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Millions of UK homes should now be able to access blisteringly quick broadband that will allow them to download movies and stream TV at a much faster rate than before. BT-owned Openreach, which supplies infrastructure across the UK, has just confirmed that almost 14 million premises should now have access to Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) connectivity.
The company has also said that it hopes to have 30 million homes and businesses linked up to better speeds by 2030.
“We’ve built full fibre broadband to almost 14 million premises and are now building at a rate of 1m a quarter and will go on to reach 30m by 2030,” said Georgia Grimes Openreach’s Director of Fibre Build – via ISPreview. “We’re building on time, in budget, safely and sustainably.”
Although Openreach is owned by BT, its cables are also used by firms such as Sky, TalkTalk and EE which means millions could now find they can get a dramatic speed boost.
Who uses Openreach cables? Firms that use the Openreach network include Sky, BT, EE, Vodafone, Zen, TalkTalk, Plusnet, KCOM, Giganet, SSE and Gamma.
As a quick guide, ageing copper lines that connect some homes to the web are only capable of offering speeds no faster than 80Mbps. FTTP technology can boost that to over 1.5Gbps – that’s more than 15 times quicker.
With a full-fibre connection installed, a full HD movie can be downloaded in around 30 seconds. FTTP is also better if you have a busy home full of people streaming and working from home as it can cope with more devices connected at the same time.
Openreach has a dedicated Fibre broadband speed checker which shows what speeds are available in your street.
YOU CAN CHECK YOUR POSTCODE HERE
Just remember that the faster the speeds you sign up for the more expensive things will be. If you don’t think you really need blistering 1Gbps downloads then shop around and only sign up for a plan that fits in with your daily routine.
What speeds do you really need?
A single person who simply wants to send a few emails and stream the odd show on Netflix shouldn’t need anything more than a 30Mbps connection. It’s very basic speeds but that should be ample for a low usage property.
However, a house full of gadgets with people trying to stream in 4K, download games and make Zoom calls to the office will need a much faster connection.
A busy family that doesn’t want a sluggish connection should look at upgrading to at least 200Mbps or faster. Remember, broadband is like a motorway – the traffic running along it, the slower things get.
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