Fibre to the Premises is rolling out in the Ashford borough
Published: 03/08/2022
Areas of the Ashford borough are seeing Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) being rolled out by several companies including Netomnia and Openreach. Work is underway by both companies to upgrade infrastructure in a number of areas across Ashford and Tenterden.
On Monday 25 July Netomnia invited Cllr Neil Bell, Portfolio Holder for Planning and Development, along with officers from Ashford Borough Council on a site visit to see how FTTP upgrades happen on the ground. They began at the BT Exchange in Ashford and then visited two properties enabling them to see how the fibre cabling is installed and understand its journey from the exchange to households and businesses.
The two companies’ combined aim is to provide FTTP to approximately 50,000 households and businesses in the Ashford urban area over the coming years. Openreach are also rolling out Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) across Tenterden town centre and parts of St Michaels as part of their Fibre First programme. As of January 2022 19.7% (11,756) of premises in our borough have now been connected to FTTP. This is an increase since Spring 2021 of 7,192 premises.
Fibre-based broadband is the new generation of broadband - much faster and more reliable. Whilst traditional broadband is delivered via copper telephone lines, fibre-based broadband incorporates fibre optic cable in the link between the customer and the exchange (the set of equipment that connects telephone lines during a call).
Fibre optic cable has less interference, keeps the signal strength over much greater distances and provides greater bandwidth. All this means much faster internet speeds and helps households and businesses by allowing more people to simultaneously use the internet for work, TV or music streaming, online gaming or conference calls for example. FTTP also has beneficial environmental impacts enabling more people to work from home, reducing commuting and therefore saving on related CO2 emissions.
Cllr Neil Bell, Portfolio Holder for Planning and Development said “It was fascinating to see how this infrastructure is being laid out across the borough from the exchange and out to homes and businesses.
“One of the objectives in our Corporate Plan 2022-2024 is to enable the improvement of digital infrastructure to support the growing needs of business, voluntary sector and residents. We are looking forward to seeing fast, reliable digital connectivity available across the whole borough so no one is disadvantaged in accessing online services or doing business.”
You can find out more about planned works for each company via the below links:
