Prysmian Group extends Openreach Full Fibre support
October 11, 2021
By Colin Mann
Telecom cable systems specialist Prysmian Group has extended its partnership with UK digital infrastructure provider Openreach with a new three-year contract. Prysmian Group will provide innovation and expertise to support Openreach’s updated Full Fibre broadband build plan which will be fundamental to the UK Government achieving its target of delivering ‘gigabit capable broadband’ to 85 per cent of UK by 2025.
This is as Openreach follows an extended investment commitment by its parent, BT Group meaning that it will now build Full Fibre technology to a total of 25 million premises, including more than six million in the hardest-to-serve parts.
“Prysmian has been a partner with Openreach for over 50 years,” notes Marcello Del Brenna, CEO Prysmian Group UK. “This latest contract reflects the positive impact our working relationship has had on the UK’s digital networks infrastructure. The extension of our working relationship comes at a time where Prysmian is investing in telecommunications innovation to ensure our digital network partners have the cutting-edge solutions. We have also taken great steps forward with our sustainability effort, eliminating paper inclusions from our products and replacing them with digital solutions.”
“Building a new broadband network across the UK is a hugely complex, nationwide engineering project – second only to HS2 in terms of investment,” added Matthew Hemmings, MD for Fibre and Network Delivery at Openreach. “It will help level-up the UK because the impact of Full Fibre broadband stretches from increased economic prosperity and international competitiveness, to higher employment and environmental benefits by enabling more home working and fewer commuting trips. We place huge importance in our partner network and seek long-term and strategic collaborations. Prysmian is a great example of this and this sustained partnership means we can benefit from its teams’ skills and innovation to help us build Full Fibre even further.”
Recently-updated research by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) shows that a nationwide Full Fibre network could turbocharge the economic bounce back from pandemic, levelling-up rural and urban communities, deliver up to £59 billion in increased productivity every year and enable a million people to get back into employment.