East of England's 'fastest internet' on its way to seven Norfolk towns
Bosses from LightSpeed Broadband met with county councillor Tom Fitzpatrick (second from right) in Fakenham - Credit: Chris Lowndes
People in seven Norfolk towns are set to be offered broadband which is more than 20 times faster than the East of England average.
LightSpeed Broadband, a regional internet provider, is working to bring the region's "fastest internet" to locations which it says are "underserved" by underserved by larger, national companies.
The towns earmarked in Norfolk are Cromer, Dereham, Fakenham, Hunstanton, King’s Lynn, Sheringham and Thetford.
Bosses from LightSpeed Broadband marked the progress of the firm's full-fibre rollout by visiting Fakenham - Credit: Chris Lowndes
LightSpeed hopes to reach 200,000 homes and businesses in the East by the end of 2022, providing upload and download speeds of 1 gigabit (1,000 Mbps) - 23 times faster than the average broadband speeds currently available, according to government data.
Bosses marked the progress of the firm's full-fibre rollout by visiting Fakenham, where they were joined by county councillor and cabinet member for innovation, transformation and performance, Tom FitzPatrick.
He said: "I was really pleased to meet with LightSpeed and see their engineers installing the fibre which will provide gigabit-speed capability to homes and businesses in Fakenham, and transform the way people can access the internet.
"I welcome the fact that this service is also being installed in a number of market towns across the county, which really fits in with our aim that our smaller towns do not lag behind cities such as Norwich."
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Mr FitzPatrick and Mr Cunningham, from Better Broadband for Norfolk, joined LightSpeed engineers to see how they lay the fibre-optic network and install boxes underground.
This is said to "help minimise the impact on the local environment".
The company's rollout started in south Lincolnshire and west Norfolk last April, and is now expanding throughout Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex.
A total of 25 towns in the region are set to benefit. They include Stowmarket, Braintree, Clacton and Manningtree.
Dave Axam, chief operating officer at LightSpeed Broadband, added: "As a regional provider, we want to get involved with the local communities in the towns we are working in.
"We’re looking forward to our first customers in Norfolk being able to connect and experience gigabit internet speeds very soon."
LightSpeed wants to reach one million homes by 2025.
