Vodafone has struck a deal with Openreach, allowing it to expand its Gigafast broadband roll-out in the UK.
Gigafast is the name given to Vodafone’s broadband that is designed to provide speeds of up to 900Mb/s. From Spring 2020, it will be available to customers in Birmingham, Bristol and Liverpool on the Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) network that Openreach is building.
The service will grow as Openreach expands its footprint and will be available to 500,000 premises in these locations by mid-2021 under phase one of this strategic agreement with Openreach. The agreement includes the option for further phases that could extend coverage to other places.
With the addition of Birmingham, Bristol and Liverpool, Vodafone Gigafast Broadband is currently live or planned in 15 cities or towns. It has previously announced another 12 fibre roll-outs under its agreement with alternative provider CityFibre, which has, so far, already gone live in Aberdeen, Bournemouth, Coventry, Huddersfield, Milton Keynes, Peterborough and Stirling, with additional places to follow this year and next.
In addition, Vodafone has introduced 5G in Birmingham, Bristol and Liverpool as part of its wider nationwide roll-out programme of the new mobile technology. Together, full fibre and 5G form the foundation on which local and central government plan to create digital super towns across the UK.
Nick Jeffery, Vodafone UK chief executive officer said: ‘Vodafone is committed to a full fibre future and to creating the infrastructure Britain needs to compete and win in the digital era. This initiative with Openreach builds on our existing commitments with CityFibre and underlines our belief in the power of digital technology to connect people for a better future and unlock economic growth for the UK.’
Openreach chief executive, Clive Selley added: ‘Our full fibre broadband network already covers more than 1.9 million premises in the UK, and Openreach engineers are building it to another home or business every 26 seconds. We’re keen to upgrade customers as quickly as possible to this new, ultrafast, future-proof platform, so we’re proud that Vodafone is placing its confidence in Openreach to deliver a great broadband experience for their customers.’
