Intel acquires Omnitek for FPGA expertise

Intel has acquired Omnitek, a provider of optimized video and vision FPGA IP solutions based in Basingstoke, England. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Omnitek was founded in 1998 and has developed over 220 FPGA IP cores and accompanying software including performance-leading solutions for WARP, ISP processing and video connectivity. Omnitek enables customized high-performance vision and artificial intelligence (AI) inferencing capabilities on FPGAs for customers across a range of end markets.

“Omnitek’s technology is a great complement to our FPGA business. Their deep, system-level FPGA expertise and high-performance video and vision-related technology have made them a trusted partner for many of our most important customers. Together, we will deliver leading FPGA solutions for video, vision and AI inferencing applications on Intel FPGAs and speed time-to-market for our existing customers while winning new ones,” Dan McNamara, Intel senior vice president and general manager of the Programmable Solutions Group.

“From data centers to devices, compute-intensive applications like 8K video and artificial intelligence require a multitude of innovative compute engines. FPGA devices play an increasingly critical role, often complementing other processing architectures, and Intel is at the center of this revolution,” said Roger Fawcett, CEO of Omnitek. “Omnitek is excited and extremely proud to bring our intellectual property and engineers to join the talented team in Intel’s Programmable Solutions Group.”

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UK operators: Huawei ban would bring heavy cost

A restriction placed on Huawei in the telecom supply chain could delay a full 5G launch by between 18 and 24 months and cost the UK economy between £4.5bn and £6.8bn, according to a study published by Mobile UK, which is the trade association for the UK’s mobile network operators -  EE, O2, Three and Vodafone.

The study argues that a delay to 5G rollout while operators make alternative procurement arrangements with other suppliers may seriously threaten the UK’s aspiration to be a world leader in 5G, something that has been central to the UK government’s industrial strategy since 2016.

http://www.mobileuk.org/potential-risk-to-uk-economy-if-use-of-huawei-for-5g-rollout-is-restricted.html

The report also provides the following summary of 5G plans

EE

EE plans to activate 5G sites in 16 UK cities in 2019. The first launch cities will be the UK’s four capital cities – London, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast – and Birmingham and Manchester. As well as the six launch cities, through 2019 EE will also be introducing 5G across the busiest parts of ten more UK cities: Glasgow, Newcastle, Liverpool, Leeds, Hull, Sheffield, Nottingham, Leicester, Coventry and Bristol. The first 1,500 sites that EE is upgrading to 5G in 2019 carry 25% of all data across the whole network, covering 15% of the UK population. EE will launch with multiple smartphone partners, as well as an EE 5G home router with external antenna, to showcase the power of 5G for broadband. 

O2 

O2 will begin the roll-out of its 5G network in 2019 in Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh and London. Other areas of the UK will see roll-out from 2020 to coincide with the wider availability of 5G handsets.

Three 

Three will launch 5G in H2 2019 with a data-only Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) product as part of a £2bn network investment. The initial launch will be in London and other major cities where they see value to be greatest. This forms part of Three’s tiering strategy – to upgrade the busiest sites on its network. 

Vodafone 

Vodafone are already trialling 5G in Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Liverpool, London and Manchester and will be delivering 5G to Birkenhead, Blackpool, Bournemouth, Guildford, Newbury, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Reading, Southampton, Stoke-on-Trent, Warrington and Wolverhampton later in 2019.

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UK raises software engineering concerns in security evaluation of Huawei

The Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation Centre (HCSEC) Oversight Board published a 46-page report in which it discusses significant technical issues "in Huawei’s engineering processes, leading to new risks in the UK telecommunications networks." The report also states that although Huawei continues to engage in the security review process, "no material progress has been made by Huawei in the remediation of the issues reported last year."

HCSEC, whose mission is to evaluate the security risks posed by using Huawei’s equipment in critical national infrastructure, is a facility in Banbury, Oxfordshire, belonging to Huawei Technologies and administered by the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre.

Regarding the software engineering issues with potential impact on network security, the report states that the issue "is with Huawei’s underlying build process which provides no end-to-end integrity, no good configuration management, no lifecycle management of software components across versions, use of deprecated and out of support tool chains (some of which are non-deterministic) and poor hygiene in the build environments."

