James met with UPP in King's Lynn where he was given an all-access tour of the new network site serving the town. UPP has recently expanded across the East of England including adding King's Lynn to their network which it plans to cover 1 million people by 2025. The company has plans over next summer to expand to cover Hunstanton and the coastal and other villages.
Upp, a full-fibre broadband provider, is building a network using full fibre all the way to the premises (known as FTTP), meaning its customers don’t share their connection with anyone else. Upp’s high-speed network, which provides speeds of up to 900Mbps*, is already live in Diss, Downham Market and Thetford.
Since being elected, James has been campaigning for better broadband connectivity across North West Norfolk as part of the government's levelling up agenda. During the tour, James saw the crucial work UPP is doing to improve connectivity across Norfolk, particularly underserved areas.
Commenting on the rollout of the new network James said:
“It was great to see the work that UPP is doing to rollout gigabit broadband to homes and businesses across the town. Improved digital connections are vital and the investment being made will help boost opportunity and productivity. I look forward to seeing further investment across North West Norfolk, particularly when they start to rollout in Hunstanton and bring coverage to more villages.”
In addition to commercial deployment by UPP and other companies, North West Norfolk will be one of the earliest areas to benefit from the government’s Project Gigabit which is providing coverage in areas that commercial providers will not cover. A procurement exercise worth £114 million is underway for Norfolk - 6,500 premises in North West Norfolk are included in the initial scope with 1,500 included in the deferred scope.
