Todmorden joins ‘ultrafast lane’ as broadband buzz comes to town

Around 8,000 premises in Todmorden are already enjoying superfast, fibre broadband but thanks to the Superfast West Yorkshire and York (SFYW&Y) programme - a partnership led by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority and Openreach - the first 250 homes and businesses can now access ‘full fibre’ broadband speeds of up to one gigabit per second (1000Mbps).

That’s more than 15 times faster than today’s average UK broadband speed.

As designated key workers, Openreach engineers have been hard at work throughout the Covid-19 lockdown, building the new digital network of the future that uses the latest Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband technology – where fibre optic cables are laid all the way from the exchange to people’s front doors.

Hundreds more properties across Calderdale are set to benefit from this next generation network over the coming weeks and months as Openreach engineers continue to work on both on the Superfast West Yorkshire & York roll-out and their own commercial build.

Councillor Tim Swift, Deputy Chair of West Yorkshire Combined Authority and Leader of Calderdale Council, said: “We are delighted to be able to support this project in partnership with Openreach, meaning that thousands of homes and businesses in Todmorden will be able to enjoy faster, fibre broadband.

“At a time when more of us are at home than ever before, a fast and reliable broadband service is vitally important and depended on by many of our West Yorkshire communities.

“Enabling our residents and businesses to have access to faster broadband is key to levelling-up the region, and by supporting schemes such as the broadband programme, we will continue to build a stronger and growing economy.”

Robert Thorburn, Openreach’s regional director in the North, added: “This past year has demonstrated in a way none of us could ever have predicted just how important fast, reliable broadband is to us all.

“Recent data from our network shows that broadband usage more than doubled in 2020 driven of course by the increase in people staying at home and home working due to the Coronavirus pandemic. But increasingly recreational pursuits such as watching live sport and boxsets as well as updates to popular gaming titles are also driving up usage.

“While nearly 97% of premises in Calderdale can already access superfast broadband, we know there is more to do to reach those final communities who need better connectivity.

“For those not currently included in any upgrade plans one of the options for communities to consider is our Community Fibre Partnership scheme. I’d encourage any community struggling with their broadband speeds to get in touch to see if we can help.”