A number of Powys communities could soon receive a wireless upgrade as part of the UK Government’s broadband voucher scheme.

Openreach is urging people in Berriew, Llanrhaeadr, Llanwrtyd Wells and New Radnor to support a bid to bring full fibre broadband to the towns and villages.

The company says communities could miss out on the upgrade if they do not apply for free UK Government broadband vouchers.

Martin Williams, director of partnerships for Openreach in Wales, said: “This is a really exciting opportunity for the people of these locations to bring all the benefits of ultrafast, ultra-reliable full fibre broadband to their community.

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“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.”

Having identified towns across Wales eligible for an upgrade to full fibre, Openreach is now urging local people to apply for and pool together free Government Gigabit Vouchers to help fund the build.

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Residents can check if they qualify and pledge their voucher on the Connect My Community website, which can then be combined to extend the network to to outlying rural areas which won’t be covered by private investment.

Once the pledge target for the scheme is reached, residents can then validate their vouchers with the Government.

As part of the funding conditions residents are asked 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 confirm that they are connected.