A bid to bring full fibre broadband to more than 2,600 homes and businesses in parts of the Tyne and Allen Valleys is underway as Openreach calls on the community to support it.

By applying for free Government broadband vouchers, some residents of Allendale, Bardon Mill, Catton, Corbridge, Haltwhistle, Ovington, Riding Mill and Wark can access the new technology in the next 12 to 18 months.

This movement could enable these communities to join more than 68,000 homes and businesses across Northumberland who are already enjoying the benefits of full fibre broadband.

This is made possible through funding from the Government’s Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme and the utilisation of innovative engineering techniques, making ultrafast technology available to thousands of rural, remote and coastal communities.

Openreach has identified more than 2,600 homes and businesses within the eight communities as within the scope for Full Fibre and urges residents to move forward by applying for and pooling together free Government Gigabit Vouchers to help fund the build.

Residents can check eligibility and pledge their voucher on the Connect My Community website, at no cost to themselves, allowing Openreach to work with a community to create a customised, co-funded network.

Once sufficient people pledge and validate their vouchers, Openreach engineers will commence the build – a process which can take up to 18 months.

Louise Thompson, Openreach’s regional engagement manager, said: "This is a really exciting opportunity for more than 2,600 people to bring all the benefits of ultrafast, ultra-reliable full fibre broadband to their community.

"Our Fibre Community Partnership programme has meant that we’ve been able to potentially bring hundreds more communities across the UK, into our Full Fibre build plans.

"But building out the network to these harder to reach locations is still challenging – which is why its only possible with everyone working together – you, your neighbours and Openreach.

“Everyone who pledges a voucher will be doing their bit to help make their community one of the best-connected places in the UK.

“We’re investing £15 billion to build full fibre broadband to 25 million homes – and more than six million of those will be in the toughest third of the UK – but we can’t upgrade the whole country alone.

"This latest support from government is a vital part of that process.”

Once the scheme’s pledge target is achieved, residents must validate their vouchers with the Government, which will enable Openreach to confirm that building work can begin.

As part of the funding conditions residents are required to commit to ordering a full fibre service from a provider of their choice for at least 12 months once the new network is available and must confirm that they are connected.

Full fibre technology offers more reliable, resilient and future-proof connectivity; thus having fewer faults, more predictable speeds and sufficient capacity to meet increasing data demands.

It won’t need to be upgraded for decades, catering to future generations.

Full fibre uses strands of glass around one-tenth the thickness of a human hair to transmit data using light signals.

It is smaller, lighter and more durable than copper cabling and less susceptible to damage.

More information can be found at www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband/fibre-first