BT’s Openreach division has selected Huawei and Nokia to provide a range of equipment in support of its ultrafast broadband roll out across the UK. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The companies, which have been working with Openreach on the world’s largest trials of G.fast technology in Huntingdon, Gosforth and Swansea, will provide cutting edge switches, modems and cabinet ‘side pods’ to help deliver download speeds up to 330 Mbps – more than 20 times the current UK average – to 10 million homes and businesses by the end of 2020.
The new kit will be rolled out in parts of Gillingham and Cherry Hinton later this year and will help Openreach deliver its ambition of getting ultrafast broadband of at least 100Mbps to 12 million premises in the same timeframe, and the majority of the UK by the end of 2025.
Clive Selley, Openreach CEO, said: “Openreach is pioneering G.fast technology because we want to get affordable ultrafast speeds to as many people as possible in the fastest possible time.
“We also want to deliver this next generation of broadband services in the most efficient and least disruptive way – so it is a testament to our world leading R&D team that they’ve managed to define and drive new standards with operators and equipment manufacturers around the globe.
Openreach noted that more than 91% of homes and businesses in the UK currently have access to speeds of 24 Mbps and above, whilst the Openreach fibre network is available to more than 25 million homes and businesses. More than 100 different communications providers (CPs) are offering services over the company’s open wholesale fibre network, and all CPs will have access to these new ultrafast services under the same terms, conditions and pricing.
