Vodafone and Openreach to launch 500,000 new FTTH connections in Spring 2020

Vodafone will launch fibre to the home (FTTH) broadband services in Birmingham, Bristol and Liverpool next spring, following the signing of a new deal with the UK's incumbent broadband network provider, Openreach.

Vodafone will launch its Gigafast Broadband services, which deliver symmetrical speeds of up to 900Mbps, on Openreach's newly built full fibre network. The services will be made available in spring 2020, with the network scaling up to deliver 500,000 new FTTH connections by spring 2021.

“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,” said Vodafone UK's chief executive officer, Nick Jeffery.

The UK has doubled down on its commitment to full fibre connectivity, with prime minister Boris Johnson initially pledging full fibre connectivity to all UK homes and businesses by 2025. While the PM has since rowed back on that commitment, he said that the government remained fully committed to bringing FTTH connectivity to "as many UK homes and businesses as possible" by 2025.

Through its partnership with CityFibre, Vodafone aims to deliver 5 million FTTH connections by the mid-2020s. Openreach has said that it will provide as many as 15 million FTTH connections during the same time period, assuming that economic conditions allow.  

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