Later this month, BT will launch a fiber-based broadband service with speeds of 1 Gigabit to hundreds of homes across the U.K. The service, which is called Full Fibre, will eventually be available to more than 200 million homes. BT plans to reach half of those homes by 2025. Full Fibre is up to 25 times faster than BT's Superfast Fibre service.
With the launch of its new Gigabit service, incumbent operator BT is laying claim to being the fastest home broadband provider in more places than any other service provider in the U.K. Other service providers are offering 1-Gig services, but not in as many locations, according to BT.
Full Fibre will allow BT's customers to better enable high-bandwidth products and services such as 8K and 4K video, online gaming, and connected smart homes. While BT didn't say if Full Fibre was symmetrical, it did tout the faster upload speeds that can be used for live online gaming, security monitoring and video conferencing.
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With rural areas largely underserved by broadband, the British government set forth a mandate of having full-fiber to every home in the U.K. That has led to plethora of fiber builds by new service providers such as toob, CityFibre, Gigaclear, and Hyperoptic. Liberty Global-owned Virgin Media is looking to expand its fiber network beyond urban areas in the U.K. via a wholesale fiber network joint venture.