Faster broadband promised for Hastings and Rye with £13m infrastructure investment

Openreach, a telecommunications company owned by BT, is investing £13 million in the town as part of its £15 billion plans to upgrade the UK’s largest broadband network.

Ms Hart was given a tour of the work, which involves engineers overlaying copper cables with fibreoptic cables which run from the exchange in Hastings to homes and businesses in the town.

The new cables will bring greater reliability and faster speeds and will future-proof the network in the local area, according to Openreach.

Phil Royal, director for the South East for Openreach’s chief engineer’s team, said: “Nobody in the UK is building Full Fibre broadband faster, further or at a higher quality than Openreach.

"We’re reaching more communities – in rural, urban and coastal areas - than ever and our team of highly skilled engineers and build partners are working hard to deliver some of the fastest and most reliable broadband available anywhere in the world.

“It’s great that so many homes and businesses across Hastings and Rye will be able to access ultrafast, Full Fibre broadband. Our engineers are using the latest technology to keep disruption to a minimum and the benefits

to the local community will last for at least a generation.

“We really enjoyed showing Sally-Ann one of our latest innovations, ribbonised fibre, which can connect multiple fibres all at once, without them being spliced individually. We’re already connecting 60,000 homes and

businesses across the UK each week; innovations like this are helping us get to more properties even faster.”

Ms Hart added: “It was brilliant to meet the engineers who are upgrading the network in Hastings. The Government’s manifesto to deliver nationwide gigabit-broadband with £5 billion investment, leveraging in private investment, is fundamental for local connectivity and economic growth.

“With more people than ever working from home and flexible working becoming more common place it is essential to ensure that we have the telecommunications infrastructure in place to allow this to happen. I am

delighted that Openreach is making this possible and is committed to connecting thousands more by 2026.”