Project Gigabit include Lancashire, North Wiltshire, South Gloucestershire, West and Mid Surrey, Staffordshire, West Berkshire, Hertfordshire, and Worcestershire, as well as parts of Devon, Somerset, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Wales, Essex, and North-East England.

The upgrade plan is expected to drive productivity gains, support more than 620,000 people back into the workforce, and enable more than one million to work from home, contributing an additional £19bn annually. Openreach noted that research by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) shows that full-fibre broadband could deliver a £66bn boost to the UK economy by 2029.

Commenting on the news, Openreach deputy CEO Katie Milligan said: “Bringing full fibre broadband to the UK’s most remote and rural homes is a monumental achievement. These communities have faced connectivity challenges for far too long, but our partnership with Project Gigabit is changing that.

“We want to make sure that every corner of the UK has access to the fastest and most reliable broadband technology, so this is just the beginning. We’re continuing to innovate and push the boundaries of what’s possible as we want no community to be left behind.”

UK telecoms minister Chris Bryant added: “Poor connectivity has kept rural communities back for too long, but through Project Gigabit we’re removing barriers to opportunity and bringing fast, reliable broadband to homes and businesses that need it most.”

In terms of its commercial full-fibre build out, Openreach added that it was currently reaching more than 70,000 new premises every week and that, “under the right investment conditions”, it was on track to build to 25 million homes and businesses by the end of 2026 and could reach as many as 30 million by the end of 2030.