
London-focused UK ISP and broadband builder G.Network, which is deploying a new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across parts of London, has signed a multi-year contract with Unipart to deliver a wide range of logistic services and are setting up a new head office near Silicon Roundabout.
Just to recap. The operator previously committed an investment of around £1bn to help it deploy a new XGS-PON based full fibre broadband network across 1.3 million London premises by around the end of 2026. The last build update we had from them, in 2022, stated that they’d covered 400,000 premises, but independent checking has so far only been able to identify around 255,000 as ready for service (here).
In recent months G.network has suffered from some job losses, seen their roll-out pace slow and have changed some of their senior management. But the operator is still making progress and has recently been moving to simplify its operating model, such as by signing a multi-year contract with Unipart to deliver a wide range of logistic services.
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The partnership includes the provision of forward and reverse logistics of broadband routers and infrastructure equipment, integrated warehousing, returns and recycling services. As part of the deal, Unipart will also operate a dedicated vehicle fleet to support the G.Network distribution of products to network teams, engineers and sub-contractors.
On top of that, they’ve moved to a new Head Office near Silicon Roundabout, taking a long-term lease in one of London’s key technology hubs, and have also been named as a supplier on Crown Commercial Service’s Network Services 3 Framework (RM61116) for ‘Lot 1a: Inter Site Connectivity (Wider Area Network) / Data Access Services‘.
Kevin Murphy, Chief Executive, said:
“G.Network’s mission is to connect more of London’s residents and businesses to our full fibre network. We’re here to serve Londoners with fast, reliable broadband and to do this we need to have a top-quality supply chain in place and keep growing our customer base.
Working in partnership with Unipart will make G.Network a more efficient and sustainable business, allowing us to accelerate our next phase of growth, as well as provide our customers with the best possible service, which we aim to do for Crown Commercial Services.
Myself and the management continue to be encouraged by the ongoing positive momentum across the business and the growth opportunities that lie ahead.”
Residential customers of the service in London typically pay from £22 per month for a 150Mbps (50Mbps upload) package on a 24-month contract term (inc. £29 one-off installation fee), which rises to just £48 for their top 1Gbps (symmetric) tier with free installation.
More redundancies at CF today apparently