U.K.’s ‘Gigaboom’ Passes 50 Percent Gigabit Broadband Coverage Mark

 By J. Sharpe Smith, Inside Towers Technology Editor They call it the “Gigaboom.” Gigabit internet service is now available to more than half of properties in the United Kingdom, the U.K. government announced last week. The milestone was achieved after broadband internet service provider Virgin Media O2 turned on its DOCSIS 3.1 network for a further 1.7 million U.K. premises. Gigabit internet coverage was just 26.9 percent a year ago and was 6 percent at the beginning of 2019. It was helped by $6.83 billion investment by the government.

“The increase has been the result of the various full fiber roll-outs we are tracking including Openreach, Swish Fibre, Netomnia, CityFibre, Hyperoptic, Community Fibre, toob, FWNetworks and others,” the U.K. government said. The achievement is a major step toward the U.K.’s goal of 85 percent gigabit coverage by the end of 2025. Continue Reading