BT expanding high-speed broadband in Barking and Dagenham

More than 2,000 homes and businesses in Barking and Dagenham are set to benefit from new high-speed fibre broadband.

Openreach, BT’s local network business, will make fibre available to an extra 2,187 units over the next two years, taking the company’s total coverage for fibre in the borough to more than 72,000 premises.

The new investment is part of the company’s city-wide programme promising to increase overall fibre availability across London from around 90 per cent to 95pc of premises.

BT is spending more than £3 billion on Openreach’s deployment of fibre across the UK, and the work in Barking and Dagenham is part of an additional £50 million that the company earmarked for UK cities last year.

“Whilst fibre broadband is already available to the vast majority of premises across London, we’ve been exploring options that will enable us to expand our coverage in the borough even further,” said Andrew Campling, BT Group’s general manager for London.

“Given feedback that we’ve had to date, I’m confident that the residents and businesses in the additional parts of Barking and Dagenham where fibre broadband will now become available will be very pleased.”

A spokesman for Barking and Dagenham Council said: “We are delighted to see that the long awaited roll out of fibre optic broadband is gathering great pace across the capital and in particular how this will improve digital connectivity for our residents.

“Fibre broadband is increasingly essential to help boost the local economy and help our local residents become part of the global on line community.”