UK connectivity supplier SSE Enterprise Telecoms has announced details of a major project which will see it unbundle 177 BT exchanges with a view to meeting ‘the significant demand for high-capacity fibre connectivity amongst UK businesses’. In a press release regarding the development, the company said that the project – which will be carried out over the next two years – will double its network reach, as it expands to a further 180,000 business postcodes across the UK. Calling the rollout ‘a significant investment in its own network’, SSE Enterprise Telecoms has claimed that by unbundling the exchanges it will effectively futureproof its offering with a network capable of delivering 100Gbps services.
Meanwhile, it has also been announced that local mobile network operator (MNO) Three UK has signed a deal with SSE Enterprise Telecoms to use the connectivity from the 177 unbundled exchanges. SSE Enterprise Telecoms has reportedly been selected by the MNO to deliver the required high-capacity fibre connectivity between Three UK’s core data centres and the BT exchanges as it prepares for a 5G network rollout, and looks to improve its existing 4G offerings. According to SSE Enterprise Telecoms, the cellco’s use of the 177 exchanges is ‘the first of several potential unbundling phases’.