THOUSANDS of Dorset homes and businesses will be upgraded to ultrafast broadband as part of a new rollout by Openreach.

Openreach has announced today that it is upgrading a further 13 towns and villages in Dorset as part of its commercial investment in digital infrastructure across the UK.

People living in Burton Bradstock, Corfe Castle, Sturminster Marshall and eight additional locations are next in line for Full Fibre.

They join the more than 60,000 homes and businesses across the county which already have access to fibreoptic broadband, thanks to Openreach’s work.

This upgrade to Full Fibre, where a fibreoptic cable is run direct from the exchange into a home or business, gives access to faster broadband and internet speeds.

Across the UK, the company has published updated plans to build Full Fibre broadband to a record 517 additional locations – covering a further 2.7 million homes and businesses.

Martin Williams, Openreach’s regional director for the South West, said: “This is a huge infrastructure success story across the region. No company is building faster or further in Europe, that we’re aware of.

“Our engineers, of which 3,100 live in the region, are doing this at a rapid pace - despite this being a hugely complex engineering project.

“Our fibre checker has the latest information about our work in your area, but only 49 per cent of premises across Dorset which can order a new ultrafast service have done so, as upgrades aren’t automatic.

"Once Full Fibre is available where you live, you’ll need to place an order with a provider of your choice to get connected and we’ll do the rest.

“Openreach’s network offers the widest choice of providers such as BT, Sky, TalkTalk, Vodafone and Zen – which means people have lots of choice and can get a great deal.”

The work is part of Openreach’s £15 billion project to upgrade the UK’s broadband infrastructure - making gigabit-capable technology available to 25 million homes and businesses by the end of 2026, including 6.2 million in harder to reach more remote and rural areas.

More than 4.7 million homes and businesses across the UK have already upgraded to Full Fibre and demand continues to flow, with more than 50,000 orders being placed each week.

Openreach has also refreshed its online map and postcode checker to give a clearer, regularly updated view of its plans and progress between now and 2026.