According to Openreach, Gfast is now available to more than 390,000 homes and businesses in a variety of locations across the UK, in anticipation of a nationwide rollout. It anticipates that ‘ultrafast’ broadband will be available in 12 million UK premises by 2020.
Speaking of the deployment, Openreach programme director for next generation access in the South West Emma Howarth said: “The amount people are doing online is growing every year and this pace shows no sign of slowing.
“Pilot schemes such as the one in Bath are important for us to fully test the new network in a number of different situations before it reaches millions of homes and businesses across the UK. The areas we’ve chosen are carefully selected based on a variety of factors, including engineering considerations, and the need to test the technology for a range of communities.”
Gfast technology allows exceedingly fast broadband signals to be transmitted via existing copper lines and fibre broadband cabinets. This negates the previous requirement of cables running straight to a particular property, something otherwise known as FTTP or fibre to the premises.
