Openreach has outlined plans to make ultra-reliable and gigabit-capable full fibre broadband available to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses in 45 towns and villages across Wales.

The new locations, including Bangor, Caernarfon, Aberystwyth and Llanelli, will be upgraded by Openreach, without taxpayer subsidy.

It’s hoped having access to some of the fastest broadband speeds in Europe will boost their post-covid economic recovery.

Work is expected to get underway in many of the announced locations within the next 12-18 months, although due to the size of the build, some places will see work continue into 2024.

The new Welsh locations are part of a wider announcement to make the new technology available to a further 3.2 million premises in the UK’s hardest to reach ‘final third’.

This follows the recent announcement that Welsh Government is to extend its BDUK contract with Openreach to build fibre broadband to those local authority areas with less than 90 per cent superfast broadband coverage.

The build is at the forefront of a massive £12 billion investment, which will see Openreach’s ambition to build ‘Full Fibre’ iv infrastructure to 20 million premises throughout the UK by the mid-to-late 2020s.

Connie Dixon, Openreach’s Partnership Director for Wales, said: “We’ve already upgraded tens of thousands of homes and business across Wales to full fibre.

“As well as keeping the existing network running throughout the Covid crisis, our engineers have safely and with social distancing in place, continued building the new infrastructure to make sure that as lockdown restrictions ease, our network is there to support families, businesses and the economic recovery.”

A report Full fibre broadband: A platform for growth” – commissioned by Openreach last year, revealed that connecting everyone in Wales to ‘full fibre’ broadband by 2025 would create nearly a £2 billion boost to the Welsh economy.

The report also revealed that 25,000 people in Wales could be brought back into the workforce through enhanced connectivity.

Welsh Government Deputy Minister for Economy and Transport Lee Waters said: “While over 95 per cent of premises in Wales can now access superfast broadband we know there is more to do to reach the final premises. 

“We have recently announced an extension to our roll-out with Openreach, focussing on local authority areas with less than 90 per cent coverage. This is alongside our other schemes to fund connectivity solutions for those not in any future roll-out plans. 

“I welcome this announcement by Openreach which will further increase the number of premises which will be able to access full fibre, which has the potential to provide some of the fastest speeds available.”

Secretary of State for Wales Simon Hart said: “It is vital that rural communities across Wales have access to the economic and social benefits of fast, reliable broadband as we recover from the coronavirus pandemic.