GlobalConnect Group grew its customer base while expanding its fiber network across all its markets in this year’s second quarter. Several milestones were reached, and numerous initiatives announced, cementing GlobalConnect’s position as one of Europe’s fastest growing digital infrastructure providers.
Earlier this year, GlobalConnect reached the milestone of having it’s Pan-Nordic fiber network amount to 100,000 km own trenched fiber; that number has now increased to 104,000 km. And including leased fiber lines, the network now spans 150,000 km across the region. While GlobalConnect’s fiber footprint continues to expand, so does the group’s FTTH (fiber-to-the-home) customer base, now with 691,000 customers connected by end of the second quarter. In addition, GlobalConnect has expanded its data center space, now amounting to 34 500 square meters across 20 different locations, catering for the continuously increasing demand for cloud services and data capacity.
During Q2, GlobalConnect also initiated several key sustainability initiatives throughout its five markets, such as The North Sea Energy Islands, entering the Ørsted + ATP consortium, with the ambition to build and connect the world’s first energy island in the North Sea, with high-capacity digital infrastructure. GlobalConnect also rerolled into the UN Global Compact initiative, pledging to align its operations and strategies with the UN Global Compact’s ten principles on human rights, labor law, environment, and anti-corruption.
“In Q2, we continued our growth journey by expanding our network, signing new key customers and acquiring strategic assets. We see a continuous appetite for secure IT services, while the need for data capacity among global tech giants and international operators is at an all-time high. In FTTH, the demand from private consumers is rapidly increasing in the less mature consumer markets: Germany, Finland, and Denmark and we believe this trend to continue in the second part of 2022” says Martin Lippert, Group CEO, GlobalConnect.
GlobalConnect Denmark’s FTTH universe reached 60,000 homes passed, primarily in the Copenhagen & Northern Zealand region, with the acquisition of Wizer’s FTTH assets included. GlobalConnect Sweden acquired 2,500 connected customers from Sappa in Boden, a strategically important municipality in Northern Sweden. GlobalConnect Sweden also signed a new framework agreement with Kammarkollegiet for the entire Swedish Public Sector. GlobalConnect Norway signed several key deals during the last quarter, e.g., Tolletaten and DSB / Nødnett.
In Germany, GlobalConnect FTTH brand HomeNet was recently awarded for “Echte Glasfaser”, (Real Fiber) a nationwide award part of an initiative called “Fiber for Future”. The goal is to promote, boost and showcase the importance of Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH), a standard that is yet to become more common in Germany, as the fiber penetration still remains low. This quality certificate “Echte Glasfaser”, highlights the quality fiber solutions that GlobalConnect is deploying towards the German FTTH universe.
GlobalConnect Q2 achievements
North Sea Energy Island – link
GlobalConnect accelerates efforts in sustainability – joins the UN Global Compact initiative – link
GlobalConnect Denmark acquires fiber infrastructure from Wizer, substantially growing its FTTH footprint – link
GlobalConnect in numbers
Total fiber: 104,000 km owned fiber (150,000 km incl. leased fiber).
Homes connected (end of Q2 2022): 691,000
Datacenters: 34 500 sqm
About GlobalConnect Group
GlobalConnect Group is one of the leading digital infrastructure and data communication providers in Northern Europe. The Group delivers end-to-end solutions across its own infrastructure consisting of 100,000 kilometers fiber network and 34,500 sqm data center space in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany and Finland. GlobalConnect Group employs approximately 1,700 people, has 30,000 B2B customers and connects more than 650,000 private households with a high-capacity fiber network. GlobalConnect Group is the result of 2019 and 2020 mergers between Broadnet, GlobalConnect and IP-Only. In the B2C segment, the group operates under the brands IP-Only, HomeNet and Onefiber, while operating as GlobalConnect in the B2B segment across all its markets. GlobalConnect Group is owned by global investment organization EQT, one of Europe’s largest infrastructure investors.