Work to bring full fibre connectivity to communities across the Thames Valley has taken a significant step forward with CityFibre set to break ground on two new town-wide infrastructure roll-outs in Bracknell and Maidenhead. The project marks a major milestone in future-proofing the digital needs of residents and businesses today, and for generations to come.

Construction of Bracknell’s £20m full fibre network is set to commence in less than two weeks’ time, with work on Maidenhead’s £14m infrastructure roll-out on track to begin in mid-April.

VolkerSmart Technologies, which is already undertaking work in Slough and Swindon on behalf of CityFibre, will be constructing the town-wide infrastructure in both Bracknell and Maidenhead. The Jennett’s Park area will be the first location in Bracknell where construction work will take place, with Kidwells Park chosen as the location for the first build site in Maidenhead.

The team will use a range of construction methods while working in close partnership with local communities, the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council and Bracknell Forrest Council to deliver a fast rollout, while minimising potential disruption. Each area will usually take a few weeks to complete; however, construction teams will typically only be outside each home for two to three days. Meanwhile, CityFibre will be in touch by mail ahead of any work starting.

The roll-outs in both locations are expected to reach completion in 2024 but services will go live as areas are completed, enabling people to take advantage of enhanced digital connectivity much sooner.

CityFibre is constructing in many locations across the Thames Valley, including Swindon and Slough where construction began in October 2020. The build is progressing well, with work now underway in the Stratton and Haydon Wick areas of Swindon and in Slough, work is ongoing across the Britwell area, heading west on Farnham Road.

Meanwhile, construction of Reading’s full fibre network kicked off shortly afterwards in January this year in the Norcot and Battle areas, with Instalcom delivering the build programme on CityFibre’s behalf.

As the network is completed in each neighbourhood, internet service providers (ISPs) will ‘light them up’ with some of the fastest and best value broadband packages available in the country. Residents interested in giving their home broadband a boost can find out more about the build and pre-register their interest at www.cityfibre.com/residential.

Speaking of the project, Stacey King, CityFibre’s City Manager for the Thames Valley, said: I’m immensely excited that work is ready to begin in Bracknell and Maidenhead, as well as proud to see the progress that is being made across the region. This is the start of an exciting new chapter for the Thames Valley as it gets ready to thrive in the digital age.

“It’s important to remember that any short-term disruption will pay off tremendously in the long-term – once the network’s built, it will serve the community’s connectivity needs for decades to come.”

Full fibre networks, unlike many of the copper-based ‘fibre broadband’ services available today, use 100% fibre optic cables to carry data at light speed all the way from the home to the point of connection. This gives users speeds of up to 1,000 Mbps for upload and download, near limitless bandwidth and connectivity users can depend on.

A full fibre connection also goes far beyond simply enabling access to the latest entertainment at lightning speed. As an essential digital utility, full fibre boosts households and businesses alike, with experts saying it will drive a range of economic benefits, such as making us more productive and innovative.

Cllr Paul Bettison, Leader at Bracknell Forest Council, said: “It is fantastic that CityFibre is now ready to start delivering this major digital infrastructure investment programme in Bracknell. This will support the regeneration activity we have started within Bracknell and will be vital as our key sectors such as retail look to rebuild.”

Cllr Andrew Johnson, Leader at the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council, said: “CityFibre’s investment in Maidenhead and the wider region is crucial at a time when connectivity has never been so important. This once in a generation upgrade will deliver a town-wide network that will benefit residents, businesses and services. Providing opportunities for new skills and ways of working which will ensure Maidenhead and the wider region remains at the forefront of economic growth as we look to the future.”

CityFibre is bringing full fibre connectivity within reach of up to 8 million homes in towns and cities across the UK as part of its up to £4 billion Gigabit City Investment Programme.

Originally reported by City Fibre.

As France’s supreme court rejects the national operators’ challenge against the so-called ‘anti-Huawei law’, Germany’s apparent refusal to legislate a ban individual suppliers could yet mean hope for Huawei.

Under mounting pressure from the US and concerns about national security, throughout 2020 Huawei’s prospects in Europe dwindled considerably. From blanket bans on the use of their equipment in upcoming 5G networks, to more subtle measures designed to wean operators from the Chinese equipment, the die has been cast for Huawei in many of its European markets.  But each European market is different and some are yet to close the door entirely. In France, Huawei had been looking to improve their prospects when they last month announced plans to build a 5G equipment manufacturing plant in the Alsace region of France &ndash…

Read the full story here.

