We are delighted to announce today a new partnership with Light Source, one of the UK’s leading telecoms infrastructure partners, to build a new full fibre network that will play a vital role in supporting our mission to reach 1 million UK premises by 2024.

Our engagement with Light Source has already begun, and we have started advanced construction work in Cheltenham as part of a £28 million investment in future-proofing homes and businesses across the UK. Over 70,000 homes in Cheltenham will benefit from our full-fibre network, with the first home expected to be available for service by summer 2021.

The long-term agreement will enable us to deliver an open full-fibre network, providing faster and more reliable speeds than that of the copper-based networks. Several other towns and cities are part of our plans, and Light Source will play a key role in helping us deliver a connection that every home and business needs.

"My team and I are delighted to have secured this exciting new partnership to deliver a future-ready, full-fibre network for Cheltenham. With demand so high at the moment, it is key to me that our organisation selects partners with similar principles, and from our very early conversations with the team at Netomnia, it was quite clear to me that we have parallel ambition, values and culture.”

• Steven Hill, Light Source Managing Director