Openreach Sees 100,000 Customers on FTTP in Northern Ireland

Openreach (BT) has today announced that they’ve connected 100,000 customers, via various different partner ISPs, to their new 1Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network in Northern Ireland. All of this will complement the £130m (capex) currently being invested between 2021 and 2022 to expand their coverage across NI.

At present, the operator still appears to be “on track” to achieve their next target, which aims to push the coverage of their full fibre network to reach over 75% of homes and businesses across Northern Ireland by March 2022. We think this will equate to over 610,000 premises (up from 530,000 in April 2021, when their FTTP coverage stood at 65%)

The Tullyraine Veterinary Clinic in Drumneath has now been officially recognised by Openreach as their 100,000th FTTP customer in NI.

Garret Kavanagh, Director of Openreach in Northern Ireland, said:

“We feel extremely proud to have connected our 100,000th customer to this life-changing technology. Building the next generation of broadband has been and will continue to be transformational for Northern Ireland.

I’d like to commend the efforts of our 1,000 strong team as it is their dedication, expertise and desire to consistently deliver the best results for our customers that has ensured the region is getting the digital infrastructure it needs.

Our investment in the overall infrastructure of £130 million between 2021 and 2022 will continue to drive the build forward and open up endless opportunities as more and more customers like Hugh and Alison connect to our future-proof broadband network.”

All of this forms part of the BT Group’s £15bn investment to help Openreach’s FTTP network reach 25 million UK premises by December 2026 – some 6.2 million of which will be in rural or semi-rural areas. The build rate for this is expected to hit a peak of c.75,000 premises per week across the UK (currently c.47,300 per week).