18 June 2018
London’s ‘Square Mile’ will be one of the first places in the UK to benefit from a city-wide roll-out of ultrafast broadband services.
On 16 May, 21 Whitefriars Street became the first office building in the area to be connected up to the high-speed technology as part of Openreach’s Fibre First programme. Throughout 2018, 12,000 more premises across the rest of the City will be given access to the service.
The City of London Corporation has been working closely with Openreach to identify local demand and has been encouraging the delivery of FTTP infrastructure at no extra cost to landlords.
By allowing out-of-hours and weekend installation of fibre cables using existing ducts, it’s claimed many disruptive street works were avoided.
To get connected, all businesses and landlords have to do is complete an expression of interest form to request FTTP for their building.
Following a survey and with the necessary wayleaves in place, Openreach will schedule a date to start work on installation.
Catherine McGuinness, chair of the City of London Corporation’s policy and resources committee, said: “As a world-leading business district, 99 per cent of City firms are SMEs, and future-proofing our digital services is a priority, particularly in the wake of the UK’s vote to leave the EU.”
Openreach plans to make full fibre connections available to three million UK premises by the end of 2020, and adds that it could reach ten million homes and businesses across the country by the middle of the next decade.