Improvements to broadband are speeding up in the Ashford borough
Published: 10/01/2022A number of areas within the borough of Ashford are currently seeing a large investment in Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) being rolled out by Openreach and Netomnia. 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.
In Ashford work has been underway with both companies upgrading the infrastructure currently in place in parts of the wider town. Netomnia’s sister company YouFibre recently announced that they have connected their first customer to the upgraded infrastructure, which is currently being rolled out in southern areas of Ashford. Openreach’s upgrade will mean that customers with broadband packages from most providers will be able to access improved internet connections as well.
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 “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 would like to see fast, reliable digital connectivity available across the whole borough so no one is disadvantaged in accessing online services or doing business.
“I am pleased that the Ashford borough is already benefitting from investment from two companies which will provide even more options locally for our residents and businesses.
“Those households and most business broadband users who utilise FTTP will not only be able to do just about anything they want online, but others in the home or workplace can simultaneously do the same.”
You can find out more about planned works for each company via the below links: