Huawei and Nokia have been selected by Openreach to help deliver its UK rollout of fibre to the premises (FTTP) technology to approximately three million homes and businesses by the end of 2020.
The contracts have been awarded for the provision of headend electronics that support Openreach’s exchange based equipment. The kit is designed to act as a digital gateway, between customers’ premises and the wider network.
Huawei has already begun its deployment the new kit across the fibre network, and Nokia is expected to start installing equipment from July 2019. Both deployments will play a critical role in supporting the UK incumbent’s ‘fibre first’ programme to reach three million premises by the end of 2020, using FTTP technology (see Openreach fibre first to ‘fire the starting pistol’ on major infrastructure upgrade).
Openreach intends to extend this rollout to a further 10 million premises by the mid-2020s, and ultimately the majority of homes and businesses across Britain if it has the right conditions to invest, as Peter Bell, CTO & NGA operations director explained: “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.’
Jeffrey Zhou, president of Huawei Access network, added: ‘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.’
Frederic Guillén, president of Nokia Fixed Networks, concluded: “We’re excited about this new five-year collaboration with Openreach and are confident that our innovation, strength and operational expertise will benefit all broadband subscribers in the UK.’
