Both Openreach and Carmarthenshire Council are urging people to get behind bids to bring ultrafast, ultra-reliable Full Fibre broadband to nearly 6000 local homes and businesses across the county.
The call was made during a recent visit to Ferryside where Carmarthenshire Councillors and officials were shown how residents of the rural village are now enjoying some of the fastest and most reliable broadband speeds available in the UK.
During the tour Cllr Linda Evans; Deputy Leader of Carmarthenshire Council, Cllr Crish Davies & Cllr Lewis Davies, both of Kidwelly & St Ishmael visited Carmarthen exchange to see up close the art of fibre splicing – where two ends of fibre optic glass cable no wider than a human hair are fused together. This delicate piece of engineering plays a vital role in Openreach’s Full Fibre network that’s already connected more than 16m properties across the UK.
Then it was on to Ferryside to see how Openreach has been working with the community to encourage residents to join their Fibre Community Partnership (FCP) programme – where free Government Gigabit Vouchers are pooled together to help fund the build. The scheme contributes to the cost of building gigabit-capable broadband networks in areas where it is financially challenging.
Across Carmarthenshire there are 9 FCPs that could benefit if enough vouchers are pledged. They are:
Pendine, Ferryside, Llanpumsaint, Bancyfelin, Llansteffan, Pontyates, Maesycrugiau, Velindre and Pencader.
Cllr Linda Evans, Deputy Leader for Carmarthenshire Council, said: “It’s incredible to see the work local Openreach engineers are doing to bring ultrafast Full Fibre to our county.”
“This new infrastructure will enable residents to enjoy high-speed access to telehealth services, online education and remote work opportunities, which are becoming increasingly essential in modern life.
“The benefits are huge and I would urge communities, including Pencader in my very own constituency, to take advantage of this fantastic opportunity, pledge their free vouchers and make sure we’re on the front foot when it comes to connectivity.”
Speaking of the potential benefits Full Fibre could have to her constituents Cllr Crish Davies said: “Full Fibre broadband could be transformative for Kidwelly, providing the robust infrastructure needed to enable “smart town” technologies that enhance daily life, local businesses and town management. With ultra-fast, reliable internet, Kidwelly can implement connected devices and smart sensors across areas like transport, public safety, and environmental monitoring.
“The infrastructure could support community-focused applications, like interactive digital kiosks with tourist information and public Wi-Fi hotspots, making the town more appealing to visitors and enhancing the local tourism sector.
“Full Fibre would provide the bandwidth for continuous innovation, supporting everything from digital payment systems to augmented reality experiences for exploring Kidwelly’s historical sites. Altogether, the move to Full Fibre could unlock Kidwelly’s potential as a digitally-enabled town, fostering a connected community and driving sustainable growth.”
Residents can check if they qualify and pledge their voucher on the Connect My Community website. Using the vouchers – which don’t cost residents anything, enables Openreach to work with a local community to build a customised, co-funded network.
Once enough people pledge and validate their vouchers, Openreach engineers will start the build. This can take up to 12-18 months, and some properties may go live before others.
Michelle Maidment, Openreach Rural Engagement Manager for West Wales, said: “This is a really exciting opportunity for Carmarthenshire and it was great to be able to show Councillors the work that goes into transforming our network.”
“Our Fibre Community Partnership programme has meant that we’ve been able to potentially bring hundreds more communities across the UK, into our Full Fibre build plans. But building out the network to these harder to reach locations is still challenging – which is why its only possible with everyone working together – you, your neighbours and Openreach.
“Everyone who pledges a voucher will be doing their bit to help make their community – and Carmarthenshire – one of the best-connected places in the UK.”
“We’re investing £15 billion to build full fibre broadband to 25 million homes – and more than six million of those will be in the toughest third of the UK – but we can’t upgrade the whole country alone. This latest support from UK government is a vital part of that process.”
Across Wales nearly sixty communities making up nearly 33,000 properties in some of the most rural parts of the country could take advantage of this ultrafast upgrade as a result of the scheme.
If enough people sign up, homes and businesses in these harder to reach communities will join more than 980,000 properties across Wales that already have access to Full Fibre broadband.
As part of the funding conditions residents are asked to commit to ordering a full fibre service from a provider of their choice for at least 12 months once the new network is available and confirm that they are connected.
