Our record in Wales

Wales is a leader in technological innovation with a number of exciting growing sectors, and as we continue to build across the nation, we know that our Openreach network is key to achieving a just transition and building a stronger, fairer, greener Wales. 

We are proud of our record in Wales and have proven that through our delivery and investment. As an organisation we have invested £240 million in Wales, and with a workforce of around 2,200, we employ the nation’s largest team of telecoms engineers and professionals. Our Wales Board, led by Kim Mears OBE, provides a strong Welsh focus internally and plays a vital role in representing our company in Wales.  

Thanks to our investment, over half of all Welsh properties can now access Openreach’s ultrafast, ultra-reliable broadband network. And, while cities and urban parts of south Wales are often perceived to have the best broadband, small towns and villages in north Wales dominate Openreach’s list of hotspots with the highest levels of Full Fibre. 

Fostering strong relations with both the UK and Welsh Governments to help meet their ambitions for Full Fibre connectivity has been crucial to our delivery. And at the end of last year, we completed our programme with the Welsh Government connecting 44,000 properties, in addition to the hundreds of thousands we have connected through our commercial build programme.  

We know how crucial broadband is to the economy and our research, conducted in partnership with Cebr, highlights that Wales could benefit from a £1.7 billion boost in productivity by 2026, with our new digital network adding £11 billion to the Welsh economy by 2030. We know first-hand how vital this has been on the ground in Wales, supporting SMEs in remote parts of the country, and making working from home a possibility for hundreds of thousands of people.

Navigating unique challenges

Despite an impressive build rate of 4,000 properties every week, the topography in Wales presents a number of unique challenges. 

It is therefore important we continue to work with policy makers, both in Westminster and Cardiff Bay to help ease these challenges. By lifting barriers to build, we can accelerate the delivery of our full fibre network to residents and businesses.  

We have been working closely with the Welsh Government on reforms to the building regulations for new homes. We are supportive of plans to reform regulations to mandate full fibre connections into all new homes. This will not only ensure new homes can be easily upgraded to Full Fibre, but it will make it possible at a low cost and with minimal disruption to homeowners. We also believe that mandating fibre into new builds would help support the Welsh Government’s target of seeing 30% of staff working remotely, as well as having the knock-on impact of allowing Welsh language users to spend more time in their local communities and with their families, helping the language to flourish.  

We are now calling on the Welsh Government to go further and include building conversions in these new rules. Despite widespread feeling amongst the industry that conversions should be within the scope of the new regulations, they are currently exempt. We believe that their exemption risks properties being excluded from the Full Fibre rollout. This will create a digital divide, which while small per annum, will continue to grow. Retrospective installation at a later date will carry both a higher cost and a higher environmental impact. 

Going above and beyond

Despite working through these challenges, we are continuing to expand our Full Fibre network across the whole nation. In 2022 one of our most challenging rural builds, saw us deliver Full Fibre broadband to the highest house in Wales with plans now to deliver to the summit of Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon).  

To find out more about Openreach’s work in Wales, get in touch at public.affairs@openreach.co.uk.