BT's subsidiary, Openreach has chosen Huawei and Nokia to provide a range of equipment in support of its G.Fast roll out across the UK.
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 330Mbps – more than 20 times the current UK average – to 10 million homes and businesses by the end of 2020.
According to Openreach, 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.
Today, more than 91% of homes and businesses in the UK have access to superfast speeds of 24Mbps and above, whilst the Openreach fibre network is available to more than 25 million homes and businesses, said Openreach.
Clive Selley, Openreach CEO
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.
Cormac Whelan, CEO Nokia UK and Ireland
We know that G.fast is the key to quickly rolling out ultrafast broadband. We’re excited about our cooperation with Openreach and are confident that our innovation, strength and operational expertise will benefit all broadband subscribers in the UK.