£114m ultrafast broadband boost in Batley and Dewsbury

People living and working in Armley, Batley, Collingham Bridge, Dewsbury, Garforth, Hipperholme, Illingworth, Laisterdyke and Undercliffe are all set to benefit from the company’s national upgrade plan, with the majority of premises in each area gaining access to the latest ultrafast, ultra-reliable full fibre broadband.

Work will take place between now and 2026.

The news comes hot on the heels of a similar announcement last month, when 160,000 premises - in mainly rural and harder to serve areas across Yorkshire and the Humber - were also included in the build plan.

Both announcements build on Openreach’s existing work across Yorkshire and the Humber, where around 350,000 homes and businesses can already order ultrafast, ultra-reliable full fibre broadband.

Following a competitive tender process, Telent Infrastructure Services was chosen by Openreach to support the upgrades across West Yorkshire and will play a crucial role in building the new network to thousands of premises in these locations

Robert Thorburn, Openreach’s regional director for the North, said: “Nobody in the UK is building full fibre faster, further or at a higher quality than Openreach.

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

“Just last month we announced dozens of rural and hard to reach locations across Yorkshire and the Humber were to benefit, so it’s great that we’re able to reveal another huge broadband boost for the region with these additional locations.

“The latest details and timescales are available on our website, as the build planning progresses.”

Ric Welsby, managing director of Telent Infrastructure Services, said; “We are very pleased to be supporting Openreach in the build of this ultrafast and ultra-reliable full fibre broadband network.

"The long-term contracts we have been awarded allow us to recruit the people we need to provide an excellent service to Openreach.

"We have many exciting roles to fill, I would encourage anyone who is interested in working on this important national infrastructure project to visit our website.”