BARRY has been announced as the latest location in Wales to benefit from Openreach’s rollout of some of the fastest broadband speeds in the UK.

Tens of thousands of residents and businesses across the popular seaside town are set to benefit with work to build the new network expected to start in October following a period of planning and surveying.

It’s part of Openreach’s 'Fibre First' programme where fibre optic cables are laid from the exchange right to people’s front doors.

The Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) infrastructure, will future proof homes and businesses in Barry for decades to come providing a boost to the local economy.

FTTP has the potential to bring speeds of up to one gigabit per second (1Gbps), which is about 24 times faster than the current UK average of 46 megabits per second (Mbps). T

Welcoming the announcement, Vale MP Alun Cairns said: “I am delighted that Barry will be one of the first communities to benefit from Openreach’s latest rollout of future-proof fast broadband.

“I am passionate about working towards the regeneration of Barry and I’m pleased with the progress we’ve made in recent times.

"Improving access to high speed broadband puts us in an even better position to attract more investment to Barry and it will be a significant boost to our local economy.

"This is fantastic news for local residents and businesses.”

Barry joins Cardiff and Swansea in the first tranche of ‘Fibre First’ locations while more are expected to be announced across Wales shortly.

Openreach’s managing director for Strategic Infrastructure Development, Kim Mears said: “We’ve already done, and will continue to do, an incredible amount of work across Wales in improving access to better broadband connectivity – both in rural and urban parts of the country.

“Our ‘Fibre First’ programme is about future proofing that network so that it meets the needs of both families and businesses for generations to come.

“Our engineers are already working hard and reaching homes and businesses every week in Cardiff and Swansea as part of our ‘Fibre First’ roll-out and I’m delighted that Barry is the latest location in Wales to benefit from this commitment.”

Openreach recently raised its target for full fibre connections from three to four million premises by March 2021, with an ambition to reach 15 million homes and businesses by the mid-2020s if the right investment conditions are in place.