Faster "Full Fibre" Broadband Announced For 51 New Sussex Locations

Internet infrastructure provider Openreach this morning (May 28) announced plans to upgrade available connections to 51 further towns and villages across Sussex.

It's part of its scheme to offer full fibre broadband to three million premises in what the supplier calls the "toughest third" of the UK, meaning areas where lines are hard to install, or distances from telephone exchanges are long.

The provider said it would be supporting a UK government target of making Gigabit-capable broadband available to 85% of the UK by the year 2025.

It added that the plan followed what it called an "extended investment commitment by its parent, BT Group".

The plans also include an extension to the company's biggest ever recruitment drive, with a further 1,000 new roles being created in 2021 on top of the 2,500 jobs which were announced in December 2020 - of which around 341 were in the South East.

According to the company's own figures, it means that by the end of 2021, Openreach will have created and filled more than 9,000 apprenticeship roles since 2017/18.

Kieran Wines, Openreach's Regional Director for the South East, said:

"Building a new ultrafast broadband network across the South East is a massive challenge and some parts of the region will inevitably require public funding.

"But our expanded build plan means taxpayer subsidies can be limited to only the hardest to connect homes and businesses.

"And with investments from other network builders, we'd hope to see that shrink further.

"This is a hugely complex, nationwide engineering project - second only to HS2 in terms of investment.

"It will help level-up the UK because the impact of Full Fibre broadband stretches from increased economic prosperity and international competitiveness, to higher employment and environmental benefits.

"We're also delighted to continue bucking the national trend by creating more jobs in the region, with apprentices joining in their droves to start their careers as engineers."

The technology can allows download speeds of 1 Gbps, so making it up to 10 times faster than the average home broadband connection.

According to Openreach, that would mean faster game downloads, better quality video calls and higher resolution movie streaming.

Full Fibre is also less affected by peak time congestion, permitting ultra-high-definition films to be viewed with less possibility of buffering.

The company's Chief Engineer unit added that there will be major investment in 11 new regional training centres - including one in Crawley -  to help equip and skill thousands of new engineers. 

In figures:

• In East Sussex, 27 exchanges will be upgraded, allowing full-fibre connections to more than 90,000 customers.
• In West Sussex, 24 exchanges will be upgraded, allowing full-fibre connections to more than 55,000 customers.
• For East Sussex, the exchanges will be: Baldslow, Herstmonceux, Pevensey, Barcombe, Horam Road, Ringmer, Battle, Hurst Green, Robertsbridge, Buxted, Iden, Rotherfield, Castleham, Mayfield, Rye, Cooden, Newhaven, Sedlescombe, Guestling, Newick, Ticehurst, Hastings, Northiam, Wadhurst, Heathfield, Peasmarsh, and Wivelsfield Green
• For West Sussex, the exchanges will be: Ardingly, Faygate, Pulborough, Arundel, Hassocks, Rudgwick, Ashington, Henfield, Scaynes Hill, Balcombe, Hurstpierpoint, Selsey, Bosham, Lindfield, Southwater, Bracklesham Bay, Midhurst, Storrington, Copthorne, Partridge Green, West Chiltington, Eastergate, Petworth, Yapton.