Openreach has revealed that it will partner with Nokia and Huawei in its bid to rollout 3 million fibre to the home (FTTH) connections by the end of 2020.
“We’ll be going flat out to make FTTP available to three million homes by the end of 2020, and we want to reach 10 million by the mid-2020s, so using cutting-edge technology will be integral to achieving that. Britons consume more than double the amount of data they did just three years ago and whilst we’re already a leading digital economy, Openreach continues to invest in network upgrades to make sure we can repeat that success and keep well ahead of demand,” said Peter Bell, CTO & NGA Operations Director at Openreach.
The UK currently languishes towards the bottom of the league tables for FTTH/FTTP penetration levels, with current estimates suggesting that less than 3.5 per cent of British homes are able to access full fibre broadband services.
As the UK's network infrastructure owner, Openreach's drive to roll out full fibre connectivity will be absolutely key to the UK achieving its target of 15 million FTTH connections by the mid-2020s.
Huawei has already begun deploying the new kit across Openreach's fibre network, whilst Nokia is expected to start installing equipment from July 2019.
“As a long-term strategic partner of Openreach, we look forward to continuing our work with the fibre and network delivery team. We welcome the opportunity to help build a better, faster and intelligent network that helps Openreach customers stay connected. Huawei is committed to building a better-connected UK,” said Jeffrey Zhou, president of Huawei Access network.
The newly signed partnerships will be crucial to supporting Openrach's Fibre First programme, which aims to reach 3 million properties across the UK by 2020.
