Openreach has chosen Nokia to build an open-access fibre network to serve millions of premises across the UK. The network will be constructed using Nokia's One Network Platform and is expected to accelerate Openreach's roll-out of fibre broadband services to UK homes and businesses, aiming to connect 25 million premises by the end of 2026.
Also Read: Openreach Brings Fiber to 70 Percent of Kirklees Homes with GBP 42 Million Investment
Accelerating Roll-Out of Full-Fibre Services
The new open wholesale broadband network will connect users to approximately 300 communication providers offering full-fibre services, helping Openreach extend its reach to even the most remote communities in the UK.
Nokia said its solution employs a modular data center architecture, enabling Openreach to build a large-scale, multi-service open-access network that can reduce power and space requirements at exchange sites by over 50 percent for Ethernet access.
Automation and Efficiency
By leveraging Nokia's Altiplano and NSP network controllers, Openreach will be able to automate fibre services across multiple technologies—Point-to-Point, GPON, and XGS-PON—thereby simplifying operations. The network model will also allow Openreach to significantly reduce operational support system (OSS) complexity by 85 percent, Nokia claims. Additionally, the solution provides streaming telemetry for real-time insights into network performance.
Also Read: Five UK Alternative Fibre Operators Form Coalition for Fair Access to Openreach Infrastructure
Future-Proof Network for UK
"This is the next step in our plans to build a future-proof, multi-service, one network platform – that supports both full Field FTTP and future Ethernet products," said Director of Network Technology at Openreach. "Introducing Nokia's Altiplano and NSP network domain controllers and IXR data center routers will boost automation, network visibility and control, and product flexibility for our Communication Provider customers and their end-user customers. Ultimately, this is about making our network easier to manage, more efficient and reliable, for example, quicker identification of faults via automation, and helping to cut operational costs."
Also Read: Openreach to Launch Symmetric Fibre Service in April 2025
Connecting Premises Across UK
Earlier this week, Openreach (BT) announced that their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network, which delivers broadband speeds of up to 1800 Mbps to homes and businesses through hundreds of ISPs, now covers 17 million premises across the UK. This total includes over 4.3 million premises in "rural and hard-to-reach areas."
