Insight
In the 21st century, access to connectivity is not a luxury, it’s a basic essential service. However, to be a world-class digital economy we need more than the basics; we need digital infrastructure that provides higher speeds, greater resilience and better quality, right across the UK.
Demands on our digital infrastructure are rapidly increasing as future technologies, such as multimodal AI and cloud gaming, require ever greater data capacity. The market must be able to adapt to support the needs of today’s digital economy, while also ensuring there is a platform in place to help meet future demands. To achieve this we need investment in digital infrastructure that is resilient and able to scale as requirements inevitably evolve and increase, including in the North of England – where cities are becoming increasingly dynamic and communities demand high-quality broadband connections.
nexfibre is on a mission to deliver its network to 5 million premises by 2026. We have just passed 1 million premises faster than any other altnet provider and are set to deliver our network to more premises than any other provider this year, apart from Openreach. This, in partnership with our build partner Virgin Media O2, will make us the UK’s second largest alternative network provider in only our second year of operation and demonstrates that our rollout is helping to transform the market by boosting choice, service quality, and injecting much needed competition.
Our network is fit for the future
nexfibre is the only provider of its scale to be building its network exclusively using XGS-PON technology, capable of symmetrical upload and download speeds of up to 10 Gbps. We have taken the decision to invest in next generation technology to future-proof our network, because there is no room for complacency when building a fibre network. This cutting-edge fibre technology is able to be continuously upgraded to accommodate the UK’s future data needs, eliminating the need to rebuild our network once demand surpasses our infrastructure’s capability.
Commitment to quality and resilience
As a wholesale-only provider, we are able to focus on ensuring the quality and resilience of our network is not compromised as we scale at pace. We take great pride in our build quality and our in-house audit team carry out rigorous testing and visit every build to ensure our service quality is of the highest standards.
Besides ensuring a high-quality infrastructure build, we are committed to providing a superb service to our network users. We are dedicated to continuously enhancing our capabilities that bolster our resilience, allowing us to swiftly identify and address even minor service disruptions — a critical area where operators have often struggled historically. We also understand the importance of seamless integration for ISPs. That’s why we are developing our own Application Programming Interface, which will further streamline our integration process and enable even more ISPs to make the most of our network.
Empowering northern communities
We are delivering our high-quality, resilient network to communities across the North of England that have previously been underserved. By boosting access to fast broadband, including through onboarding high-quality, growth focused ISPs onto our network, we are enabling these local communities to access the tools they need to participate and thrive in a modern, digital society and stoking growth in the local economy.
nexfibre is a platform for progress, bringing greater levels of choice, quality, and innovation to the market and using our technology to deliver better outcomes. Since starting operations we have already made exceptional progress. In 2024 we are excited to continue strengthening our technological capabilities while also accelerating our delivery of essential digital infrastructure, in fact around 60% of our activity will be in communities in the North.
For all these reasons and others, we are proud of the work that we are doing at nexfibre and are excited about taking our network construction to the next milestone. As we continue to build a national scale platform, we want to continue to set a new benchmark for quality and service for all our customers that will enable them to take full advantage of the benefits of the latest digital technology.