Vodafone UK says its Gigafast Broadband service in now available to 360,000 homes and businesses in Birmingham, Bristol, and Liverpool. Service delivery in these new markets leverages fiber to the premises (FTTP) infrastructure from Openreach.
The addition of the three new markets brings to 15 the number of cities and towns in which Vodafone UK offers FTTP-based high-speed broadband services. The company says the initial 360,000 premises passed in the three new cities will expand to more than 500,000 premises by mid-2021 as Openreach builds out more FTTP infrastructure. Vodafone UK signed an FTTP infrastructure agreement with Openreach in November 2019. It has a similar deal with CityFibre for FTTP infrastructure in 12 markets (see “Vodafone chooses CityFibre FTTP network for UK broadband delivery”). Those dozen markets include Aberdeen, Bournemouth, Cambridge, Coventry, Edinburgh, Huddersfield, Leeds, Milton Keynes, Northampton, Peterborough, Southend-on-Sea, and Stirling.
Vodafone UK promises subscribers “up to 900 Mbps” for its top-end Gigafast 900 plan, which is available for prices starting at £55 a month. Vodafone also offers 5G mobile services in the three new FTTP markets.
“Birmingham, Bristol, and Liverpool now have some of the fastest mobile and broadband speeds in the UK. Great news for consumers with the latest 5G devices, but also for each city’s future,” commented Nick Jeffery, CEO of Vodafone UK. “Vodafone Gigafast Broadband and Vodafone 5G will form crucial foundations for the cities’ continued economic growth. Gigafast cities are the cities that will proudly play their part in shaping the future of the UK.”
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Stephen Hardy | Editorial Director and Associate Publisher, Lightwave
Stephen Hardy is editorial director and associate publisher of Lightwave and Broadband Technology Report, part of the Lighting & Technology Group at Endeavor Business Media. Stephen is responsible for establishing and executing editorial strategy across the both brands’ websites, email newsletters, events, and other information products. He has covered the fiber-optics space for more than 20 years, and communications and technology for more than 35 years. During his tenure, Lightwave has received awards from Folio: and the American Society of Business Press Editors (ASBPE) for editorial excellence. Prior to joining Lightwave in 1997, Stephen worked for Telecommunications magazine and the Journal of Electronic Defense.
Stephen has moderated panels at numerous events, including the Optica Executive Forum, ECOC, and SCTE Cable-Tec Expo. He also is program director for the Lightwave Innovation Reviews and the Diamond Technology Reviews.
He has written numerous articles in all aspects of optical communications and fiber-optic networks, including fiber to the home (FTTH), PON, optical components, DWDM, fiber cables, packet optical transport, optical transceivers, lasers, fiber optic testing, and more.
You can connect with Stephen on LinkedIn as well as Twitter.