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UK ISP Virgin Media (O2) and network partner nexfibre, which enjoy some of the same parentage, have today announced that they’ve expanded the reach of their 2Gbps (symmetric) speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network to reach more than 6,000 homes in the North Yorkshire (England) based Cathedral City of Ripon.
The city, which is home to a population of around 17,000, currently only has some very limited gigabit speed full fibre coverage from Openreach and other alternative networks (CityFibre, Quickline etc.). Suffice to say that nexfibre’s new deployment covers most of the urban area and should thus come as a welcome development for local homes and businesses.
Nexfibre reflects a £4.5bn joint venture between Telefónica, Liberty Global and InfraVia Capital Partners (here). This has so far already covered around 2.4 million premises across the UK with their new full fibre network, which is being built by Virgin Media’s engineers. But the operator’s original plan to cover “up to” 7 million UK homes (starting with 5m by 2026) in areas NOT currently served by Virgin Media’s network of 16m+ premises was recently dealt a blow by Telefonica’s strategic review (here).
The network operator currently only expects to reach 2.5 million UK premises by the end of 2025 and uncertainty remains over what comes next. But Virgin Media has recently announced the creation of a new fixed wholesale unit, which will enable retail ISPs to harness both of their FTTP networks (here) – currently available to a combined 7 million UK premises.