TWO south Ceredigion communities could be set to get ultrafast broadband as Openreach aims to expand its network.

Businesses and homes in Cardigan and Llandysul are next in line to get hooked up to full fibre broadband and Openreach is urging people living and working in these communities to get behind a bid.

The company is warning that these communities risk missing out on a once-in-a-lifetime full fibre upgrade, if they don’t apply for free UK Government broadband vouchers, which can be used to secure faster speeds and greater reliability.

If enough people sign up, the latest communities will join the nearly 900,000 homes and businesses across Wales who already have access to Full Fibre broadband.

Funding through the UK Governments Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme which can extend the reach of the full fibre network.

Openreach has identified the latest Welsh villages & towns as being within scope for Full Fibre and is urging local people to take the next step by applying for and pooling together free Government Gigabit Vouchers to help fund the build.

Residents can check if they qualify and pledge their voucher on the Connect My Community website.

Martin Williams, Director of Partnerships for Openreach in Wales, said: “This is a really exciting opportunity for people living and working in these rural locations 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 bring thousands of additional properties across Wales and the rest of the UK into our Full Fibre build plans. But building out the network to these harder to reach locations is still challenging.

“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.”

Among those communities that have already taken advantage of this community initiative are Kerry in Powys and Llanuwchllyn in Gwynedd.