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/790270/HCSEC_OversightBoardReport-2019.pdf

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Quantum Network Link goes live in UK

The world’s first commercial-grade quantum test network link is now operational between the BT Labs in Suffolk and the Cambridge node of the UK’s new Quantum Network, which is being built by the Quantum Communications Hub, a collaboration between research and industry, supported by the UK’s National Quantum Technologies Programme. The new connection stretches from BT’s Adastral Park research campus near Ipswich in the East of England, to Cambridge. The wider UKQN network then extends onward over the National Dark Fibre Infrastructure Service to Bristol in the South-West.

The link uses over 125km of standard BT optical fibre between Cambridge and Adastral Park, with BT Exchanges acting as ‘trusted nodes’ along the route. The link will carry both quantum and non-quantum traffic; the QKD technique shares data encryption keys via an ultra-secure quantum channel over the same fibre that carries the encrypted data itself.

ADVA confirmed that its FSP 3000 is playing a key role in the new UKQNtel transport network secured by quantum key distribution (QKD). As part of an initiative led by QComm Hub, and with partners BT, ID Quantique and the universities of Cambridge and York, ADVA has constructed a QKD link capable of carrying classical and quantum channels on the same standard, installed fiber.

“Today’s launch is a significant step for network security. As well as being the UK’s longest QKD-protected link able to transmit both classical and quantum applications, this solution breaks new ground by showcasing the readiness of quantum cryptography for real-world transport,” said Professor Tim Whitley, MD, research and innovation, BT. “Our team has been at the forefront of developing quantum-secure telecoms infrastructure from day one. We’ve succeeded in taking the technology from PoCs in the lab to real-world demonstrations. Now we’re closing in on enabling customer trials and plans for full-scale deployments. Soon mission-critical networks will be protected even from cybercriminals intent on harvesting information today in order to decode and exploit it tomorrow.”

https://www.btplc.com/News/#/pressreleases/testing-begins-on-uks-ultra-secure-quantum-network-link-ukqntel-between-research-and-industry-2851900

https://www.advaoptical.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/20190326-adva-plays-key-role-in-development-of-uks-quantum-secured-transport-network

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BT proposes Open Access to street furniture

BT, which currently operates street furniture concessions across nine local authorities (Glasgow, Cardiff, Brighton, Plymouth, Carlisle, Newcastle/Gateshead, Nottingham, Gloucester and Leicester), is proposing to end its exclusive agreements to encourage other local authorities and the wider industry to adopt an alternative ‘open access’ model.

BT says the current concession model favoured by many local authorities, which grant a single mobile operator or infrastructure provider exclusive access to council-owned street furniture such as lamp posts and CCTV columns, discourages investments from other operators and will stymie the rollout of 5G small cells.

Paul Ceely, Director of Network Strategy, BT Group, said: “While the concessions model made sense in the early 2010’s when it first came into common use, the market and regulatory landscape have changed and it’s become clear that exclusivity agreements act as a barrier to further 4G and 5G investments. Government initiatives such as the DCMS Barrier Busting taskforce are showing the way, but we believe that industry needs to act. We are leading the way by handing back exclusivity in nine key areas.

“The UK needs an alternative approach which sees industry and local authorities working together to share these street sites in an open and collaborative way. This will create the right environment for long-term investment and innovation in future mobile networks. We believe Open Access will be critical in ensuring the UK has the best mobile infrastructure in place to maintain its position as one of the world’s leading digital economies.”

BT’s mobile arm, EE, has already revealed the first 16 cities to benefit from the launch of 5G services later this year. London, Cardiff, Belfast, Edinburgh, Birmingham and Manchester will be the first flagship cities for 5G deployment this year, with parts of Glasgow, Newcastle, Liverpool, Leeds, Hull, Sheffield, Nottingham, Leicester, Coventry and Bristol also set to benefit.

https://www.btplc.com/News/#/pressreleases/bt-calls-for-open-equivalent-access-to-street-furniture-to-boost-4g-and-5g-coverage-2850529

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CBRE acquires Romonet for data center analytics

CBRE Group, the global data center real estate firm, has acquired the assets of Romonet, which develops analytics software for data center operators.  Financial terms were not disclosed.

Romonet's software helps increase capacity at data centers. The company was founded in 2008 by data center technology pioneers Zahl Limbuwala and Liam Newcombe. Romonet is based in the UK and serves clients across the globe. Romonet and its team of professionals will be integrated into CBRE’s global Data Center Solutions offering.

