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Network operator Openreach (BT) has reached a new access agreement (wayleave) with the London Borough of Havering, which will enable them to deploy their full fibre (FTTP) gigabit broadband network across approximately 115 buildings (blocks of flats and apartments) – reaching thousands of extra homes.
The initial deployment is set to benefit more than 1,300 of flats and apartments across 64 buildings in the Borough. But over time the wider programme is expected to be expanded, which will eventually reach approximately 115 buildings, benefiting around 2,500 homes. Some 90,000 premises across the borough already have access to this network.
The additional flats and apartments will join more than 2.3 million premises across Greater London that already have access to the operator’s new full fibre network, which in turn form part of the 23m premises across the United Kingdom that have already been covered.
Nick Hibberd, Openreach MDU Professional, said:
“We’re thrilled to be working with the London Borough of Havering on this significant broadband upgrade.
Working together is a crucial step in making sure that residents across Havering have access to some of the best broadband available anywhere in the UK.
The upgrades are not automatic, so once full fibre is available, tenants should contact their broadband provider, place an order to get connected, and we’ll do the rest.”
The agreement supports Openreach’s up to £15bn investment in deploying full fibre technology to cover 25 million UK premises by the end of December 2026. After that, there’s a further ambition to reach up to 30 million premises by 2030, but the build plan for the 2026-2030 period has yet to be announced.
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 usually an automatic upgrade, but some providers are offering something similar to customers on older networks.