The service will be rolled out into new areas via nexfibre as an upgrade on their legacy Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) infrastructure.
XGS-PON will initially underpin VMO2’s broadband services using nexfibre’s net full-fibre network, which will cover five million homes by 2026, with the option to reach a total of seven million homes beyond that.
Jeanie York, chief technology officer at VMO2 said in a blog post: Late last year, we announced an important milestone in the evolution of our broadband services when we began trialling state-of-the-art XGS-PON technology on our live full-fibre network.
“These trials proved successful so now we are taking the next step forward in our network evolution and starting to sell services powered by the latest fibre technology, known as XGS-PON, much more widely.
Virgin Media O2 will act as a build supplier and wholesale customer of the network courtesy of the £4.5bn investment from nexfibre - which is owned by its shareholders, Liberty Global and Telefónica, alongside investment firm, InfraVia Capital Partners.
This will see Virgin Media O2’s fibre footprint reaches 80% of the UK when coupled with its own fibre upgrade plans which complete in 2028.
At present, the network can deliver speeds at 1.1Gbps and beyond. However, as data usage increases – VMO2 says total data use on its network has increased by more than 10% over the last year – and York says the network is prepared to deal with “whatever comes next”.
“With network innovation and investment unlocking faster and ever-more reliable services for customers, we’re entering a golden era for fixed connectivity and planning for the decades ahead. Today is a key moment in that journey,” York said.
