Nexfibre nears 1.3 million premises passed, reveals future build locations

The latest quarterly update from Nexfibre has shown the wholesale full-fibre-based gigabit broadband network provider has continued to make significant progress towards its target of reaching five million premises across the UK by 2026, with 1,277,800 premises passed and ready for service (RFS) at the end of June 2024.

The current total of homes passed shows broad network coverage across the UK, with particular significant build across Cheshire, Kent, Durham, Scotland and Wales.

Beginning life at the end of 2022 with the mission to provide a sustainable, national-scale challenger to BT Openreach and transform access to fibre across the UK, Nexfibre is the result of a £4.5bn investment from Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) shareholders, Liberty Global and Telefónica, alongside investment firm InfraVia Capital Partners.

The principal stated objective for Nexfibre is to roll out fibre initially to five million homes not currently served by the VMO2 network by 2026, with the opportunity to expand to an additional two million homes. VMO2 has an exclusive partnership with Nexfibre and is its anchor wholesale tenant.

The business aims to have a fibre footprint reaching 80% of the UK when coupled with its own fibre upgrade plans, which complete in 2028, with Nexfibre providing a material baseline of penetration to build on. It also claims to be the only current fibre provider of significant scale that exclusively uses 10 Gbps XGS-PON technology.

Going forward, Nexfibre intends to make its network available to other internet service providers and, together with VMO2, wholesale networks to other internet service providers and create a national-scale operator, boosting choice and competition in the market.

The report also reveals planned build locations for 2025 and early 2026, with network expansion set to benefit towns across the UK, including coverage in Eastbourne, Weymouth, Nantwich and Shropshire, with expanded footprint in previously underserved areas of North Wales and Scotland.

In April 2024, Nexfibre announced it had reached a total of one million premises passed and ready for service, making it the fastest fibre build programme of any UK network. It said that at its current rate of build, it’s set to deliver its network to more premises than any other fibre provider in 2024, except for the incumbent, making it the UK’s second-largest network provider in only its second year of operations.

“It is thanks to the hard work of our team, our partners – including our build partner, Virgin Media O2 – and our investors that we have been able to build at this pace and achieve this reach in such a short period of time,” said Nexfibre CEO Rajiv Datta.

“We have exciting plans for 2025 and into 2026, which is part of our commitment to provide a nationwide alternative network and the competition in the fibre access market that the UK needs and deserves. Our work matters because, at its heart, better broadband improves the lives of people and communities across the country, boosts economic growth and will help the UK lead the digital future.”