Fay Jones MP recently joined up with some of the Openreach engineers that have been building a new Ultrafast Full Fibre broadband network across Brecon and Radnorshire.

The Brecon and Radnorshire MP was given a tour of the work, which is making faster and more reliable full fibre broadband available to homes and businesses in the local area.

According to the company, nearly 40 per cent of premises across Powys can already benefit from Openreach’s investment. When complete, it will total around £12.4 million and bring some of the fastest and most reliable broadband speeds to the area.

The tour started with a quick visit to the telephone exchange in Builth Wells.

At the exchange Ms Jones was able to see up close the art of fibre splicing - where two ends of fibre optic glass cable no wider than a human hair are fused together.

Fay Jones Openreach Builth Wells
The art of fibre splicing was on display as engineers fuse together tiny strands of fibre optic glass cable at the Builth Wells exchange (.)

After the Builth Wells exchange it was a short journey through the town to see the ‘final stage’ of the full fibre network and to talk to local engineers that are delivering this technology to communities across Powys.

With this investment, Openreach says that residents and businesses in Powys can expect improved connectivity, reduced latency, and the ability to use bandwidth-intensive applications and services. Ultrafast broadband has the potential to attract new businesses, promote economic growth, and enhance digital inclusion by providing equal opportunities for education, employment, and innovation.

Ms Jones said: “Good connectivity is essential for my constituents so it’s welcome to see the investment Openreach are making to our communities.

“It was great to see first-hand the technology that’s being used by Openreach and  residents and businesses they will really benefit from this increase in broadband speed and improved reliability.

“Full fibre broadband is revolutionising the way we all live and work and it’s imperative that Brecon and Radnorshire is not left behind."

The visit was hosted by Martin Williams, Partnership Director for Wales, who said: “We welcomed the opportunity to give Fay an overview of our ultrafast network. 

Our investment across Powys demonstrates Openreach’s commitment to improving digital infrastructure and bridging the digital divide. 

Our engineers work hard every day to keep communities across Powys and the rest of Wales connected, and it was great to be able to share the challenges and realities of delivering this technology.

“I would urge everyone in the local area to keep an eye on the build locally to see when full fibre is available to them. They can visit the Openreach fibre checker, which is regularly updated with our build progress and when full fibre is available in specific areas.”

With download speeds of 1 Gbps, full fibre is up to 10 times faster than the average home broadband connection. That means faster game downloads, better quality video calls and higher resolution movie streaming.

You can also use multiple devices at once without experiencing slowdown - so more people in your household can get online at once.

Full fibre is also less affected by peak time congestion - so you can enjoy your Saturday night blockbuster in 4K without the dreaded buffering screen.