Full-fibre Broadband Rollout Planned for 16,000 Social Homes

A housing association in the South of England has partnered with a digital infrastructure company to bring full fibre broadband to residents in its high-rise blocks.

Vivid, a social landlord with a portfolio of 34,000 homes in Hampshire and the surrounding areas, have selected Complete Technology Group (CTG) to deliver the full-fibre infrastructure.

A total of 16,000 homes within Vivid’s high-rise flats, or Multi-Dwelling Units (MDUs), will benefit from fully optimised full-fibre network solutions.

Through their partnership, CTG, along with sister company Complete Fibre and third-party internet service providers, will manage all communications with internet service providers (ISPs), provide the housing association with advisory and planning services, and audit all work undertaken.

Vivid seek to improve digital infrastructure while minimising disruption

Vivid will install Complete Fibre, a single, open-access ‘plug-and-play’ digital infrastructure within suitable MDUs, which multiple ISPs can connect into.

This allows residents to choose between broadband providers, while experiencing minimal disruption to their lives or the integrity of the buildings due to only a single installation taking place.

Matt Bellamy, Head of Asset Strategy and Delivery at VIVID, said: “The safety and quality of our homes is always our utmost priority.

Working with CTG means we can deliver full-fibre infrastructure to all our customers living in high-rise flats, quickly, with little disruption but ensuring greater choice.

“Making our homes digital ready for fibre deployment, we can ensure that our customers have access to modern digital services when they are available. This will not only contribute to digital inclusion but allow this to take place at a faster rate than would have otherwise been possible.”

The housing association also offer services to improve digital inclusion among their residents.

Digital Inclusion Officers are available to help residents navigate their smartphones, computers, and learn practical digital skills such as scanning in documents.

CTG specialise in digital infrastructure for landlords

Their collaboration with Vivid is the latest in the digital infrastructure company’s work with social housing landlords, having already partnered with dozens of housing groups with a collective portfolio of over 500,000 homes.

Founded in 2020, the group seek to optimise digital infrastructure strategy and route planning for MDUs, while ensuring building safety and reducing climate impact.

Their aim is to enhance digital infrastructure for 500,00 UK homes by 2027

Chris McLain, CEO at Complete Technology Group, said: “We understand how challenging it is for housing providers like VIVID to respond to the high volume of requests they receive from ISPs looking to enter their buildings, and then oversee fibre installations from a compliance and safety perspective.

“We’ll do the heavy-lifting with all stakeholders, ensuring hyper-fast, hyper-reliable broadband is delivered to all residents, without compromising on safety or standards.”