John Dunstan, president, Data Center Solutions at CBRE, said: “Romonet adds complementary market-leading solutions to our existing platform and will help us to deliver highly differentiated outcomes for our clients across the globe.”

Mr. Limbuwala, co-founder of Romonet, said: “The data center market continues to rapidly evolve and scale, and automation is increasingly critical. Joining CBRE’s leading global data centers team will allow us to provide worldwide support and capability for our clients.”

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VIRTUS Data Centres begins major expansion in London

VIRTUS Data Centres is embarking on the simultaneous construction of five additional data centres across its London sites.

VIRTUS, which is backed by ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC), is committing over £500m to the launch of the five new data centres in the London market, and the completion of its existing four live sites in Slough, Hayes and Enfield. The five new sites, which go live in 2019 and 2020, will add 76MW to VIRTUS’ London portfolio, doubling the total portfolio size to 145MW. Construction is expected over the next two years.

• Slough campus: VIRTUS is launching LONDON3, LONDON9 and LONDON10, delivering 36MW between them to add to its LONDON4 data centre. This will bring the total VIRTUS Slough Campus to 63MW, the largest on the Slough Estate. LONDON3, which completed its fit out in December 2018, is already more than 70 per cent contracted. LONDON9 and LONDON10 will go live in 2019 and 2020 and have anchor tenants already contracted. 
• Stockley Park campus: the accelerated delivery programme of LONDON6 and LONDON7 follows the successful launch of LONDON5, hich went live in July 2018, offers 24MW of IT load, of which over 75 percent is now sold.  LONDON6 and LONDON7 will deliver an additional 40MW of data centre space.  When complete, the Stockley Park campus will deliver 80MW of power across four data centres which total 32,000 sqm of IT space connected by high-count fibre cables from all of the leading fibre owners and operators. 

Neil Cresswell, CEO of VIRTUS Data Centres commented: “VIRTUS and our global platform partners, ST Telemedia Global Data Centres and GDS are leading the market in providing our customers flexible, high quality colocation at scale. Our enterprise and cloud customers have capacity and speed to market challenges in key markets like London. Our ability to deliver large amounts of capacity, faster and at a lower cost than other operators is solving these issues for them. We believe this scale and speed are two key factors which led VIRTUS to achieve over 50 per cent market share in London in 2018."

https://virtusdatacentres.com/press-releases/virtus-embarks-on-one-of-the-european-data-centre-industry-s-biggest-construction-programmes

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Boeing invests in Isotropic Systems for satellite terminals

Isotropic Systems Ltd., a start-up developing next-generation integrated satellite terminals, announced a $14 million Series A round of funding led by Boeing HorizonX Ventures, with participation from WML, Space Angels and Space Capital.

Isotropic Systems, which is based in London, is developing the world's first multi-service, high-bandwidth, low power, fully integrated high throughput terminal designed to support the satellite industry to 'reach beyond' traditional markets and acquire new customers with a full suite of high throughput services.

"The Series A financing builds on an exceptional year for Isotropic which saw a rapidly growing roster of strategic partners and customers who are poised to unlock the full potential of high-throughput satellites and mega-constellations across all orbits," said John Finney, founder and chief executive officer of Isotropic Systems. "Boeing's investment provides our team access to Boeing experts, testing labs, and other valuable resources to fast-track the deployment of our terminal solutions and to leverage our intellectual property across other space-based and wireless connectivity applications."

https://www.isotropicsystems.com

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Openreach extends its G.fast network to 81 more locations across UK

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.”

https://news.openreach.co.uk/pressreleases/openreach-builds-ultrafast-broadband-network-to-81-new-locations-2803422

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Equinix plans new data center at its London Slough campus

Equinix will build a new International Business Exchange (IBX) data center at its London Slough campus.

The LD7 data center will cost approximately $120M (£90M) and scheduled to open Q2 2019. The facility will be built to LEED gold certified standards. This will bring the company's UK portfolio to 12 IBXs.

Equinix said it remains confident in the future of London as Europe's major financial hub and one of the world's greatest commercial cities, regardless of the outcome of the ongoing negotiations around the UK's departure from the European Union. The new $120M (£90M GBP) data center forms part of a total $387M (£295M GBP) investment in the UK's digital economy from Equinix throughout 2018/19.

