Residents help bring broadband to village

Villagers in Sudbrook joined forces with Openreach – the UK’s largest broadband network – to make ultra-reliable and gigabit-capable full fibre broadband available to the area.

They offered their services after Openreach met with them to discuss how it could make the project affordable and progress more quickly in the face of a difficult and complex build in a remote and rural area.

Openreach’s chief engineer Andy Whale said: “We’re really proud of what has been achieved in Sudbrook, as we’ve had to overcome a really challenging build to make full fibre available. We couldn’t have done it without the help of people living there, who have shown true community spirit in clubbing together to help dig fibre trenches. They’ve also been instrumental in using their local contacts to help us quickly get permission to route the underground network across private land in some instances.

“It’s also worth pointing out that upgrades to full fibre don’t happen automatically. Villagers should contact their service provider to find out about switching to a faster service.”

Among the first to be connected was resident and marketing consultant Melodie Hindmarch.

She said: “Being a busy family home in a remote and rural area, we’ve always struggled to get good speeds and felt this more than ever during the first lockdown. Four of us going online at the same time would often bring things to a halt, and I was coming under increasing pressure to find a faster, more reliable connection if I was to realistically be able to continue working from home. The timing of Openreach’s work in the village could not have been better.”

MP for Sleaford and North Hykeham Caroline Johnson, who lives locally and spent time with engineers during the build, said: “I have been very impressed by how responsive and helpful Openreach have been throughout this process and I was grateful to have the opportunity to thank the engineers who worked to finally bring full fibre broadband to Sudbrook.

“I know that this has made an incredible difference to families locally and demonstrates that it is absolutely possible to get rural areas properly connected.

“I will continue to work closely with Openreach to identify areas in need of priority work and support local businesses and workers across my constituency, and I would urge anyone experiencing problems with their broadband to get in touch.”