Openreach announced the planned extension of its Gfast network in a further 81 locations across the UK, including London, Leicester, Manchester, Worth, Birmingham, and Blackpool.
The multimillion pound investment will extend the service to just over a million homes and businesses. This latest announcement complements a wider investment programme in FTTP networks, which is on track to reach three million homes and businesses by the end of 2020. By the mid-2020s, Openreach aims to reach a total of 5.7 million properties using Gfast, and also wants to extend its FTTP rollout to 10 million premises.
Openreach said its new Gfast network builds on existing infrastructure and changes the way broadband signals are transmitted from existing street cabinets to boost speeds up to 330 Mbps (seven times today’s UK average), without the need to dig up roads and install new cabling.
Kim Mears, MD for Strategic Infrastructure Development, said: “Currently, the UK is a world leader in digital infrastructure and services, but as the digital revolution rushes forwards and the demand for data continues to grow, we need to sure we stay ahead of the curve. That’s why we’re investing in faster, more reliable network infrastructure to facilitate all the activities we want to do now, and also those we haven’t even dreamt of doing in ten years’ time.”
