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Openreach aims to connect 3 million UK homes with fiber broadband by 2020

British Telecom's Openreach announced plans on Feb. 1 to extend fiber broadband to 3 million U.K. homes and businesses before the end of 2020.

The broadband infrastructure provider said it was accelerating its Fiber to the Premises, or FTTP, build target by 50%, as part of its 'Fiber First' program to provide faster and more reliable broadband speeds across the U.K. Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leeds, Liverpool, London and Manchester will be among the first communities connected through the initiative, with build out slated to start this year, the company said. Openreach plans to hire around 3,000 engineers in 2018 and 2019 to jump-start the process.

Openreach works with over 590 communications providers in the U.K. including Sky plc, TalkTalk Telecom Group PLC, Vodafone Group Plc and BT. Its fiber broadband network is the largest in Britain, exceeding 27 million premises. It acknowledged that it will need support from its communications partners, regulators and various local governments to complete the plan in a timely and cost-effective manner.

"As with any infrastructure investment, if Openreach is unable to secure an acceptable return, it will need to review its ongoing capital commitments to the programme," Openreach said in its release. It estimated that the cost of building out the network as envisioned over the next three years could be £300 to £400 per premise passed.