Researchers at the Technical University of Denmark (TUD) have done something quite remarkable by demonstrating a record data transmission speed of 1.84 Pbps (Petabits per second) – or 1,840Tbps (Terabits per second) if you prefer – over a single 37-core and 7.9km long fibre optic cable. Oh.. and they could go a lot faster.

Just to put this achievement into some context, BT’s entire national UK broadband network tends to “peak” at a transfer rate of around 26Tbps, which is just a fraction of what the TUD team achieved. In fact, the “average” (not peak) internet bandwidth being used across the population of the whole world is currently estimated to be around 1Pbps (1000Tbps) today.

The key achievement here, other than the speed itself, is that this was all achieved using a single infrared laser and a single optical chip, which also has the potential to dramatically reduce the energy costs of such a system. In short, a single laser could be used to replace the job of more than 1,000 lasers, which makes this much more practical and economical to deploy in the real-world.

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Network operator Giganet has today joined forces with its recent consumer ISP acquisition of Cuckoo to announce that the newly merged pair plan to create 250 new jobs to support future growth, as well as the ongoing rollout of their own gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network across England.

Giganet, which gobbled rival ISP Cuckoo last month for an undisclosed sum (here), is currently investing £250m via Fern Trading to deploy their own full fibre network to 300,000 premises across poorly served parts of Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire and West Sussex (here). On top of that, both providers are also continuing to expand the availability of FTTP via the Openreach and CityFibre platforms in other parts of the country.

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Ofcom’s autumn 2022 report into fixed broadband and mobile coverage has found that “full fibre” (FTTP) now reaches 37% of the UK, while 20.2 million homes (68%) are within reach of a gigabit-capable network and 48-64% of premises can now get outdoor 5G coverage by at least one operator.

The regulator’s latest report is based on coverage and service availability information that has been received from both fixed line UK ISPs and mobile network operators as of May 2022, which is thus several months more recent than the January 2022 data in their last spring 2022 update (here).

NOTE: The Government’s original definition of “superfast broadband” is 24Mbps+, which is close to 97-98% coverage.

Since January 2022, the UK coverage of fixed “superfast broadband” (30Mbps+) networks has remained largely unchanged on 96%, while some 11 million homes (37%) can now order a Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) service via various networks (up from 9.6 million or 33% at the last update).

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Network operator Cityfibre has today revealed that they’ll invest £50m to deploy their gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network across “almost every home and business” in Kent’s (England) largest town of Maidstone. The first construction work is set to begin during January 2023.

Little is known about the operator’s rollout plan or their choice of contractor for the build, but it’s worth noting that they won’t be the only gigabit-capable network in town. Virgin Media already has strong coverage of the area, while both Openreach and Netomnia (YouFibre) are busy deploying their own full fibre in the same location. Smaller builds also exist from Hyperoptic and OFNL, while Trooli’s rollout in Loose is edging into the southern parts.

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Network operator Cityfibre has announced that they’ve started to deploy their gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband ISP network across the Cambridgeshire (England) market town and civil parish of Whittlesey, which is expected to cost the operator around £3m to complete.

The overall project in Whittlesey, which is being delivered by civil engineering partner Granemore Group, is expected to reach completion sometime during 2023. But the first services will go live for people to take advantage of much sooner.

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News summary:

• Higher bandwidth services are urgently required in mobile fronthaul and cable access networks
• ADVA AccesWave25^™ offers an easy way to boost existing 10G DWDM infrastructure without a major increase in cost or footprint
• New C-band tunable SFP28 pluggable device reduces operational complexity and extends reach to 40km

MUNICH–(BUSINESS WIRE)–ADVA (FSE: ADV) today launched its AccessWave25™, empowering network operators to easily migrate their 10Gbit/s access infrastructure to 25Gbit/s connectivity without a significant increase in footprint or major changes to the existing optical layer. The pluggable device answers the urgent need for higher bandwidth services in mobile X-Haul, cable access and wholesale networks. Operators can now slot the AccessWave25^™ into any standard-based SFP28 port for an instant capacity upgrade without replacing existing demarcation or aggregation devices. Using patent-pending distance optimization technology, the device also extends 25Gbit/s DWDM reach to 40km, and its G.metro auto-tuning technology reduces provisioning efforts and simplifies operations.

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European satellite operator Eutelsat, which is also the parent of UK ISP Konnect (We Konnect), are celebrating this morning after confirming the successful launch of their next gen ‘Very High Throughput Satellite’ (VHTS) into Geostationary Transfer Orbit by Arianespace using an Ariane 5 rocket from French Guiana.

The new satellite, which was built by Thales Alenia Space, is a more traditional one that will sit in a high geostationary earth orbit and cover a wide area – across the UK and Europe. The VHTS is expected to weigh 6.3 tonnes, support 230 beams over Western Europe and have a massive Ka-band (radio spectrum) capacity of around 500Gbps (Gigabits per second).

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Rural focused UK ISP Gigaclear, which is working to build their 1Gbps full fibre (FTTP) network across remote parts of England, will today launch a “Bank Holiday Special” offer that discounts the price of their unlimited 400Mbps (symmetric speed) broadband service to just £20 for the first 18 months of service (£49 thereafter).

The provider, which already covers 300,000 premises and aims to reach 500,000 with their full fibre network by the end of 2023 (here), intends to continue running the new promotion until 31st August 2022. The package itself includes 2 x wireless routers (mesh), an 18-month minimum contract term, free installation and unlimited usage.

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Network operator and UK ISP LightSpeed Broadband, which is busy rolling out a new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across the East of England, has today announced the appointment of Brett Shepherd as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

The operator currently aims to cover an initial 200,000 premises across the East of England region by the end of 2022, although they also hold a longer-term ambition to reach 1 million premises by the end of 2025. At the last update in March 2022 we were informed that they’d so far managed to cover 30,000 premises and were in the process of ramping-up (they only started their deployment in April 2021).

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CityFibre UK has today announced that they’ve started the construction phase of their £30m project to deploy a new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network in the Greater Manchester town of Rochdale (England), which is being supported by civil engineering firm Network PLUS.

The overall project, which is expected to reach “almost every home and business” in the town, aims to reach completion by 2024, but the first services will go live – in gradual phases – for people to take advantage of much sooner. Once areas do go live then the first ISPs to pledge support for the new network in Rochdale will include Vodafone (Gigafast Broadband), TalkTalk (Future Fibre) and Zen Internet (Zen is based in the town).

Once again, the new build forms part of CityFibre’s wider £4.9bn investment…

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