Nexfibre is a joint venture between InfraVia Capital Partners, Liberty Global and Telefónica and is financed with £4.5 billion of equity and debt investment.
It will initially roll out fibre to 5 million homes not currently served by Virgin Media O2’s network by 2026, with the opportunity to expand to an additional 2 million homes.
Today’s announcement that the first 1 million premises have been reached and are ready for service makes Nexfibre the quickest network provider to hit the milestone.
In a statement Nexfibre said it expects to become the UK’s second largest network provider in only its second year of operations, by rolling out to more homes than any other UK network this year.
It would sit in the number two spot behind “The incumbent”, a reference to competitor BT’s Openreach.
Nexfibre is a pureplay wholesale provider, with VMO2 delivering internet speeds of 2Gbs over the network.
“We firmly believe that we are building a platform to foster sustainable competition in the UK fibre market, that will drive innovation for generations to come,“ Nexfibre’s CEO Rajiv Datta said.
The UK’s minister for data and digital infrastructure, Julia Lopez, also commented on the milestone.
“Slow connectivity not only hinders economic growth but also affects people’s quality of life. It is our mission to make sure nobody in Britain is held back by this, and this is why we are delivering the fastest connectivity on the market across the country,” Lopez said.
“In addition to Project Gigabit, a government-funded £5 billion project targeting hard-to-reach areas, it’s fantastic to see the private sector investing on such a scale. Today’s milestone represents a huge vote of confidence in both the telecoms sector and the government’s plan for achieving nationwide gigabit capable connectivity by 2030.”
Virgin Media O2’s CEO Lutz Schüler also weighed in.
“The build programme is delivering at pace and is underpinned by an ambitious plan that’s already extended fibre to one million new premises. In partnership with nexfibre, we remain focused on driving scaled, sustainable competition in the full fibre market, and bringing the benefits of next-generation gigabit services to millions more homes and business across the UK,” Schüler said.
