Over 2.5 million BT, Sky, and TalkTalk customers will have broadband speeds supercharged

Household brands like Sky, BT, EE, TalkTalk, Plusnet, and EE all rely on Openreach infrastructure to connect customers. Upgrades to the cables will benefit customers with any of these providers — unlocking faster downloads and improved uploads.

As soon as your local area has been upgraded to a full-fibre connection, you'll be able to choose between packages with a maximum download speed of 1,600Mbps — that's over 23x faster than the average household connection in the UK. That new limited was announced earlier this year, when Openreach confirmed plans to almost double the previous download speeds for millions.

If you're connected with any of the Openreach-powered broadband brands, you'll be able to switch to another supplier and get the same broadband speeds. If you're outside of the minimum term of your contract, jumping between providers is the best way to ensure you're always getting the best price.

Openreach hopes to implement changes that'll ensure broadband customers on Virgin Media's broadband network and smaller full-fibre suppliers like Community Fibre, Hyperoptic, and others benefit from the same switchover process.

The latest upgrades from Openreach will see 500 more locations across the UK, covering an additional 2.7 million homes and businesses, boosted to full-fibre broadband. Openreach aims to fit 25 million homes and businesses with full-fibre connections by 2026, rising to 30 million by the end of the decade.

The £15 billion project to upgrade the UK’s broadband infrastructure includes 6.2 million in rural areas.

The new locations include 400,000 premises in the hardest to reach, most rural parts of the country, including Tobermory in Argyll and Bute, Haworth in West Yorkshire, Saundersfoot in South Wales, Pinxton in Derbyshire, Harlow in Essex and Roborough in Devon.

Clive Selley, chief executive of Openreach, said: “We’re on track and on-budget to make this life-changing broadband technology available to 25 million homes and businesses. We plan to build right across the UK, from cities and towns to far-flung farms and island communities.

“Ultimately, we’ll reach as many as 30 million premises by the end of the decade if there’s a supportive political and regulatory environment. Over time, we’ve learnt to deliver predictably, consistently and at a rapid pace – despite this being a hugely complex national engineering project.

“That gives us confidence to be even clearer about our build plans and we want to be as transparent as possible about where and when we’re building. Today we’re publishing more detail than ever about the places we’re building in now, and the communities we’ll be upgrading next.”

• View Deal | Get 100Mbps download speeds from Sky for £27
• View Deal | Get 500Mbps download speeds from Vodafone for £32
• View Deal | Get 150Mbps speeds + FREE Echo Dot from TalkTalk for £29
• View Deal | Get 300Mbps download speeds from Plusnet for £29.99

At its current rate, Openreach expands next-generation broadband to more than 78,000 premises every week – the equivalent of a town the size of Wakefield. Across the UK, a new home or business can place an order for full-fibre broadband every six seconds.

Around 3,500 towns, cities, boroughs, villages and hamlets are now included in the company’s build programme. Openreach says it's seeing strong uptake in the new full-fibre service when it's installed, with more than 4.7 million homes and businesses upgrading to full-fibre providers using the Openreach network — some 50,000 orders being placed every week.

Back in April, Ofcom data confirmed that 8 out of 10 homes across the UK can now access eye-wateringly fast gigabit broadband speeds. That's the equivalent of 24 million UK homes. Gigabit broadband connections are capable of reaching peak speeds of 1,000Mbps. For comparison, Netflix recommends a minimum connection of 5Mbps to watch on one screen in High Definition (HD), while Sky TV's satellite dish-less Sky Stream requires at least 25Mbps.

But despite the increased speeds available, the average download speed in UK households remains around 69.4Mbps — suggesting that most people still aren't taking advantage of the faster connections.

While 69.4Mbps is enough for most individuals, it will begin to struggle in busier households — with multiple people making video calls, downloading software updates, watching video, streaming music, uploading to social media, listening to podcasts, and much more.

With a pivot to streaming-only television — Sky has slashed the number of satellite dish engineers at the company as its broadband-powered Sky Glass 55" became the best-selling Smart TV in the UK last year, and the team behind Freeview poised to launch its internet-powered Freely — a decent connection will only become more important, something some campaigners fear will leave millions without access to television.

Research has shown that speedier internet can even boost the value of your home.

• View Deal | Get 100Mbps download speeds from Sky for £27
• View Deal | Get 500Mbps download speeds from Vodafone for £32
• View Deal | Get 150Mbps speeds + FREE Echo Dot from TalkTalk for £29
• View Deal | Get 300Mbps download speeds from Plusnet for £29.99

The full list of Openreach exchanges due to be upgraded