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Network operator Openreach (BT) has this week confirmed that they’ve recently started to roll-out or expand their new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based gigabit broadband ISP network across the Somerset festival town of Glastonbury, as well as 9 more locations that stretch right across the United Kingdom.
Just to recap. Openreach is currently investing up to £15bn to expand the coverage of their new full fibre network to 25 million premises by December 2026 (here), which will include around 6.2m in rural or semi-rural areas. On top of that, they’ve also expressed an ambition to reach “up to” 30m by 2030 (there are c. 33m in the UK), albeit somewhat dependent upon a favourable outcome from Ofcom’s Telecoms Access Review 2026 (TAR).
The latest locations on Openreach’s existing roll-out plan to see the start of Street Works to build their new full fibre network have this week been confirmed as Glastonbury, Ferndown, Millport, Wemyss Bay, Ventnor, Ilfracombe, Royston, Low Moor, Padiham and Kingswinford. Sadly, the operator hasn’t said how many premises in each location will be reached.
The new service, once live, can be ordered via various ISPs, such as BT, Sky Broadband, TalkTalk, Vodafone and many more (Openreach FTTP ISP Choices) – it is not currently an automatic upgrade, although some providers have started to do free automatic upgrades as older copper-based services and lines are slowly withdrawn.