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Broadband speeds set for boost in Dartford, Barming, Bearsted, Blue Bell Hill and Aylesford in £33m Openreach full fibre upgrade
10:41, 17 May 2022
updated: 12:21, 17 May 2022
More than 40,000 homes in the county are set to get access to superfast full fibre broadband after Openreach announced the South East was to benefit from a £33million upgrade.
Full fibre accelerates online connection speeds up to 10 times faster than average home broadband connections.
It can deliver speeds up to 900Mbps compared to the traditional copper wires used. The average broadband speed in the UK is thought to be around 50Mbps.
Openreach is the largest digital network provider in the UK - providing the infrastructure for the likes of broadband providers BT, Sky and TalkTalk - and is tasked with boosting connection speeds.
In its latest round of upgrades, more than 110,000 homes and businesses across Kent, East Sussex, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire will benefit.
And Kent will take the lion's share with 40,000 properties Dartford, Barming, Bearsted, Blue Bell Hill and Aylesford being able to upgrade to full fibre once work is complete.
Kieran Wines, Openreach’s regional director for the South East, said: “We’ve already reached more than seven million homes and businesses across the UK with ultrafast full fibre technology including more than more than 1.4m across the South East, but we know there’s more to do and we’re committed to doing it.”
The latest upgrades are part of Openreach’s £15billion investment in upgrading the UK's broadband infrastructure.
It is already available to 7.2m properties in the UK.
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