Openreach to deploy permanent Full Fibre
monitoring technology to help deliver ultrafast and ultra-reliable
broadband to millions of UK homes and businesses.
EXFO Inc. (NASDAQ: EXFO, TSX: EXF), the communications
industry’s test, monitoring and analytics experts, and Openreach,
the United Kingdom’s largest digital infrastructure firm, today
announced their collaboration on a major initiative to accelerate
Full Fibre deployment, and enhance the quality of build and
experience for customers across the UK.
The project is essential for delivering next-generation
Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) networks, which provide the digital
infrastructure required to work, learn and socialize. As part of
its industry-leading Fibre First programme, Openreach has committed
to delivering 20 million homes passed with FTTP by the mid-to late
2020s, assuming it has the right investment conditions. Openreach
has also committed to building out this new digital infrastructure
to 4.5 million premises by the end of March 2021.
Following a competitive tender process, Openreach has awarded
EXFO a contract to supply optical test heads and test access
switching for this initiative. With its cloud-based Nova Fiber
solution, EXFO will equip Openreach to assure its build, thereby
accelerating the programme and avoiding costly return visits to fix
connection problems—additional “truck rolls” more than double
operators testing costs.1 Following installation, Openreach will be
able to remotely monitor its fibre infrastructure supporting the
in-life operations of its Full Fibre service.
This announcement comes as Openreach hit a record build rate for
its Full Fibre broadband programme. Openreach engineers are now
delivering faster, more reliable connectivity to another 40,000
homes and businesses every week, or the equivalent of a home every
15 seconds.
Peter Bell, Director, Network Technology, Openreach: “We
know that now more than ever that being connected matters. We’re
convinced that our new Full Fibre network can play a crucial role
in keeping the nation connected. This year, our build has been
gathering pace and momentum, and we’re determined to match that
rapid speed of deployment with the highest standards of build
quality build and customer service.
EXFO will help us get there. As a long-term Openreach partner,
EXFO was selected thanks to its proven ability to provide fast,
automated qualification of fibre builds, and for its unique iOLM
OTDR technology. We’re committed to working with the best-in-class
to maintain our position as the UK’s leading Full Fibre builder and
we’re excited to lead the way as we continue to deliver
high-quality network connections to homes and businesses across the
UK.”
Wim te Niet, Vice President, Sales – EMEA, EXFO:
“Openreach is an early mover in adopting permanent fibre monitoring
technology, which will eventually cover all households in the UK.
Currently, the FTTH/B penetration rate in the UK stands at 18%2,
and Openreach has an ambitious plan to build out Full Fibre to
millions of households and businesses. We see a similar wave in
other key European markets like Germany. I believe network
operators across Europe will soon follow Openreach’s lead to ensure
first-time-right installations, reduce turn-up failures, and
substantially reduce truck rolls for service calls. As for markets
with high FTTH/B penetration rates, telecom operators are finding
they need sophisticated automated monitoring tools to ensure
superior customer experience. EXFO’s innovative Nova Fiber solution
gives them these abilities.”
About EXFO EXFO (NASDAQ: EXFO) (TSX: EXF) develops
smarter test, monitoring and analytics solutions for fixed and
mobile network operators, webscale companies and equipment
manufacturers in the global communications industry. Our customers
count on us to deliver superior network performance, service
reliability and subscriber insights. They count on our unique blend
of equipment, software and services to accelerate digital
transformations related to fibre, 4G/LTE and 5G deployments. They
count on our expertise with automation, real-time troubleshooting
and big data analytics, which are critical to their business
performance. We’ve spent over 35 years earning this trust, and
today 1,900 EXFO employees in over 25 countries work side by side
with our customers in the lab, field, data center and beyond.
About Openreach Openreach Limited is the UK’s digital
network business. We’re 35,000 people, working in every community
to connect homes, schools, shops, banks, hospitals, libraries,
mobile phone masts, broadcasters, governments and businesses –
large and small – to the world. Our mission is to build the best
possible network, with the highest quality service, making sure
that everyone in the UK can be connected. We work on behalf of more
than 660 communications providers like SKY, TalkTalk, Vodafone, BT
and Zen, and our broadband network is the biggest in the UK,
passing more than 31.8m UK premises. Over the last decade we’ve
invested more than £14 billion into our network and, at more than
185 million kilometres, it’s now long enough to wrap around the
world 4,617 times. Today we’re building an even faster, more
reliable and future-proof broadband network which will be the UK’s
digital platform for decades to come. We’re making progress towards
our FTTP target to reach 20m premises by mid-to late 2020s. We’ve
also hired more than 3,000 trainee engineers this past financial
year to help us build that network and deliver better service
across the country. Openreach is a highly regulated, wholly owned,
and independently governed unit of the BT Group. More than 90 per
cent of our revenues come from services that are regulated by Ofcom
and any company can access our products under equivalent prices,
terms and conditions. For the year ended 31 March 2020, we reported
revenue of £5bn.
For more information, visit www.openreach.co.uk/. Email:
press@openreach.co.uk
Forward-Looking Statements - EXFO This news release
contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S.
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and we intend
that such forward-looking statements be subject to the safe harbors
created thereby. Forward-looking statements are statements other
than historical information or statements of current condition.
Words such as may, expect, believe, plan, anticipate, intend,
could, estimate, continue, or similar expressions or the negative
of such expressions are intended to identify forward-looking
statements. In addition, any statements that refer to expectations,
projections or other characterizations of future events and
circumstances are considered forward-looking statements. They are
not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and
uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those in
forward-looking statements due to various factors including, but
not limited to, macroeconomic uncertainty, including trade wars and
recessions; our ability to successfully integrate businesses that
we acquire; capital spending and network deployment levels in the
communications industry (including our ability to quickly adapt
cost structures to anticipated levels of business and our ability
to manage inventory levels with market demand); future economic,
competitive, financial and market conditions; consolidation in the
global communications test, monitoring and analytics solutions
markets and increased competition among vendors; capacity to adapt
our future product offering to future technological changes;
limited visibility with regard to the timing and nature of customer
orders; delay in revenue recognition due to longer sales cycles for
complex systems involving customers’ acceptance; fluctuating
exchange rates; concentration of sales; timely release and market
acceptance of our new products and other upcoming products; our
ability to successfully expand international operations and to
conduct business internationally; and the retention of key
technical and management personnel. Assumptions relating to the
foregoing involve judgments and risks, all of which are difficult
or impossible to predict and many of which are beyond our control.
Other risk factors that may affect our future performance and
operations are detailed in our Annual Report, on Form 20-F, and our
other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and
the Canadian securities commissions. We believe that the
expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are
reasonable based on information currently available to us, but we
cannot assure you that the expectations will prove to have been
correct. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on these
forward-looking statements. These statements speak only as of the
date of this document. Unless required by law or applicable
regulations, we undertake no obligation to revise or update any of
them to reflect events or circumstances that occur after the date
of this document.
1 Omnia operator survey: test and measurement efficiency (2020)
2 Data taken from recent Ofcom Connected Nations report 2020
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210107005390/en/
For information: CCgroup, for EXFO: Wilf Collins +44 7719
989 444 Chloe Pope +44 7741 242 227 exfo@ccgrouppr.com
Vance Oliver Director, Investor Relations (418) 683-0913,
ext. 23733 vance.oliver@exfo.com
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