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Faster Broadband for North West Norfolk

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North West Norfolk gigabit faster broadband

A fast and reliable broadband connection is a crucial part of modern infrastructure and James has made it one of his priorities to ensure the constituency benefits from government ambitions to level up broadband speeds.

In June 2023 a £114 million contract to connect around 62,000 homes and businesses in Norfolk to gigabit broadband was awarded across locations including premises in Castle Acre,Little and Great Massingham, and Harpley. A further 8,000 premises in the north west of the county are now being reviewed for inclusion subject to survey in the next six months. Following the announcement, James met with CityFibre's Chief Operating Officer and Broadband Delivery UK's Chief Executive to discuss these 8,000 premises and the importance of gigabit coverage for North West Norfolk.

The  pandemic showed how reliant we are on reliable internet connections for remote learning, to access GPs and other public services, to work from home and run businesses, access public services, as well as to stay in touch with friends and family. In addition to commercial investment plans to deliver gigabit-capable networks, the government's £5 billion Project Gigabit will be targeted at the remaining uncommercial areas with the aims to deliver 85% gigabit coverage by 2025 and push further towards 100% coverage.

'Project Gigabit'

More than one million hard to reach homes and businesses will have next generation gigabit broadband built to them in the first phase of a £5 billion government "Project Gigabit." Available speeds will increase to more than one gigabit per second.

Norfolk

Norfolk is part of the early phase of Project Gigabit.  Building Digital UK (BDUK) has now issued the Invitation to Tender (ItT) to qualifying suppliers for the Norfolk regional Project Gigabit procurement. The contracts are estimated to be worth £114 million and to connect a total of 86,200 remote premises. 

The contracts include two categories of intervention: Initial Scope, where the Regional Supplier should build as quickly as possible; and Deferred Scope where we wait and see whether commercial plans or voucher projects translate to delivery, but could then build if not. 6,500 premises in North West Norfolk are included in the initial scope with 1,500 included in the deferred scope.

During the procurement process, the successful bidder did not originally include those areas. However, over the next 6 months from June 2023 the provider is reviewing 8,000 premises with a view to adding them to the contract. James has met BDUK, CityFibre to underline the importance of this as well as lobbying ministers.

 

gigabit coverage map

 "Improving broadband speeds is an issue I have campaigned on so I am pleased that Norfolk will benefit from the early phase of the rollout. Now I will be working to ensure North West Norfolk benefits from this welcome investment."

The successful Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme is also being relaunched with up to £210 million to give people in eligible rural areas immediate financial help to get gigabit speeds. The new vouchers worth up to £1,500 for residents and up to £3,500 for businesses went live on 8 April 2021 and mean that rural areas will not have to wait for supplier contracts under Project Gigabit to reach them. Details on how to apply are available here. On top of this the government is making up to £110 million available to connect public sector buildings - such as GP surgeries, libraries and schools - in the hardest to reach parts of the UK with this infrastructure.

Details on the Project Gigabit programme are available here.

Superfast broadband (30Mbps or more)

Through the Better Broadband for Norfolk (BBfN) Superfast Programme - a multi-million-pound project led by Norfolk County Council, in partnership with Openreach and DCMS the availability of superfast broadband has increased from 42% to approximately 95% since the Programme started in July 2013. In addition to the Superfast Programme, the County Council has also delivered a BDUK funded Local Full Fibre Network Public Sector Building Upgrade Programme with 410 public sector buildings being upgraded through the project.

The average download speed in North West Norfolk is 41.8 Mbps and over last year the availability of superfast broadband (30Mbps or more) in North West Norfolk has increased to 95%. However, as many as 11% of premises are receiving speeds under 10 Mbps. If you can’t get a download speed of 10 Mbit/s and an upload speed of 1 Mbit/s, you can request an upgraded connection and details of how to do so are available here

Follow this link to find available speeds in North West Norfolk and this link to find proposed improvements as part of the Better Broadband for Norfolk programme.  

Fibre First by Openreach

Fibre First is the largest UK-wide deployment and in the summer 2021 BT Openreach announced its plan to invest in connecting 25,000 premises in North West Norfolk to full fibre broadband as part of its plan to connect 25 million premises by December 2026. Everyone can use the ‘where and when’ mapping tool on the Openreach website to view a map of plans in your local area like below. 

openreach rollout map

 

News

gigabit

Major broadband coverage boost for rural homes and businesses in Norfolk

Tuesday, 4 July, 2023

Homes and businesses in Norfolk are set to benefit from new lightning-fast broadband connections backed by almost over £100 million of UK government investment.

Rural Norfolk

Government launches new drive to support rural communities

Tuesday, 6 June, 2023

Unleashing Rural Productivity document launched

Communities and businesses in the most remote areas will benefit from better access to wireless networks thanks to plans announced today as part of the government’s wider drive to grow the rural economy.

5g

New investment boosts UK's digital connectivity

Tuesday, 11 April, 2023

The next evolution of 5G, future telecoms and a national mission to connect all communities.

UPP

James Wild MP welcomes UPP’s new super fast broadband network coming to Lynn

Monday, 28 November, 2022

James met with UPP in King's Lynn where he was given an all-access tour of the new network site serving the town. UPP has recently expanded across the East of England including adding King's Lynn to their network which it plans to cover 1 million people by 2025.

Project gigabit

New figures reveal that 13,000 North West Norfolk homes and businesses are set to benefit from government’s Project Gigagbit rollout

Thursday, 6 January, 2022

Newly released figures reveal that 13,160 premises in North West Norfolk are expected to benefit from the government’s Project Gigabit which aims to deliver 85% gigabit coverage by 2025 and push further towards 100% coverage nationwide.

broadband

James Wild MP welcomes Lightspeed's plans to rollout Full Fibre broadband across North West Norfolk

Friday, 6 August, 2021

Lightspeed Fibre plans to rollout full fibre gigabit broadband to 100,000 homes and businesses across the East of England by 2022.

The network will deliver internet speeds 24 times faster than the average speeds currently available.

Norfolk rollout

James Wild MP welcomes gigabit rollout plans for Norfolk

Monday, 2 August, 2021

118,700 homes and businesses across Norfolk will get next generation gigabit broadband as part of the government's £5 billion Project Gigabit to rollout out speeds of up to 1,000 megabits per second 

Openreach fibre James Wild mp

25,000 North West Norfolk premises to be connected to full fibre broadband

Tuesday, 6 July, 2021

25,000 premises in North West Norfolk will be connected to full fibre broadband under Openreach's latest infrastructure investment plans. 

broadband

James Wild MP welcomes plans for 16,150 North West Norfolk premises to get full fibre broadband

Wednesday, 2 June, 2021

James has welcomed plans from Openreach for at least a further three million more homes and businesses to receive ultrafast full fibre broadband including, 16,150 premises in North West Norfolk.

5g rural connections James Wild mp

James Wild MP welcomes new measures to tackle mobile signal blindspots in rural areas

Monday, 19 April, 2021

The government has proposed legal changes to improve connectivity for people who live, work and travel in rural areas.

The reforms will make it easier and cheaper to build the necessary new infrastructure while protecting the countryside by minimising any visual impact.

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