London’s West End is about to get superfast public wifi thanks to much-criticised infrastructure provider Openreach.
Grosvenor, one of the biggest landlords in the area covering Mayfair and Belgravia, has reached a deal with Openreach to invest £2m over the next five years in better broadband for businesses and fast wifi for the public. Openreach said it hoped the partnership would be a model for similar collaborations across the country.
The company, which is owned by BT, said on Thursday that the investment in the West End will improve broadband, wifi and mobile connections for businesses in the area, which is home to the capital’s hedge fund industry.
The upgrade will mean download speeds up to 200 times faster than the average in the UK, Grosvenor said. The wifi upgrade will be free for anyone wandering the streets of the West End to use and will give connection speeds of up to 300 Mpbs.
Despite being one of the centres of the financial industry, the area is one of the worst performing five per cent in the UK for broadband speeds, according to Grosvenor.
The investment is part of a broader 20-year plan to improve the environment of the West End with greener spaces and streets that appeal to a broader range of people than they do currently, said Will Bax, director of Grosvenor's London estate.
Kim Mears, managing director for infrastructure delivery said Openreach hoped to roll out similar superfast broadband to as many as 10 million homes and businesses by the mid-2020s. However, she cautioned that the “commercial and operational challenges are significant”.
“Co-investment models like this one are part of the answer, and we’re keen to replicate this with other landowners and developers throughout the UK,” she said.
Earlier this year, Ofcom ordered that BT and Openreach separate their operations due to concerns that a lack of competition in the broadband sector meaning that customers may not experiencing the best possible service.
In July, Ofcom said: “We expect the reformed Openreach to engage with industry to deliver widespread fibre networks, offering fast, reliable broadband. The new company should provide a good service to meet the needs of all the people and businesses who rely on its network, together with a step change in quality of service.”
Openreach is responsible for the upkeep of much of the telephone and broadband network in the UK. Its investment announcement comes a day after Ofcom data named BT as the worst home broadband provider in the UK for the fifth quarter in a row.
