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Connectivity boost for the West Midlands as Coventry joins Birmingham as a member of Openreach’s Fibre First programme
Openreach has announced that it is adding the city of Coventry to its Fibre First programme, providing a real boost to connectivity in the West Midlands region.
The move is part of an initiative that will see Openreach deliver 3 million fibre to the home (FTTH) connections by 2020.
In nearby Birmingham, the UK’s Minister for Digital, Margot James, met with Openreach’s CEO, Clive Selley, to discuss the company’s progress.
"Making sure that people have access to full fibre broadband, as quickly as is realistically possible, is of huge importance. It’s great to see Openreach making significant progress in the West Midlands, adding Coventry to the list of areas to benefit from the early stages of the programme. And it was really interesting to get a behind the scenes look at the civil engineering work that’s at the forefront of introducing this new technology,” she said.
The West Midlands is fast emerging as a technological hub for the UK, with a multi-city £50m 5G testbed recently being announced in the area.
Openreach’s CEO, Clive Selley said that the region was of particular importance for Openreach, as it strives to deliver on its targets.
“We are making significant progress in the West Midlands as we get on with building the infrastructure Britain needs to stay ahead in the global digital economy. I’m delighted to announce that families and businesses in Coventry will soon be among the first in the UK to benefit from this commitment.
“Our engineers have so far built full fibre broadband technology to more than 600,000 premises and are already working in nearby Birmingham, which was one of the first ‘fibre cities’ announced earlier this year. Despite the challenges of planning, street works and permissions, we’re reaching thousands of homes each week and we’re on track for our ambition of reaching 10 million premises by the mid-2020s,” he said.
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