Russell Poole, managing director UK, Equinix, states: "London is one of the most important connection points in the world and we expect this growth to continue as the city continues to play a crucial role in powering the global digital economy. LD7 will be one of the most technologically advanced colocation data centers in the world and will be a major addition to our thriving London Slough campus. This latest data center will also act as a sustainability benchmark for future data centers – something we are very passionate about."

http://www.equinix.com/

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EE activates nine 5G trial sites in London

EE, the UK’s number one mobile network and part of BT Group, activated nine 5G trial sites are now live across East London. The company also has a live 5G trial site in Canary Wharf, and new device functionality is being tested in its state-of-the-art Borehamwood test lab.

EE said its preliminary 5G work has so far encompassed every element of building a new 5G network, from obtaining planning permission and access agreements, through to managing power outputs. The trial will go on to assess the customer experience of new 5G spectrum.


Some lessons:

• Rooftop sites often need significant strengthening to carry the new 50kg 5G antennas – and some sites house three of these
• The level of upgrade work required can cause delays in obtaining planning permission, and can necessitate repeat visits, which means multiple access requests to landlords
• Location for 5G antennas can be dictated by the need to stay below regulated power output levels

Howard Watson, BT CTIO, said: “Deploying this brand new layer of our EE mobile network is far from straightforward, and this trial has helped us to understand – and learn how to overcome – the significant challenges that we’ll face in the coming years. We’re also learning about the coverage we can achieve with 5G New Radio on our new 3.4GHz spectrum, both indoors and in densely cluttered streets.”

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Three UK to invest over £2 bilion in 5G

Three UK has completed a number of key steps in its network improvement programme, as part of a wider £2bn+ infrastructure investment, in preparation for the advent of 5G.

Three UK announced its commitment to invest over £2 billion in network infrastructure as it rolls out 5G.

As part of its network upgrade the telecoms operator has:

• acquired the UK’s leading 5G spectrum portfolio
• signed an agreement for the rollout of new cell site technology to prepare major urban areas for the rollout of 5G devices, as well as enhance the 4G experience
• built a high-capacity dark fibre network, which connects 20 new, energy efficient and highly secure data centres
• deployed a 5G-ready, fully integrated cloud-native core network in the new data centres, which at launch will have an initial capacity of 1.2Tbps, a three-fold increase from today’s capacity
• rolled out carrier aggregation technology on 2,500 sites in busiest areas, improving speeds for customers

Three said its mobile customers are particularly data-hungry, already using 3.5x more data per month than the industry average.

“We have always led on mobile data and 5G is another game-changer.  Also described as wireless fibre, 5G delivers a huge increase in capacity together with ultra-low latency.  It opens up new possibilities in home broadband and industrial applications, as well as being able to support the rapid growth in mobile data usage. “This is a major investment into the UK’s digital infrastructure. UK consumers have an insatiable appetite for data and 5G unlocks significant capability to meet that demand," stated Dave Dyson, Three's CEO.

Three UK posts 2% revenue growth in 1H18, signs Huawei for 5G

Friday, August 03, 2018  UK  

Three UK reported revenue of £1.19 billion for the first half of 2018, up 2% from 1H17.

Customer service margin was £729 million, up 1%, and EBITDA was £364 million, up 7%.

Operational highlights:

• 6% growth of the active contract customer base; total customer base now 10.1 million
• Contract handset churn at lowest ever level of 1%, a 9% improvement
• Usage per customer of 7.6GB per month, up 10% from 6.9GB
• 84% of customer base using 4G and 75% of data usage on 4G network
• The company secured 20MHz at auction to add to its 5G spectrum portfolio
• The company signed an agreement with SSE to unbundle BT local telephone exchanges to facilitate fibre optic connections of masts to datacentres.
• Three UK is the first UK network to stop selling 3G-only handsets

UK completes spectrum auction - EE and Vodafone gain 5G bands

Thursday, April 05, 2018  Auction, Ofcom, Spectrum, UK  

Ofcom, the official telecoms regulator in the U.K., completed the auction of 190 MHz of spectrum across two frequency bands: 40 MHz in the 2.3 GHz band, which will be used to increase 4G mobile broadband capacity; and 150 MHz in 3.4GHz, which has been earmarked for 5G.

