In the fast lane: Analysing the UK’s leading broadband players

Opensignal has conducted an in-depth analysis of the real-world fixed broadband experience across the UK. The study provides a national overview as well as detailed insights into five major cities: Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh, London, and Manchester.

National broadband landscape

The UK's fixed broadband market is witnessing rapid evolution, with national telecoms regulator Ofcom's analysis pointing to a potential surge in full fibre (FTTP) coverage from 15.4 million properties...

6 December 2023 | Broadband

EU greenlights Vodafone-Altice FTTH plans

The EU Commission has given the green light to a joint venture between Vodafone and Altice to deploy fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) across Germany.

The joint venture is called FibreCo and will see the partners deploy FTTH to up to seven million homes over a six-year period.

Nick Read, CEO of Vodafone Group, commented:

“This partnership builds on Vodafone’s significant next-generation network with Altice’s industrial expertise and proven Fibre-to-the-Home...

21 February 2023 | Broadband

Australia’s NBN secures further $1.5B for its full-fibre rollout

The Australian government has announced a further $1.5 billion (AUS$2.4 billion) for the NBN to support its full-fibre rollout.

NBN (National Broadband Network) is an Australian national wholesale open-access data network that is operated by the NBN Co.

The state-owned NBN Co was established in 2009 and had connected 6.7 million homes and businesses as of February 2020. However, Australia’s largest infrastructure project has been widely perceived as failing to offer...

21 October 2022 | Broadband

AT&T delays 500,000 FTTP builds due to fibre supply issues

AT&T has been forced to delay 500,000 of its FTTP (Fibre-to-the-Premises) builds due to an industry-wide fibre shortage.

Fibre is in high demand following a year when people were forced to appreciate the need for fast and robust connectivity. Unfortunately, the pandemic also played havoc with supply chains.

During a virtual conference, AT&T Senior Executive BP and CFO Pascal Desroches said:

"Through the second quarter, we hadn't really experienced any...

13 August 2021 | AT&T

Virgin Media will upgrade its entire UK network to full-fibre by 2028

Virgin Media has committed to upgrading its entire UK broadband network to full-fibre by 2028.

The operator’s network currently predominantly uses Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) technology but also some Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) via Radio Frequency over Glass (RFoG). The network is currently being upgraded to support the DOCSIS 3.1 standard which is due to complete by the end of this year and should handle a peak theoretical download speed of up to 10Gbps and uploads of around...

29 July 2021 | Networks

Ofcom updates wholesale rules to accelerate the full-fibre rollout

Telecoms regulator Ofcom has updated its wholesale rules with the aim of accelerating the full-fibre rollout.

Full-fibre broadband was a key pledge of Johnson’s government but, like most plans, was somewhat derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

With the UK’s successful vaccine rollout enabling a cautious roadmap to lifting lockdown restrictions, the focus is now shifting to how the country can “build back better” from a virus which dithering and chaotic policymaking...

18 March 2021 | Legislation & Government

CityFibre awards £1.5B of contracts as it speeds up full-fibre rollout

Full-fibre provider CityFibre has awarded £1.5 billion of construction contracts across 27 towns and cities.

Under current plans, more than five million premises will be covered by the rollout. All of the projects are expected to be in the build phase by summer 2021.

These are the construction partners selected by CityFibre in each town or city:

Greg Mesch, CEO at CityFibre, said: “By awarding these full-fibre network construction contracts, we can...

5 November 2020 | Networks