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Network operator Openreach (BT) has finally started to deploy their new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based gigabit broadband ISP network across the Cathedral City of Oxford (Oxfordshire) in England, which mostly reflects the central area covered by their main exchange.
The city of Oxford is a bit of an unusual one because, until fairly recently, the only real option for gigabit-capable broadband came via Virgin Media’s (inc. nexfibre) network. Openreach had deployed a bit of FTTP too, albeit largely only around the outskirts and far north of the city. Netomnia then arrived in 2022 and has since covered most of the southern half of the city (expansion is ongoing).
Suffice to say that, until now, Openreach has only invested a bit over £26m to cover a total of around 90,000 premises across the whole of Oxfordshire, with the city of Oxford itself seeing relatively little love from the operator. But all that appears set to change as they’ve finally begun to build across the central area of the city.
Kasam Hussain, Openreach’s Partnership Director for Oxfordshire, said:
“We’re bringing full fibre broadband to Oxford and letting local people know what to expect. This is a major infrastructure upgrade, so there will be more engineering teams, equipment, and vans around town, and we’re working hard to keep disruption to a minimum.
Wherever possible, we’ll use our existing network of ducts and poles to avoid roadworks, new street furniture, and disturbance. But there may be places where we need to install new poles, underground ducts, and fibre cables because it’s the only way to make sure households get included in the upgrade.”
The operator hasn’t said how long this roll-out will take to reach completion or how many premises will benefit, although it does form part of their existing build plan and that is currently due to reach completion at the end of next year.
Last year Openreach reported that around 50% of all homes and businesses which have access to their new network in Oxfordshire had taken a service from a supporting ISP (e.g. BT, EE, Sky Broadband, TalkTalk, Vodafone, Zen Internet, iDNET, AAISP, Freeola and many), which is well above their current average UK FTTP take-up figure of 36%. But it may be harder to translate that to Oxford itself, given the prior existence of two rival networks.