THE RURAL community of Glandwr, in Pembrokeshire, will now be able to access some of the fastest and most reliable broadband speeds in Europe thanks to a partnership between local residents and Openreach.

The secluded village of Glandwr, situated 4 miles south of Crymych, will soon be able to access speeds of up to one gigabit bit per second (1Gbps) using Fibre-to-the-Premise (FTTP) technology where fibre is run directly from the exchange all the way to property.

In order to build this ‘full fibre’ network Openreach engineers ran 21km of fibre cable overhead and underground from the telephone exchange in Cardigan to the residents of Glandwr.

The improved fibre broadband infrastructure, which will cover approximately 100 properties, is being enabled by Openreach’s Community Fibre Partnership (CFP) programme – a scheme which is designed to help people living and working in rural communities that are not included in any current roll-out plans.

Nearly 90 communities across every part of rural Wales have benefitted from Openereach’s CFP programme with more than 11,000 properties now being able to access fibre broadband as a result. In total, more than 260 Welsh communities have been working with Openreach to explore this method of delivering fibre broadband.

The cost of the Glandwr CFP was covered by investment from both Openreach and the residents themselves who were able to access the Welsh Government’s top-up to the UK Government’s Rural Gigabit Voucher scheme as part of their contribution.

Welcoming the new infrastructure on a recent visit to Glandwr, Paul Davies MS for Preseli and Pembrokeshire, said: “This is great news for the community.

“I’d like to thank Openreach and their engineers for all the hard work that’s gone into connecting Glandwr and also congratulate the community that have led on this project.

“As a result of this scheme the residents of Glandwr will now be able to connect with the rest of the world using ultrafast full fibre broadband.”

Openreach Partnership Director for Wales, Connie Dixon, said: “We all know how essential it is for homes and businesses up and down the country to have fast, reliable broadband. From running a business to home schooling and shopping – so much is done online.

“While more than 95 per cent of premises in Wales can already access superfast broadband we know there is more to do to reach those final premises.

“There are a small number of communities, such as Glandwr, that are missing out on good broadband connectivity as providers, for a variety of reasons, struggle to upgrade alone. To bridge this gap our Community Fibre Partnership helps bring ultrafast connections to those areas.

“By making ultrafast broadband available to the Glandwr community we’re underlining our commitment to making fibre broadband as widely available as possible across Wales – including the ‘hard to reach’ areas.”

Rural residents and businesses in Wales may be eligible for vouchers from both UK and Welsh Government to cover the costs of installing gigabit-capable broadband to their premises when part of a group project. To find out more visit Community Fibre Partnerships (openreach.com) Once Openreach has installed the infrastructure, residents can place an order for the new faster services with an Internet Service Provider of their choice.

The Community Fibre Partnership scheme is in addition to Openreach’s existing work in Wales, where more than 320,000 homes and businesses can already order ultrafast, ultra-reliable full fibre broadband.

The business recently made a number of announcements on its latest build plans across Wales where more than 415,000 additional homes and businesses – in 140 mainly rural and harder to serve areas across every single Welsh local authority area – will get access to ultrafast fibre broadband. The company is also working in partnership with Welsh Government to reach those that are in the final 5%.

Openreach plays an important role across Wales. More than 2,500 of our people live and work here. Recent research by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) highlighted the clear economic benefits of connecting everyone in Wales to full fibre. It estimated this would create a £2 billion boost to the local economy.

Further afield Openreach is investing £12 billion to build its ultrafast full fibre technology to a total of 25 million premises across the UK, including more than six million in the hardest-to-serve parts of the country by the end of 2026.

This short video explains what Full Fibre technology is and you can find out more about our Fibre First programme, latest availability and local plans here.