Eastwood engineer urges residents to upgrade broadband as full fibre comes to 20,000 homes

It comes as a new project by Openreach, installing full fibre broadband, has now reached more than 20,000 homes and businesses in the local area.

The work is being co-ordinated by Dan Inger, who’s worked for Openreach for more than 20 years, and is a lifelong resident of Eastwood.

But with around 10 per cent of premises being early users of the new network, Dan is worried that local people don’t yet know full fibre is available, or perhaps mistakenly think upgrades will happen automatically.

Dan said: “The advantages of full fibre are huge.

“As well as being faster, it provides more reliable, resilient, and future-proof connectivity, with fewer faults; more predictable, consistent speeds and enough capacity to use multiple devices at once.

“Full fibre broadband involves running cables from the local exchange on Milnhay Road, to just outside people’s homes and businesses.

“More than 20,000 premises across Eastwood, Heanor and Langley Mill are already covered in this way, with work continuing to reach the rest.

“We’ve been building the network here for some time now, and I’m proud to be involved in such a great project for my local area.

“To be putting something back into this community feels good, and I’m looking forward to seeing the new technology make a difference.

“People need to contact their broadband provider to upgrade.

“It doesn’t happen automatically.

“But full fibre packages seem to be increasingly competitively priced, for a much-improved service.

“Visit the fibre checker on the Openreach website to check if you’re already covered, or when you might be. And then get in touch with your broadband provider.”

Openreach has announced further plans to invest in full fibre broadband for hundreds of towns and villages across the East Midlands, as part of plans to reach 25 million homes and businesses by the end of 2026.