Digital network integrator STL has announced a strategic collaboration with Openreach, the UK’s largest digital network business for the supply of optical cable solutions for a ‘Full Fibre’ broadband network.
Under the agreement, STL will be responsible for delivering millions of kilometres of optical fibre cable to support the build over the next three years. The collaboration with Openreach strengthens a 14-year-old technology and supply relationship between the two companies and further reinforces STL’s commitment to the UK market.
Openreach plans to use STL’s Opticonn solution – a specialised set of fibre, cable and interconnect offerings designed to drive performance improvements, including a claimed up to 30% faster installation. It will also have access to STL’s Celesta – a high-density optical fibre cable with a capacity of up to 6,912 optical fibres. STL says the compact design is 26% slimmer compared to traditional loose tube cables, allowing 2000 metres of cable to be installed in under an hour. The high density cable will also help minimise the use of plastic across Openreach’s new network.
Kevin Murphy, MD for Fibre and Network Delivery at Openreach, said, “Our Full Fibre network build is going faster than ever. We need partners like STL on board to not only help sustain that momentum, but also to provide the skills and innovation to help us go even further. We know the network we’re building can deliver a host of social and economic benefits – from boosting UK productivity to enabling more home working and fewer commuting trips – but we’re also trying to make this one of the greenest network builds in the world. So, it’s good to know that STL’s compact and efficient designs will contribute to this in a significant way.”
Commenting on the collaboration, Ankit Agarwal, CEO Connectivity Solutions Business, STL, said, “We are extremely excited to join hands with Openreach as a key optical solutions partner to build Full Fibre broadband networks for millions in the UK. Our customised, 5G-ready optical solutions are ideally suited for Openreach’s future-proof network requirements and we believe they will enable next-gen digital experiences for homes and businesses across UK. This partnership will be a major step towards our mission of transforming billions of lives through digital networks.”
The announcement comes as Openreach continues to ramp up the build rate for its Full Fibre broadband programme, which aims to reach 20 million homes and businesses by the mid-to-late 2020s.
