THREE places in Dorset will benefit from a broadband boost due to a £31.5m investment by network provider Openreach.

A new 'full fibre’ broadband network is being built to homes and businesses in 20 communities across the South West, including Ferndown, Wimborne and Puddletown.

The plans are a further boost for the region as an additional 720,000 homes and businesses in the South West gained access to Openreach’s new network, earlier this year.

Connie Dixon, Openreach’s Regional Director for the South West, said: “Good connectivity is vital – whether it’s to work from home, access education and care services, or for gaming and streaming entertainment – and that’s why we’re investing across the UK to upgrade our network to 25 million premises.

“Nobody’s building faster, further or to a higher standard than Openreach, and we’ve already reached six million homes and businesses with ultrafast full fibre technology, including around 540,000 in the South West.

"It’s proving popular as well, with nearly 30% of the population already choosing to start using it.

“Our engineers and build partners are reaching more communities every week and we’re not just building in cities and urban areas.

"Many rural and hard to reach communities are already benefitting and we plan to reach many more in the coming months and years.”

The company plans to reach a total of 25 million premises by the end of December 2026, including more than six million in the hardest-to-serve parts of the country defined by industry regulator Ofcom.

To find out more about the Openreach Fibre First programme visit https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband/fibre-first