Openreach selects Huawei to help deliver G.FAST ultrafast broadband in the UK

[London, U.K., September 23, 2016] Openreach, BT’s local network company, has selected Huawei, a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, to help it deliver the first phase of its G.FAST deployment in the UK. The agreement is part of a programme that will bring ultrafast broadband speeds to 10 million UK premises by the end of 2020 using the technology.

The agreement follows the successful trial of G.FAST in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire announced in 2015. By using Huawei‘s latest multi-port G.FAST equipment, Huawei helped Openreach provide two thousand homes and businesses with access to speeds of more than ten times the UK average.

The speeds on offer will allow people to stream live ultra-high definition 4K video content to multiple devices at once, all whilst simultaneously browsing the web, uploading videos and photos, or playing online games. The deployment of G.FAST will enable businesses to utilise new services that rely on high performance and high availability networks to be accessed more widely.

G.FAST works by boosting speeds over existing Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) networks, providing the most timely delivery model of ultrafast services into UK homes and businesses. More and more operators, government and policymakers are promoting the deployment of ultrafast broadband internationally. Huawei’s equipment will help Openreach to provide ultrafast broadband infrastructure to the largest number of homes and businesses, in the fastest possible time frame.

Jeff Wang, president of Huawei Access network, said:

“Huawei has been working with the Openreach for many years and we are looking forward to continuing the partner relationship in Openreach through the G.FAST programme. Huawei’s investment and innovation in the long reach and large capacity G.fast will help Openreach to deploy the ultrafast broadband from the street cabinet instead of distribution point, which will significantly accelerate the rollout speed.”

Clive Selley, Openreach CEO, said:

“Openreach is pioneering G.fast technology because we want to get affordable ultrafast speeds to as many people as possible in the fastest possible time.

“We also want to deliver this next generation of broadband services in the most efficient and least disruptive way – so it is a testament to our world leading R&D team that they’ve managed to define and drive new standards with operators and equipment manufacturers around the globe.

“This country already has the best superfast broadband coverage and take-up amongst the big economies in Europe, and we want to repeat that success with ultrafast. We’ll be going flat out to reach 10 million homes by 2020 and we are really leading the way by bringing cutting-edge kit to the UK at a huge scale.”

Huawei G.FAST technology innovation

Since the launch of the world's first G.FAST prototype by Huawei in December 2011, G.FAST technology has become highly anticipated by the ICT industry and has maintained strong development momentum. Huawei has played a proactive role in developing G.FAST standards and products. The proposals contributed by Huawei to the ITU-T G.FAST standard organization cover a wide range of G.FAST core technologies.

The world's first G.FAST testing trial by Huawei and BT was launched in October 2013. Since then, Huawei have continued to research and develop G.FAST algorithms, product, etc., and collaborate with BT and global standards bodies and chipset manufacturers to drive the speed and performance in G.FAST technology innovation, successfully deploying the G.FAST trial in UK today. Huawei Any Media Giga Access solution can help operators reuse existing infrastructure and quickly deploy the ultra-broadband network, embracing the Gigaband era.