Here are the results:

EE won 40 MHz of 3.4 GHz spectrum at a cost of £302,592,000.

Hutchison 3G UK won 20 MHz of 3.4 GHz spectrum at a cost of £151,296,000.

Telefónica UK won all 40 MHz of 2.3 GHz spectrum available, at a cost of £205,896,000; and 40 MHz of 3.4 GHz spectrum at a cost of £317,720,000.

Vodafone won 50 MHz of 3.4 GHz spectrum at a cost of £378,240,000.

Airspan Spectrum Holdings, which would have been a new entrant to the UK mobile market, failed to win spectrum in either band.

The total value of the winning bids amounts to £1,355,744,000.

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CityFibre plans £2.5 billion full fibre network in UK

CityFibre announced a new £2.5 billion full fibre investment plan to extend its network in 37 towns and cities across the UK. The plan is underpinned by significant existing network assets and operations in these municipalities.

CityFibre was acquired in June 2018 by Antin Infrastructure Partners and West Street Infrastructure Partners, a fund managed by Goldman Sachs.

CityFibre said its expanded rollout plan will deliver fibre connectivity to five million homes and corresponds to one third of the Government’s 2025 target of 15 million homes.

Vodafone was named as the first consumer ISP customer for the new network.

CityFibre’s fibre-to-the-home builds are currently underway in Milton Keynes, Peterborough and Aberdeen, with construction due to start in Edinburgh, Stirling, Coventry and Huddersfield before the end of this year and Cambridge, Leeds and Southend-on-Sea shortly afterwards.

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NTT Com to build massive data center in London

e-shelter, which is a subsidiary of NTT Communications that operates over 400,000 square meters of data center space in many facilities, will develop a new data center campus in Dagenham, East London.

The new campus will be known as “UK London 1 Data Center” (London 1) and is capable of up to 24,000 sqm IT space and 60MW IT load once fully developed. The project also involves Gyron, the NTT Com owned UK operator which is currently being integrated with e-shelter to create a combined pan-European operating platform. Construction will begin next month. Phase one, with an initial 8MW IT load, is targeted to be ready for December 2019, with five further phases planned to follow.

“We are delighted to have now received planning permission at our Dagenham site and we look forward to developing our industry leading data center campus there, which is the latest addition to our growing pan European platform.” said Rupprecht Rittweger, CEO of e-shelter and Gyron. “London is a major global data center market and this development is driven by continued demand from our customers and partners.”

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SSE teams with Three UK and O2 for fibre through London sewers

SSE Enterprise Telecoms, which operates a 13,700km private telecoms network and an estate of 15 data centres across the UK,  announced a fibre agreement with Three UK and O2 that will form the basis of enhanced fibre access in the country’s capital.

The companies will intend to deploy fibre through the sewers of London to enhance backhaul capabilities of 4G and 5G networks.

Under the agreement with Three UK and O2, approximately 100 points of connectivity exit from this central London sewer network via two BT Exchanges. By partnering with SSE Enterprise Telecoms, Three UK and O2 can operate their own Central London Area (CLA) network, while also accessing spare fibre ducts for future initiatives in London.

“Networks will fundamentally underpin the UK’s digital economy and will be essential to 5G services,” said Colin Sempill, Managing Director of SSE Enterprise Telecoms. “With this high capacity core in the London sewers, Three UK and O2 are tapping into our unique, diverse connectivity and putting their networks in a strong position to trial 5G offerings, while enhancing existing services for their customers.”

Dave Dyson, Chief Executive Officer of Three UK added, “New and innovative models are essential to improving the customer experience of mobile networks by increasing the availability of dark fibre for mobile backhaul and driving competition in the market. Our partnership with SSE Enterprise Telecoms and O2 is one of the first examples of using existing infrastructure to improve connectivity in an urban area.”

Brendan O’Reilly, Chief Technology Officer of O2 shared: “This kind of agreement is essential to allow for continued investment and improvement of services for our customers. This partnership is a great example of SSE Enterprise Telecoms, Three UK and O2 coming together in a collaborative and innovative way to address the growing challenge and pressure of obtaining access to fibre for mobile backhaul in the UK”

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MBNL extends managed services contract with Ericsson

Ericsson won a two-year network managed services contract extension from MBNL, the network-sharing joint venture between UK mobile operators Three and EE.

