HALF of all Welsh properties can now access ultrafast, ultra-reliable broadband thanks to Openreach’s investment in a new, full fibre digital network.

Wales’ largest network provider has revealed the top 20 locations across the country with the best ultrafast broadband coverage.

Buckley in Flintshire has the highest coverage in Wales with more than nine out of every 10 properties able to upgrade to ultrafast broadband.

Old Colwyn has the second best coverage in Wales, with the village of Llangennech near Llanelli taking third spot.

Areas in Gwynedd listed include Criccieth (sixth place), Penygroes (14th place), Porthmadog (17th place) and Blaenau Ffestiniog (19th place). 

More than 816,000 homes and businesses can now access ultrafast, full fibre broadband via a range of retail providers using the company’s network. 

Openreach has invested more than £240 million in Wales’ new network with 277,000 households and businesses having upgraded to the faster, ultra-reliable services already.  

Kim Mears, chair of the Openreach Wales Board, said: “This is tremendous news for Wales.

“Having fast reliable connectivity that will be fit for the future is a huge game-changer in terms of how families live their lives, how our children learn and how our businesses prosper

“As one of the largest employers in Wales our engineers are building our full fibre network in communities where we ourselves live and work so to think that half of Wales can now access ultrafast broadband thanks to Openreach’s full fibre network naturally gives us all a feeling of great pride.

“It’s brilliant to reach 50 per cent coverage across Wales, and a huge thank you must go to our hard working engineers and build partners who’ve helped make it happen. But we’re not stopping there…”

Denbigh is ranked as eighth on the 'Openreach’s Top 20 ultrafast broadband hotspots in Wales' list, Penmaenmawr is in ninth position, Aberconwy is 18th whilst it may come as a surprise to many that Llandudno is also on the list at number 20. 

Work is continuing on the ground in places like St Asaph, Ebbw Vale and Tenby as well as Cardiff, Swansea and Newport.

Openreach is being approached for comment about whether there is still work in Llandudno town itself in terms of improving coverage. 

People can visit openreach.co.uk/ultrafastfullfibre to register for updates and check their postcode to see if and when services are available from their chosen provider. 

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It was recently revealed that 44,000 homes and businesses across some of the harder to reach areas of Wales are benefiting from improved connectivity thanks to a successful partnership between Openreach and the Welsh Government.

David TC Davies, secretary of state for Wales, said: “This is an important milestone in the drive to ensure more homes and businesses across Wales benefit from full fibre broadband, improving vital connectivity.

“Alongside Openreach’s commercial build we’re delighted to be working with them to bring their future-proofed digital infrastructure to some of the harder to reach parts of Wales through our popular Gigabit Voucher scheme.”

The Openreach network offers a wide choice of providers, such as BT, Sky, TalkTalk, Vodafone and Zen.