CityFibre and Virtual1 have jointly announced a collaborative partnership to serve the UK connectivity channel with full fibre business services. 

Virtual1 partners will be able to access CityFibre’s business Ethernet infrastructure in its full fibre towns and cities across the UK from February; while CityFibre will use Virtual1’s national network to deliver fibre options beyond its own full fibre footprint to provide ‘off-net’ choice to its partners.

Virtual1’s interconnection with CityFibre will enable over 600 channel partners to serve their business customers with a portfolio of 100Mbps to 1Gbps full fibre Ethernet products in 28 cities. That will expand further as CityFibre continues its UK wide rollout. 

Founder and CEO of Virtual1, Tom Hagan, explained, “Our partnership with CityFibre is compelling news for Virtual1’s partners, combining CityFibre’s rapidly growing UK coverage and highly competitive commercials with the flexibility and empowerment of Virtual1’s Software Defined Network to deliver the best of both worlds. It brings together two of the UK’s most exciting connectivity providers in a way that makes sense for Virtual1, CityFibre, and most importantly the Channel.”

Andy Wilson, head of wholesale, CityFibre, added, “Announcing our partnership with Virtual1 is an exciting moment. It marks the expansion of diversified Ethernet product choice for channel partners across the UK and is fantastic news for businesses who are looking eagerly for a compelling and competitively priced full fibre solution.”

Pricing options for CityFibre connectivity are available through Virtual1’s 1Portal platform. Similarly, Virtual1 pricing can be viewed in CityFibre’s portal Ethernet quoting tool.

Originally reported on CommsBusiness.co.uk

Stephen Warburton, managing director and member of the executive committee at broadband provider Zen Internet, discusses the opportunities that lie ahead for the channel.

What really stood out the most from an industry perspective last year was the surge in the internet consumption of our customers, and in turn, the increase in traffic on our network. Following the dynamics of Moore’s Law, a surge in traffic, year on year is to be expected – we typically see our network grow by circa 20 to 30 per cent annually.

What we actually experienced in 2020 was significantly higher with a 72 per cent surge! While much of this was driven by Covid-19 we are also seeing the continuation of a trend with consumers doing so much more online each year.

The majority of providers were ready for this increase in usage, although some have found it more challenging. Fortunately we were well positioned to absorb it thanks to how we run our network coupled with our network investment programme which was already in flight when the pandemic struck.

Embracing irreversible trends

The move to remote working is a big step change that has signalled an irreversible trend. Moving forward employers will be expected to support a balance of office and home working to attract and retain their most valuable asset, their people. Another change, that I don’t think will be easily reversed, is the accelerating shift to online shopping. Consumers are now accustomed to ordering their commodities and trying them out in the comfort of their home. All these activities need to be underpinned by reliable connectivity.

The other significant shift from last year was the massive change that came about in customer expectations. What that means for our sector is that tolerance for down time has lowered considerably thanks to the shift to remote working and a dependency on a fast, reliable connection. Levels of expectation are now different with consumers and businesses seeking out a provider they can trust. The impact of downtime or unreliable performance is very significant, people simply cannot go about their daily lives without a reliable connection.

Meeting these expectations and delivering a great customer experience will be one of the most important challenges for the channel this decade.

Grabbing opportunities

Ultrafast or FTTP connectivity presents a tremendous opportunity for the channel. There are 26 million broadband lines in the UK and in five years’ time we are going to have about 20 million of those that could go to full fibre. This is a massive sector change comparable to when broadband launched back in 2000 and when FTTC was introduced five or six years later. This is the next big shift from a technology point of view. There’s a relatively small number of providers promoting ultrafast today so the opportunity for the channel to go out there and grab market share now is enormous.

And it’s not just about the opportunity, but the risk of getting left behind. June 2021 marks the start of the stop sell of copper services in 117 exchanges and with a further 51 exchanges recently announced, there are 1.8m premises which will only be able to be provided with FTTP or SoGEA. There is a significant risk the channel will underestimate this change. We are working closely with our partners to make sure they are well prepared.

To put this into context – we are seeing FTTP customers stick with us for an average of 6.5 years, whereas the average tenure of ADSL or FTTC customers is more like 2.5 years. Once installed, full fibre is very reliable and you get great performance, simply put, it just works. So why would you then shift supplier? This is certainly going to result in a reduction in the switchers market.

