Under the terms of the agreement, Prysmian Group will support Openreach’s updated Full Fibre broadband build plan in line with the UK Government's target of delivering ‘gigabit capable broadband’ to 85% of UK by 2025.
“Prysmian has been a partner with Openreach for over 50 years. This latest contract reflects the positive impact our working relationship has had on the UK’s digital networks infrastructure,” said Marcello Del Brenna, CEO of Prysmian Group UK.
“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.”
As part of this renewed partnership, Openreach is carrying out a live trial using the double overblow installation method developed by Prysmian Group. This Karona installation technique enables the installation of high-density optical fibre cable into pre-existing sub-ducted routes, already containing legacy cable.
The trial took place at Stonehaven in Scotland, using Sirocco HD 144f cable with 5.0mm diameter, and through the innovative installation method allowed to overblow 600mts of cable in less than 4 hours, increasing the capacity of the route to 432f. This installation technique was repeated at Bury St Edmunds, where a route of 730mts was successfully overblown in less than 4 hours.
“Building a new broadband network across the UK is a hugely complex, nationwide engineering project – second only to HS2 in terms of investment," said Matthew Hemmings, managing director of fibre and network delivery at Openreach.
"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.”
