In a move that will provide further impetus to the UK’s growing gigabit network, Barratt Developments, Britain’s biggest house builder, has announced a partnership with the UK's leading netwrok providers to ensure full-fibre broadband is installed as standard across all of its new build developments.
The move means that around 15,000 new homes that Barratt builds every year will now gain access to potentially gigabit online access from the leading UK broadband providers from the moment new home owners move in to their houses.
At the vanguard of the project is Openreach which currently builds full-fibre infrastructure to over 200,000 new homes every year, with around 40,000 new connections every week. Its network supports broadband services from the likes of Andrews and Arnold, Aquiss, Ceberus, Zen and Giganet as well as the large ISP brands such as BT, Sky, TalkTalk, EE and Vodafone. Customers will also have access from gigabit capable broadband networks from Virgin Media and Hyperoptic through Openreach’s national network of underground ducts and overhead poles – which are open to any company looking to extend their network. So far, more than 100 communications providers have signed up to use Openreach’s Ducts and Poles Access product.
The new partnership with Barratt Developments builds on Openreach’s existing commitment to ensuring full- fibre is available to all new build developments, with its scheme offering fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) infrastructure free of charge for new housing development sites of 20 or more properties, when developers register with Openreach. This includes a majority of Barratt sites, and a highly competitive ‘rate card’ for smaller sites where developers make a contribution towards the fibre infrastructure build. Openreach says that so far its scheme has seen 93% of all plots contracted with now getting FTTP, with all plots on sites of 20 or more homes getting FTTP and 41% of plots on smaller, 2-19 premise, sites.
“As the digital revolution continues at an ever increasing pace, and our demand for data grows, we need to make sure this country stays ahead of the curve by building fast, reliable networks that cater for all the activities we’ll want to do online in the decades ahead, said Kim Mears MD strategic infrastructure development at Openreach “This has never been more important as we look to help the UK’s economy bounce back more quickly from the Covid-19 pandemic. And there’s strong evidence that points to full-fibre broadband being able to turbo-charge that process.”
Rob Evans, MD of network expansion at Virgin Media, added: “This innovative and exciting partnership between Virgin Media and Barratt Homes will mean that new homeowners will have access to the UK’s fastest widely available broadband from day one of moving into their new home. Our connectivity will provide residents with the ultrafast and reliable broadband services which have never been so important to the way we live our daily lives. It is essential that all new homes have access to the fastest speeds available and we will continue to work with developers across the UK to ensure more homes are connected to such vital services.”