Most of us have experienced connectivity challenges over Covid-19 with buffering video, poor voice quality, the dreaded spinning wheel, people dropping out of Zoom or Teams calls, but full fibre addresses these challenges. Any channel player not ready to offer this from the outset risks losing customers for a very long time.

The other great thing about full fibre that the channel can really get behind is that it can be a catalyst for offering other services and growing business via your installed base. Winning the connectivity business invariably opens other opportunities around telephony, the cloud and security and this is where the channel can really add value. The channel plays a key role in stitching all of the IT together presenting immense opportunity for those willing.

Is your partner provider ready to help you ride this next technological wave?

Originally reported on Comms Business.

Record-breaking 30 Tb/s Trans-Atlantic Capacity – First Trans-Atlantic 700 Gb/s Wavelength

Over the past few weeks, Infinera has had the opportunity to perform a submarine network field trial over the MAREA trans-Atlantic cable with our ICE6 optical engine, which already leads the industry in terrestrial reach at its headline data rate of 800 Gb/s over terrestrial network routes.

MAREA is essentially the benchmark for trans-Atlantic cable systems, as it was specifically designed for high-performance coherent transmission – it is the cable system on which every submarine network vendor’s implementations will be measured.

Read the full story here.

A parliamentary committee believes the UK will miss its broadband and 5G targets, despite revising them lower just weeks ago.

The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee published a report this week which said that the industry had “no genuine belief” the UK will hit its targets.

Nationwide gigabit broadband was a key pledge made on the steps of Downing Street when Prime Minister Boris Johnson took office. Initially, the government planned for nationwide coverage within five years.

With only 25 percent of the £5 billion pledged funding for the initiative to be made available, the initial target was scaled back. In the November spending review, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced that spending would be reduced and the 2025 rollout target had been reduced to 85 percent coverage.

Read the full story here

SSE Enterprise Telecoms has been contracted to provide the communications infrastructure for what will be Scotland’s largest offshore windfarm.

The connectivity provider will be responsible for the installation of a comprehensive wide area network (WAN) on the £3 billion Seagreen windfarm project in the North Sea.

The WAN will stretch between a substation at Tealing in Dundee to the operations centre in Montrose. SSE Enterprise Telecoms said that the connection will provide offshore wind farm engineers based at Montrose with the visibility of supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) and technical equipment at Tealing needed to manage the distribution of power to the substation.

The work is expected to get underway later this year, with the project’s onshore construction having already commenced. Due for completion in 2022/23, SSE Enterprise Telecoms said that the windfarm will provide enough energy to power 40% of all Scottish homes.

Paul Clark, SSE relationship director at SSE Enterprise Telecoms, commented, “Telecoms infrastructure companies like ours play a vital role in keeping businesses connected and their operations functioning properly. Given the complexity of this project, our vast experience in developing critical infrastructure projects will be essential. We’re also able to bring our expertise gained from other renewables projects to bear, as well as our access to cutting edge technologies.

“We have already delivered logistical support on 19 wind farms within SSE Group’s portfolio, so we look forward to supporting efforts to get Seagreen up and running. We are also proud to support the overall Seagreen offshore wind farm project which will play a huge role in helping the UK meet its Net Zero targets as well as provide an estimated £1bn boost to the nation’s economy.”

Mick McCaffery, Seagreen systems project manager, added, “SSE Enterprise Telecoms has a strong pedigree in delivering wind farm network infrastructure and a comprehensive understanding of the consequences, should a wind farm become un-operational. As such, we are confident they will bring the necessary experience and expertise to deliver a solution that will help prevent such a scenario. We’re pleased to have a partner of this calibre on board, which will undoubtedly be to the benefit of the region and the country at large.

“The UK needs to be generating 40GW of offshore wind power by 2030 to contribute toward net zero targets, so projects with the scale and ambition of Seagreen will be vital components of that low carbon vision.”

BT will remove mobile data charges for an online learning hub as internet companies are forced to work to stop unequal access to the internet.

It is just the latest measure intended to ease problems associated with coronavirus lockdowns, schools shutting and education moving largely to the internet.

Internet companies are traditionally discouraged from offering preferential treatment to certain websites, under the principle of net neutrality.

Read the full story here.