Excessive Fibre in London

St James area in London is the UK’s first three-provider street.

05:42 21 February 2020

While many premises throughout the United Kingdom do not have decent broadband access or even reliable mobile coverage, there are some areas in London that are covered by more than one FTTP networks. One of them is the St James area, which is now known as UK’s first three-provider street. Residents in the area have the option to sign up with G.Network, Hyperoptic or Openreach. Although this means having choices like never before for residents, having their streets dug up repeatedly by competing network providers is another matter. 

 

While many argue that the level of overbuilding benefits residents at some point, some concerns are also being raised. Do we really need three networks or more per household? News of three-provider street doubtless sticks in the craw of 88per cent of households in the UK who do not have access to FTTP services at all. 

 

An expert said: ”We expect suppliers to focus on areas where they can get the best return and where they can also get a cooperative planning environment with Westminster Council as one of the leading exponents of facilitating wayleaves and helping their residents and businesses get more bandwidth," 

 

Think Broadband has recently released figures showing that full fibre coverage has now reached 12.01per cent of UK households and rollout is picking up pace.