Ericsson has been MBNL’s managed services provider since 2009. The new extension covers Design, Plan and Deploy projects from June 2018 until May 2020.

Pat Coxen, Managing Director at MBNL, says: “The agreement to extend the Design, Plan and Deploy services contract with Ericsson, for a further two years, reflects the strength of the collaborative relationship between Ericsson and MBNL. This will continue the trend of collectively delivering great results and is a sign of true partnership. We look forward to continuing the great work with Ericsson in order to meet the demanding buisiness objectives of MBNL and its Shareholders.”

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Three UK posts 2% revenue growth in 1H18, signs Huawei for 5G

Three UK reported revenue of £1.19 billion for the first half of 2018, up 2% from 1H17.

Customer service margin was £729 million, up 1%, and EBITDA was £364 million, up 7%.

Operational highlights:

• 6% growth of the active contract customer base; total customer base now 10.1 million
• Contract handset churn at lowest ever level of 1%, a 9% improvement
• Usage per customer of 7.6GB per month, up 10% from 6.9GB
• 84% of customer base using 4G and 75% of data usage on 4G network
• The company secured 20MHz at auction to add to its 5G spectrum portfolio
• The company signed an agreement with SSE to unbundle BT local telephone exchanges to facilitate fibre optic connections of masts to datacentres.
• Three UK is the first UK network to stop selling 3G-only handsets

Three UK also confirmed that it has awarded a new contract to Huawei for its 5G network roll-out.

“Over the course of 2018, we will accelerate the rollout of our 5G network and the opportunity this brings to both our existing and prospective base of customers and partners. All the key components that are needed for a successful 5G service have been procured over the last few years and I am excited by the prospect of trialling 5G soon, working together with our new IT and Core network infrastructure.

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Openreach sets wholesale pricing for UK fibre broadband

Openreach announced a new, supplementary wholesale discount structure for fibre broadband in the UK in return for volume commitments.

Openreach said it would offer long-term discounts to all of its Communication Provider (CP) customers from 21 August. The discounts go beyond Ofcom’s pricing controls on its superfast broadband products.

BT believes that the new pricing structure will allow CPs to encourage more of their customers onto better services and ultimately to move the vast majority of Britain’s homes and businesses onto superfast and ultrafast platforms.

The Openreach pricing tiers are posted here:

https://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home/products/super-fastfibreaccess/downloads/Openreach_Special_Offer_GEA_Volume_Agreement.pdf

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Vodafone activates its first gigabit residential service in UK

Vodafone began offering home broadband speeds of 1 Gbps, about 20 times the current UK average of 46 Mbps, in Milton Keynes. The full fibre home broadband service is first being tested in 50 customer homes before it is made widely available across the city.

Nick Jeffery, Vodafone UK Chief Executive, said: “Full fibre is vital to our digital economy and to the UK’s future as a digital leader, yet just 3% of UK premises currently have access to it. That’s why we are offering Vodafone Gigafast Broadband and making it available on a mass scale, reaching a million UK homes by 2021.”

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Openreach picks Huawei and Nokia for Fibre First

Openreach has selected Huawei and Nokia for its "Fibre First" national Fibre-To-The-Premises (FTTP) rollout, which aims to reach three million homes and businesses across the UK by the end of 2020.

Huawei and Nokia have each been awarded contracts to provide new electronics that support Openreach’s headend equipment. Huawei has already started to deploy the new kit across the Openreach fibre network, whilst Nokia is expected to start installing equipment from July next year. This equipment includes the Huawei MA5800-X17 and the Nokia ISAM FX-16.

Peter Bell, CTO & NGA Operations Director, Openreach said: “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. Britons consume more than double the amount of data they did just three years ago and whilst we’re already a leading digital economy, Openreach continues to invest in network upgrades to make sure we can repeat that success and keep well ahead of demand.”

Jeffrey Zhou, president of Huawei Access network, said: “As a long-term strategic partner of Openreach, we look forward to continuing our work with the fibre and network delivery team. 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, added: “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.”

http://news.openreach.co.uk/pressreleases/openreach-selects-huawei-and-nokia-to-support-its-fibre-first-programme-2576879

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